Connected cities

PUNCHLINE

Ike Seneres

Being the mobile messaging capital and the call center capital of the world, the Philippines is in a good position to transform our human habitats into connected cities, wherein all public services could be within the reach of citizens regardless of where they are, and regardless of what they need.

Aside from the “consumption” model of measuring economic poverty, there is now an alternative “availability” model. I support this other model, but I would personally prefer to call it the “accessibility” model, a term that is more compatible with “connectivity”, as I see it.

In the consumption model, economic poverty was measured in terms of the ability of a household to be able to afford an imaginary basket of goods and services that they would need to sustain their basic standards of living. In the “availability” model, economic poverty is measured in terms of the availability to them of a certain set of basic goods and services.

Perhaps it is just a matter of semantics, but I prefer to use the term “accessibility” model, because I think it would not make sense to have these goods and services “available” to them, if they still could not “access” it. This is where “connectivity” becomes relevant, because it is a means to provide more “accessibility”.

The need for mobility or access to public transportation could provide us with a good example of the difference between the “consumption” model and the “accessibility” model. For example, not everyone would be able to buy a car for their private use, but if they could have access to public transportation, they would still be able to move around, as if they have a private car.

Availability and accessibility would actually have a direct correlation with each other, in terms of quality of service. For example, a system of public transportation could supposedly be available to all citizens, but if there is no system to move the vehicles around in good order, then these would still not be accessible.

For practical reasons, a good system of scheduling public transportation arrivals and departures would also be needed, along with a good online system for booking reservations and ordering tickets. As a matter of fact, I believe that there should be a good system that will enable all citizens in a connected city to easily book and order all goods and services.

Being the mobile messaging capital of the world, we could say that there are more Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards here per thousand people than anywhere else in the world. However, we could also say that since the SIM market for people to people (P2P) usage here is already saturated, the market is now ready for machine to machine (M2M) SIMs, the new evolution of this technology.

As the technologies would eventually turn out, M2M will power connected homes that would in turn form the broader human habitats of connected cities. Some experts in information and communications technology (ICT) are referring to M2M as the “internet of things”, in direct reference to the “internet of people”. As it is now, people could already access the internet using mobile devices.

More often than not, local government units (LGUs) would find it difficult to computerize their operations because of budgetary reasons. That is no longer a problem now; since many technology providers are already offering their services on a fee basis, meaning that the LGUs need not spend anything anymore upfront. In this case, I am also talking about citizens being able to access LGU services from anywhere, and not just the computerization inside the city halls.

Officially, the Philippine government has already adopted “inclusive growth” as an economic strategy. As I see it, this strategy should result in an “inclusive society” wherein everyone should have access to all services regardless of whom they are and where they are. The key to this I think is to have a “loving and caring” government that would “love and care” for everyone, regardless of who sits in the halls of power.

More often than not, the poor, the old and the disabled are the ones who are excluded from the so-called “inclusive society”. In reality, the national government agencies are too far to physically reach out to the people who are in the distant places. No matter how far these people are however, they could have online access.

For all intents and purposes, a mobile device could now do what a personal computer could do. That said, anyone anywhere no longer needs a personal computer to access the internet, and also to access public services by using the internet. The issue of having online access should already become moot and academic by now, because internet cafe rentals are now affordable.

Since online access is no longer an issue, the only problem now is the back end organization at the LGU side that could service the front end that is servicing the people out there. In simple terms, the online infra is only just the means to gain access, but in order for the services to be delivered externally, the personnel at the LGU side needs to build their own internal systems.

As a bonus, the LGU officials could now help the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in their localities to gain access to global markets through electronic commerce. This too would not require any upfront costs. That said however, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done at the back end, because without a good product, SMEs should not even venture into the global markets.

Since the technologies are already available and the markets are already waiting, the only thing that is lacking now is the initiative of the LGU officials to make a decision to move forward, so that their own localities could become connected cities. First things first however, they have to become loving and caring.

For feedback, email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639083159262