Government Technology

Commentary: Nurturing a Creative and Innovative Community


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November 11, 2008 By

Prepared for the Arab Urban Development Institute Conference on Knowledge Cities, Istanbul, Turkey, November 17-19, 2008

Cities across the globe are still struggling to reinvent themselves for the post-industrial economy and society foreshadowed by sociologist Daniel Bell. In their efforts to prepare themselves for the 21st century, many communities are still working to update their data infrastructure to accommodate the needs of an age in which information is the most valuable commodity.

Canada's Smart Communities effort, Dubai's Media City, Malaysia's Multimedia Corridor, and other initiatives focus mainly on the technological aspects of the post-industrial economy. San Diego even commissioned a City of the Future committee to make plans to build the first fiber-optic wired city in the country in the belief that as cities of the past were built along waterways, railroads, and interstate highways, cities of the future will be built along "information highways" -- wired and wireless information pathways connecting every home, office, school, and hospital and, through the World Wide Web, millions of other individuals and institutions around the world.

These new information infrastructures are undoubtedly important. Getting your city wired, or constructing a wireless infrastructure are important first steps to building a smart community. But you simply cannot have smart community without smart people. Put differently, getting lots of bandwidth in the ground is important. But changing the bandwidth in people's heads is more important to achieving success as a knowledge city.

Every man, woman and child needs to know and understand that the tectonic plates of the worlds economy have shifted. We are now living and working in a global knowledge age in which both information and knowledge are the new currency, but knowledge is even more important. It is the new wealth, and creativity and innovation are the tools of wealth creation.


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