Developing
Smart Counties in California:
Transforming
Regions Through Information Technology
Dr. Roger W. Caves and Dr. Marco G. Walshok, California
County, November/December 1997.
Many counties in California are finding novel ways to use telecommunications-telephones, facsimile machines, the Internet-to do business, provide education, deliver social services. These newly created information networks expand our communities while weaving them more tightly together.
We are fortunate to have the luxury of learning from the past. Do you remember what happened to some small towns that were bypassed by the creation and location of interstate highways? Do you remember what happened to boom towns when all of the minerals were extracted from the earth? Do you remember when an area lost its sole employer to another area? The answer to these questions is that without planning, forward thinking, and institutional innovation, these areas quickly became economic and social casualties. Because they were not prepared for the future, they were captured by the past in a world of ceaseless change.
Times have certainly changed. Cities and counties that once planned in isolation from each other are now in a dilemma. Parochial planning has placed them in the precarious position of being unable to influence the forces that are changing their economic circumstances and the quality of life in their communities. How can they actively participate and compete in a changing post-industrial society? How do they access the information they need to compete with other areas in the global economy?
All communities must prepare for the changes that are taking place throughout California, the nation, and the world; however, many areas want to remain the same. They resist change, and their resistance is understandable, if unfortunate: Transforming communities is no easy task, and there is no simple way to accomplish the transformation.
A good first step is to recognize the importance of a community's telecommunications infrastructure. For many years, telecommunications was essentially ignored by local policy makers-or at best, viewed primarily as a technology issue. Today it is fundamental to economic and community development and must be placed on the public policy agenda in such terms. Local communities must start thinking of their information infrastructure in much the same way they have viewed other aspects of a community's infrastructure-in terms of economic vitality and the creation of qualitatively desirable forms of community life.
California and the "Smart Community" Vision
Several years ago, Governor Pete Wilson spoke of his administration's belief in the importance of telecommunications and how it could be used to better position California to become a world leader in the 21st century global information economy. In response to this initiative and to the need for economic restructuring created by the 1992-94 recession, specifically the cutbacks in aerospace and defense spending, the California Legislature passed SB 1 in 1995.
This legislation created a separate Department of Information Technology within California's state government that would bear primary responsibility for developing plans and policies to promote the effective application of information technology throughout state government. At the same time, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) took a leadership role in encouraging the application of new forms of telecommunications in California communities. These forms of telecommunications would be used as an alternative to the use of traditional mobility options, such as automobiles and forms of mass transit. This focus on community telecommunications in turn lead to support for the development of a framework for the creation of "smart communities" throughout California.
The framework for smart communities makes mobility considerations a central concern. It also gives support to the exploration of ways to use new information technologies to enhance the economic development and quality of life in communities throughout California-in short, ways to build smart communities.
The activities supported by this effort included grants given by Caltran's to San Diego State University's International Center for Communication and to the University of California, Davis's Division of Technology. These grants were used to develop written materials about developing smart communities for statewide distribution. Caltrans also awarded grants to the International Center to create an outreach program through which communities in the state could enhance their telecommunications capabilities for both community and economic development purposes. According to a press release issued by San Diego State University's International Center for Communications, the written materials and the outreach program could be used to facilitate "the remote delivery of services, telework, distance learning, telehealth, telecommerce and other applications of electronic highway" technologies.
In December 1996, the "Smart Communities Guidebook" was published, followed in January 1997 by the publication of the "Smart Communities Implementation Guide." In the guidebook, a smart community is defined as a geographical area ranging in size from a neighborhood to a multi-county region whose residents, organizations, and governing institutions are using information technology to transform their region in significant ways. Cooperation among government, industry, educators, and the citizenry is preferred to individual groups acting in isolation. The technological enhancements undertaken as part of this effort should result in fundamental, rather than incremental, change.
