A thought: Cities are often known for the
industries concentrated there, or the cultural artefacts created there. Weeds
may be growing in parts of Detroit, but it will always be Motor City. Vienna
will always have the waltz, great cake and Freud.
In our information age, cities will also be known for their excellence or influence in information technologies – which are, I guess, the ultimate combination of industry and culture. Silicon Valley already has this reputation. Cities and regions around the world continually try to create their own “Silicon X”. There's even a “Silicon Roundabout” in London.
Here's what I'm thinking. The breakthroughs in technology over the next few years may not come from new types of device, but from ways of using ubiquitous, connected technologies. Cities that invent, host or promote tools and processes that serve this environment can gain recognition and prestige when their innovations are taken up globally.
The Babylonians gave us math. Maybe British Columbia will give the world a traffic data standard: “Open North is working towards a data standard for traffic data, such as accidents or roads closures, with Open511. In B.C., many travellers depend upon DriveBC to find out about road closures or weather conditions. The goal of Open511 is to make a traffic data standard that would be adopted by jurisdictions around the world, so your experience getting information on road conditions or closures is consistent from B.C. to Arizona.”
If the protocol that wirelessly connects your phone to your laptop can be called Bluetooth, there's no reason why we couldn't all be using DriveBC – in Australia as well as Arizona. So here's a possible new source of civic pride and regional leadership. Let's have more communities come forward to sponsor standards – to the world's benefit. Data BC
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