Digital City

Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim has announced the development of the Digital City to prepare Malaysia as a supplier of digital services by 2015. He said the project, to be developed on a 5.66-hectare site in Angkasapuri, had recently been approved by the Cabinet and awaiting discussions with the Economic Planning Unit (EPU). The plans are to have the best media facilities and radio and television broadcasts in the country. He dubbed the project as the most sophisticated information and communications technology (ICT) project which would work towards realising Malaysia’s goal of becoming the best digital services provider in the region.

So what is a digital city, really? Let us look at what Wikipedia has to say.

The term Digital Community or Digital City (Smart Community, information city and e-city are also used) refers to a connected community that combines broadband communications infrastructure; flexible, service-oriented computing infrastructure based on open industry standards; and innovative services to meet the needs of governments and their employees, citizens and businesses.

While wireless infrastructure is a key element of Digital City infrastructure, it is only a first step. The Digital City may require hard-wired broadband infrastructure, and it is much more than just the network. A Digital City provides interoperable, Internet-based government services that enable ubiquitous connectivity to transform key government processes, both internally across departments and employees and externally to citizens and businesses. Digital City services are accessible through wireless mobile devices and are enabled by services oriented enterprise architecture including Web services, the Extensible Markup Language (XML), and mobilized software applications.

Interesting concept indeed. Wikipedia seems to define it more from the perspective of service delivery via G2G (Government to Government), G2B (Government to Business) and G2C (Government to Citizen). Its’ objective is more focused towards meeting the needs of governments and their employees, citizens and businesses.

Let us look at other views of Digital City.

According to Giovanni and Juliano (2007), there are different levels of urbanization for digital cities which are classified from both technological and social aspects. The six levels are described as follows, in ascending order:

1. Cities with Basic Access

This is the lower level in the development of a digital city. Under this condition, a telecommunications services infrastructure is available, though limited in access points and bandwidth. There is no Internet

Service Provider (ISP) and the connections are achieved through calls made from conurbation areas or long distance calls at low transmission rates, which stands as a barrier to the access to the informational society.

2. Cities with Telecenters

At this level, ISPs and telecenters for public access to the Internet are available. These services also provide minimum accessibility resources, such as appropriate facilities for wheel-chair users. However, the number of telecenters is limited and band restrictions are found either in access – dial-up connections are the most commonly used – or backbone.

3. Cities with e-Services

The cities already have total public access coverage, i.e., telecenters are found all around its area and can be easily reached by the population. Bandwidth restrictions are still found in terms of access and backbone, although minimum accessibility, usability, and intelligibility resources are available. This leads to a decrease in access barriers for people with low literacy level or with some kind of disability. The ICT access brings to the population a few public and private services in a virtual environment.

4. Pre-integrated Digital Cities

In this stage, there is total coverage and unlimited bandwidth for public access. In addition, the city can already be considered as a digital city, as defined in this paper. The public services are integrated into a single virtual environment, which comprises an e-government platform that integrates all spheres and powers. Both telecenters and public services provide a reasonable set of accessibility, usability, and intelligibility resources. This aspect poses greater challenges to the idealizers of this initiative, mainly in the development of technologies and applications that may arouse the interest of a culturally heterogeneous population bearing different literacy and ICT mastery levels. This kind of city provides a few private services in a virtual environment.

5. Integrated Digital Cities

It is characterized by a high level of digitalization, with global coverage either for public and individual access. Instead of a portal for each service or application, in this kind of city, services are integrated, namely the public ones. Moreover, meaningful quantities and diversity of accessibility, usability, and intelligibility resources are available. A wide range of private services in virtual environment are also provided. Intra-urban communities are integrated. It allows the effective use of ICT by the population as well as cultural benefits and active citizenship, including a new public space.

6. Fully Developed Digital Cities

In addition to all the improvements found in the other levels, in this level the cities include all digital resources allowed by the current social, economic, political, and technological arrangements. In this stage, the digital city reflects what is available in its real counterpart; obviously within a context of immateriality, allowing going further in a few features of the cyber world. The new basis for communication broadens its scope of action, counting on interconnected communities and cities in an extra-urban sphere. Both public and private services, now fully integrated, create a virtual space overlapping the real, material city. This effectively characterizes a new concept of urban coexistence. The new ICT are then a part of the buildings that give shape to the city: silicon chips and software are literally mixed to bricks, steel and concrete.

Now that is really an interesting concept for a digital city. One can only imagine the potential services that can be provided within a fully developed digital city and the various benefits that entails.

Will we be able to see our cities evolve into fully developed digital cities one day?