The Current Smart Communities Program
During late spring and summer of 1997, at the request of the International Center, a project management team at the California Institute for Smart Communities at San Diego State University developed a Request for Qualifications (RFQ). The management team later conducted interviews to select a team of technical specialists with a diverse range of skills and expertise who would carry out a smart communities educational outreach program. This outreach program and the technical specialists who are part of it are now ready to go into action.
The program has several purposes. The first is to promote the concept of smart communities throughout California. This will involve seminars, forums, and conferences using the project's technical specialists to brief interested officials, business people, and citizens about the concept of smart communities, specific "smart" applications to civic activities and "best case" examples. Moreover, the program seeks to disseminate information about smart communities via the Internet, the media, and other channels of communication.
However, getting information out is only one part of the puzzle. Another part is encouraging specific communities to embrace the advantages of becoming smart communities and to develop a vision to achieve this reality. Thus, our second, even more important purpose, is to provide "custom-fit" advice to communities that desire help from the program.
Although it appears somewhat confusing at first, the approach is actually easy. First we must be successful in disseminating the word on smart communities. Next, we hope to generate interest from specific communities to which our project personnel will respond. They will assess the kind of interest expressed by a community and its readiness to pursue new "smart" activities. Then, on the basis of this assessment, an educational program tailored to that community and developed in cooperation with key individuals from relevant jurisdictions and community organizations will be recommended. Finally, if the community accepts the educational program, the institute and its technical advisors will implement it.
In all of this, it's important to view the smart communities project as a community development project, not a technology project. The technology is certainly a critical element, but finding the most effective applications of that technology to enhance the vitality of a community's economic and social circumstances is the key.
For example, one community may embark on a program to provide citizens with more local and regional information and services via the Internet. Another community may want to promote itself economically in the global marketplace via the Internet by developing a Web page that advertises and promotes its businesses and skills. Another community might want to connect all the schools and libraries in its area through a community-specific "Intranet" system and combine it with new approaches to distance learning aimed at preparing students for the workforce.
How Smart are California's Communities?
A number of areas throughout California have begun to move in "smart" directions.
- At the Net at Two Rivers (N2R) project (at http://www.n2r.net ), real progress has been made in developing regional education programs to provide basic computer training to under-resourced populations. N2R is also involved in finding ways to link geographically dispersed social service program-dependent populations (the elderly, the physically handicapped, etc.) with their key provider agencies. The project was started with funding from the Sacramento School District, support from the local United Way, and with the cooperation of a number of community networks.
- The Davis Community Network (at http://dcn.davis.ca.us/)has developed a two-pronged approach to promote local business on the Internet and to use its community network to involve more citizens in the local government process.
- The City of Chula Vista (at http://www.ci.chula-vista.ca.us/telcente.htm) has pursued the development of telecenters in its communities, as have a number of the communities participating in Caltran's California Mobility Project.
- "Smart Valley" (at http://smart1.svi.org/main.html) in Santa Clara County has aggressively pursued the use of the Internet to promote business development, employment, and educational activities in its local schools.
- Finally "CitrusNet" (at http://www.citrusnet.org) is a cooperative venture between government and educational agencies, the business community, and citizens of Riverside County. It's aim is to link Riverside County businesses, schools, residents and local governments with the global information superhighway.
For More Information?
We welcome the opportunity to discuss the California Smart Communities Project with you. In addition, you are invited to visit our Web site at http://www.smartcommunities.org. To learn more about how the California Institute for SmartCommunitiesTM might be able to assist your county in its transformation into a "smart community," call Dr. Roger Caves at 619/594-6472 or e-mail him at roger.caves@sdsu.edu. You may also get in touch with Dr. Marco Walshok by phone at 619/594-5632 or by e-mail at mwalshok@mail.sdsu.edu.
Dr. Roger Caves is director of research for the California Institute for Smart Communities and professor and coordinator of the Graduate City Planning Program at San Diego State University. Dr. Marco Walshok is associate director of program development for the California Institute for Smart Communities and a member of the faculty at the School of Public Administration and Urban Studies at San Diego State University.
Reprinted from California County magazine (November/December 1997: pp. 29-31) with permission of the California State Association of Counties.