Digital cities offer an unprecedented opportunity for public-private partnerships, says Greg Richardson, founder and managing partner of US-based Civitium.
Speaking at the BMI-TechKnowledge Digital Cities Forum in Midrand last week, Richardson said communities were increasingly recognising the connection between broadband infrastructure and community wellbeing.
Furthermore, barriers to entry were becoming lower.
However, there were many objections being raised to the idea of local governments being the creators of digital cities.
Among these were the idea that the use of public funds created unfair competition with the private sector, the feeling that regulators (cities) should not compete against those they regulated, and that public funding of infrastructure acted as a disincentive for private sector investment.
Although Richardson admitted that there was some validity to such objections, the concept of co-operation between the public and private sectors was not without its precedents. The Internet, he pointed out, was not created by telecoms company AT&T, but by government, with the Internet being privatised only later.
"There is co-existence between the public and private sectors in other areas," he noted, saying that the US government offered postal services, water and public transport.
"But FedEx has never gone to Washington to lobby to shut down the postal service. Bottled water companies have never lobbied against water provided in parks. And taxis are thriving."
He pointed to the US city of Philadelphia as an example, where a digital city had been created through partnerships between the local government, a non-profit organisation and private companies.
"But the networks are just the beginning," he added. "The applications and solutions deployed with determine their value."
City of Tshwane chief operating officer Jackie Makgobola said at the same forum that cities embracing the digital age needed to include other settlements traditionally alienated.
"Cities remain alienated from other forms of settlement," he told delegates. "They continue to develop but shut out all else around them." He pointed out, by way of example, rapidly developing Sandton, with the underdeveloped Alexandra just next to it.
"In Tshwane, the digital divide is between suburbs and the townships, and I don`t think Tshwane is unique.
"The townships are part of the future we are trying to create, and so we need to include them and empower them.
"We have to find a way for technology to be an enabler so everyone in SA can have a better life."
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