Raising the Bar on IT and Economic Development

For over 20 years tiny Singapore, a nation state of 3.5 million people, has been working on something called "IT 2000," also called "the Intelligent Island Project." Now, six years after claiming success, they've launched Phase II of a new plan to use information technology as a catalyst for a major change of their community. Called "IN 2015," it is a 10-year master plan "to grow the info com sector" and build a well-connected society. Singapore wants nothing less than to turn the whole country into what authors Debra Amidon and Bryan Davis call a KIZ or knowledge innovation zone.

John M. Eger
After almost two decades of efforts to put in place the 21st century information infrastructure of broadband wired or wireless communications systems connecting communities to the Web -- and to use IT as a transforming tool -- Amidon and Davis talk about enabling "new forms of enterprise, collaboration, knowledge sharing and commercialization of ideas" not only within communities, but between private, government, NGOs and academic sectors.

After 18 months of research, the authors found hundreds of examples of what can be called knowledge innovation zones operating in various parts of the globe. From a review of their research, a few examples of which are in Latin America, the authors concluded some organizations like the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) must seize the initiative. Earlier this summer, the IDB invited Debra Amidon and this author to brief their various country-specific executive directors to talk about a strategy and plan for using IT to create both smart communities and KIZs, in the greater Latin American region.

Earlier, at a major IDB conference entitled "Building Opportunity for the Majority" attended by former President Clinton and leaders of the Latin American community, the IDB stated clearly that information and communications technologies are critical means of empowerment for all sectors of society, both for providing access to essential services and enhancing economic productivity at all levels. The IDB is aggressively exploring ways to close the digital divide, but importantly, as the President of IDB Luis Alberto Moreno stated, IDB seeks to develop platforms between the public and private sectors and expresses a desire to see Latin American cities develop connected communities.

"Connected communities," as the IDB is well aware, provide a threshold to developing the KIZs -- a concept still not well understood in most communities worldwide. Yet, when innovation becomes the name of the game, as Amidon has argued, "value is created when knowledge moves from origin to the point of highest need," and knowledge multiplies when shared and the more it is shared, the more it grows.

The various KIZs sprouting up in mainland China, the Middle East and of course the United States, are proof once again that cities the world over need to reinvent and renew themselves for this new global knowledge society and economy that are changing the face of the world. All communities need a strategy and a plan for collaboration, and cooperation among and between government, industry and academe. All communities need to better understand what this new economy means for education, life and work in the 21st Century.

John M. Eger is the Van Deerlin Chair in Communications and Public Policy at San Diego State University, and president of The World Foundation for Smart Communities.