[gu-l] (02/10/02) Re: An Opinion Editorial from The San Diego Union-Tribune

[Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D.]

<<February 10, 2002>>
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John M. Eger
Executive Director
International Center for Communications
College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-4522
619-594-6933
619-594-6910
Fax: 619-594-4488
jeger@mail.sdsu.edu
http://www.smartcommunities.org/
http://www.smartcommunities.org/guidebook.html
http://www.iicom.org/intermedia/july2001/eger.htm -- His paper on Smart
Communities in InterMedia.


Dear John:

(1) Thank you very much for your very inspiring article on the "smart
community."

(2) I am taking the liberty of distributing it to our list members.

Best, Tak


On 2/10/02 6:04 PM, "john eger" <jeger@mail.sdsu.edu> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> Communities built on information
> 
> 
> By John Eger
> 
> January 6, 2002
> 
> Late last year while visiting with leaders from Asia and the Middle East to
> talk about the role of "smart communities" -- communities aggressively
> deploying information technology to transform their region for a global,
> knowledge-based economy and society -- I sensed two things. First, an
> urgent and compelling call for world telecomm reform. And second, a message
> that the world needs America's help, preparing their cities and their
> people for what is truly a fundamental shift in the basic structure of the
> world's economy.
> 
> America has a unique opportunity to work with other communities across the
> globe to develop a strategy to renew their cities and in the process create
> the sense of world community our planet so desperately needs.
> 
> In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for example, at the conclusion of the first
> international meeting on "Future Cities" in November, these were some of
> the initial findings, recommendations and conclusions of the participants:
> 
> Islam does not contradict or conflict with globalization but is consistent
> with its ideals and that the Islamic civilization has been a model for
> that. Globalization should not affect negatively the principles and values.
> 
> Full participation of all members of society, including women, children
> and youth, must be ensured in the process of planning for future
> development, aiming to develop common perceptions conforming to the
> community's aspirations and ambitions, its cultural tenets and its
> aspiration for economic prosperity and social welfare.
> 
> Arab cities should utilize digital technology in the various walks of life
> in future cities and provide the infrastructure necessary to incorporate
> and utilize new technologies.
> 
> Cities should prepare to adopt the concept of "smart communities" by
> expanding applications of e-government, distant learning, e-commerce, etc.,
> in ways that do not contradict the humanitarian aspects of future cities.
> 
> If this communiqué has meaning, it could be the basis for a new initiative
> and precedent-setting trend to change what "The Jihad vs. McWorld" author
> Benjamin Barber decries as the two major forces shaping the modern world:
> The jihad, "the bloody search for bloodlines," and McWorld, "the bloodless
> search for markets."
> 
> What is missing in this new world order, Barber argues, is the concern for
> the "commonweal" or public good, the common goal that is at the heart of
> every free democratic society. "Our world and our lives," he says, "are
> caught between what William Butler Yates called two eternities of race and
> soul: that of race reflecting our tribal past, that of soul anticipating
> the cosmopolitan future.
> 
> On a larger scale, the movement to reinvent communities -- "smart
> communities" for the digital age -- lies at the heart of our continued
> effort to remake civilization for the new global economy and ensure our
> progress toward that "eternity of soul."
> 
> There is no doubt that telecommunications and information technologies are
> and can be a catalyst for transforming life and work in this new economy.
> The telecommunications revolution has ushered in not only a redefinition of
> wealth, with information replacing gold as the new monetary standard, but
> also with the globalization of the economy, a realignment of power.
> 
> From nation-states to states and cities, to individuals and individual
> communities, power is devolving as never before. Therein lies the
> opportunity for America, in partnership with other social democratic
> nations and institutions across the globe, to create a strategy at once
> global and intensely local, and focused on empowering the individual and
> individual communities to get "smart".
> 
> Time is of the essence. The globalization movement has accentuated the
> divide in the world. The movement to a digital world has deepened that
> divide; and the ubiquitous presence of global media has made those
> divisions more apparent and painfully obvious.
> 
> Yet, if we make a conscious effort to provide communities with a vision and
> a plan to reinvent themselves for the new age and provide them with the
> necessary tools, we can also provide them with the most powerful tool of
> all, freedom itself.
> 
> 
> Eger, Lionel Van Deerlin Professor of Communications and Public Policy and
> President of the California Institute for Smart Communities at San Diego
> State University, was telecommunications adviser to Presidents Nixon and
> Ford.
> 
> Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA                  *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education  *
* Founder of CAADE                                                   *
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