Municipal governments are looking beyond traditional infrastructure such as roads and public transit to ensure future economic success. More and more local officials today consider wireless Internet access and super-fast networks as the new essential services that their cities need in order to attract jobs and stimulate the economy.
The latest example is an agreement signed Wednesday, via video conference, by the mayors of Toronto and San Francisco.
The memorandum of understanding between the two cities includes plans for greater integration of their digital media industries, an advanced high-speed network to link the locations, and joint educational and collaboration programs.
Toronto becomes the first Canadian city to join San Francisco's Digital City Network, which seeks to get local government and industry officials in technological hubs working together to plan ways to build broader, faster networks. Montreal and Vancouver could be added to the initiative later this year.
Part of the philosophy behind the international effort is that the best companies offering the best jobs will gravitate to the cities that have the necessary broadband infrastructure in place to share ideas and collaborate on projects remotely.
Toronto Mayor David Miller said the movie industry is one area where his city could see huge growth if the right technology is encouraged. “Toronto is a world leading film centre. If we emphasize our excellence in post-production, our goal could be to be the world leader in post-production. That's what the digital city network is all about.”
Today's faster connection speeds are letting organizations do more over networked computers than ever before, such as working on documents, drawings or other plans simultaneously at different locations. As speeds increase, experts see collaboration occurring on more and more complex projects, including film production, distributed design and even biotech projects.
“Globalization is not a simplistic discussion about sending jobs overseas. It's about creating a worldwide network where people share ideas,” said Jeff Fino, who heads the digital media advisory council for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
California's Autodesk Inc. is an example of one company that already relies on high speed networks to conduct business. Its software is used by a broad range of customers, from engineers designing bridges and auto makers building new vehicles, to filmmakers creating animated characters and visual effects.
“Many of our major architectural firms collaborate with partners around the world,” said Al Steel, country manager of Autodesk Canada. “The way it used to happen you'd roll up the drawings under your arm and hop on a plane and travel. Today people take those electronic files and share them and collaborate as they go.”
But bandwidth speeds are still too slow to handle more complex files, he said. Indeed the virtual signing ceremony the two mayors took part in 5,000 kilometres apart was plagued by glitches that left the audiences disconnected or without sound for much of the 30-minute event.
If a city wants to be competitive in the future it needs to get fibre optic cable to people's homes and offer open wireless networks that allow individuals to access email anywhere, said Joaquin Alvarado, director of the Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State University, which leads the Digital City Network initiative.
“You've got to make it easy for people to be connected,” he said.
Toronto joins a handful of other cities in the Digital City Network, including Paris, Dublin, Prague, Guadalajara, Skopje and Singapore. There is no financial element to the arrangement. Instead, the local government's role is limited to building partnerships and supporting industry. But at some point the city itself could be investing to expand networks, Mr. Miller said.
