Smart Economy

Smart Sustainability Showcase for Toronto and Canada

From: Walter Derzko

Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 12:19 AM

To: undisclosed list

Subject: re Smart Sustainability ShowCase for Toronto and Canada.

Importance: High

Dear Colleagues

I’d like to plant an idea with you – after speaking with a number of designers and vendors, I’m exploring the idea for a sustainability showcase that would feature theme based exhibits with smart technologies from Canadian and international sources-the best from Ontario, nationally and from around the world.

The launch would be 2010, The timing for this seems right.  The target audience would be Canadian business, consumers and school children

I’m writing a book on smart technologies and this would be a logical extension of the concept.

Two years ago I talked to Samantha Sannella and Poala Polletto at the Design Exchange (DX) in Toronto and with several people at the Ont Science Center.  Both groups expressed interest but said that we would need to find sponsors for the project

My business model for this would be three pronged -vendor based revenue, corporate based sponsor revenue and municipality based sponsorship ie city of Toronto or Mississauga and possibly the province of Ontario who may wish to promote sustainable manufacturing.

This concept would be a Canadian, in fact a North American first.

I have a list of 150 potential vendors, and designers from around the world who are working on smart technologies that we can start to approach.

The exhibits would be theme based, --the sustainable kitchen, the sustainable office, the sustainable retail shelf, the sustainable workspace, the sustainable community, the sustainable city etc and would be updated with new technologies every 3-5 years and have a 1-5 year forward focus. (what's commercially available now or in the very near future.

For other exhibits, there can be a regional or national focus ie smart sustainable technology from the UK, Finland, Germany (Fraunhofer Inst), China, Ukraine, Russia, or Singapore, Hong Kong etc

Corporate sponsors might include: Walmart, Rona, Home Deport, Canadian Tire, Loblaws, Sears, Imperial Oil, the banks (RBC, TD, RBC BMO) etc.

The Sustainability Showcase could be housed in a physical location, or it could tour from location to location around the city or province or be mobile ( on a bus the way the Japanese and Korean do- a display bus turned into a demo center that tours from school to school or to fairs and exhibitions.

OCAD students and staff and Beal senior fellows could play a hand in designing exhibit spaces and sourcing new vendors and sustainable technologies.

Several other revenue opportunities could spin off from this as well

Here’s just a few examples of what can be showcased

1) Environmentally sensible packaging such as Mercury-Absorbant NanoSponge packaging for broken compact fluorescent lamps (CFL's) http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2008/06/mercury-absorba.html

2) Concrete Wood (from the example I mentioned June 2 at OCAD, when Bob Logan was bemoaning the lack of durability of pressboard shelving from Ikea.  See Concrete Wood from lodgepole pine trees destroyed by pine beetles (kills two birds with one stone) http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2007/11/concrete-wood.html

3) End of Traditional Heating and Air conditioning Thin-film version of Active Building Envelope (ABE) systems could make conventional air conditioning and heating equipment obsolete http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2006/07/thinfilm_versio.html

4) OLEDs New High efficiency flat light source OLEDs > Almost any surface in a home, whether flat or curved, could become a light source: walls, curtains, ceilings, cabinets, shelves or tables.  Http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2006/04/new_high_effici.html

Lots more like these

For anyone who is interested in exploring the idea of a Smart Sustainability Showcase for Toronto, we are having a meeting on Tuesday July 22 at 11 am at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity, room 600, 6th floor , 100 McCaul St, Toronto just south of the Ont Art Gallery.

Please RSVP, so we know how many people are coming

I have had some positive feedback from several organizations, & I’d like to push the concept forward

I'm sending this nationally and internationally in  case you are aware of any designers, vendors, manufacturers or research centers who have interesting cutting edge smart sustainable technology to showcase.

Contact me by email

----Walter  Derzko; Senior Fellow Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity, OCAD 

© 2005-2008 Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Expert, Consultant, Keynote Speaker and Lecturer on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

Millennium development goals: radically reducing extreme poverty and hunger. Are we on track? 07-200

One year ago in my presentaion at the World Futures Society on Smart Technologies I was reflecting on how smart technologies, namely nanotech and biotech converging technologies could be used to address the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In April 2007, the General Assembly of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations convened to discuss progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Professor Patrick Webb,  dean for academic affairs at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at  Tufts University, presented on the status of the Millennium Development Goal One (MDG1): radically reducing extreme poverty and hunger.

The MDGs were developed at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 to set measurable goals and targets for a range of pressing global problems, including poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women.

MDG1 has a twofold objective: reduce the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day, and reduce the proportion of people suffering hunger by half. In order to meet these goals, Webb highlighted recent successes that can guide future efforts.

There are three priority issues to be tackled in seeking to address the second objective (on hunger)

• removing the ‘invisibility’ of hunger by better measuring and highlighting areas making limited progress,
• promoting innovations in programming, and
• integrating mainstream lessons from successful action in humanitarian settings (saving lives and reducing acute malnutrition) into development interventions.

Development efforts can address these issues by improving protocols and products for treating malnutrition, and preventing malnutrition by enhancing behaviors and choices that lead to improved nutrition throughout the lifecycle.

Poverty and hunger are multidimensional problems requiring multidimensional solutions. (see related post on Sensmaking Redux 2006)

To address the multidimensional nature of these problems, the first MDG addresses five distinct goals: reducing poverty, narrowing the poverty gap (between richest and poorest), increasing the share of income enjoyed by the poorest families, reducing the share of preschool children who are underweight, and lowering the share of each country’s population that has too little to eat.

“Progress in one target area does not guarantee progress in the other areas,” says Webb. “Focusing on just one aspect of the problem, or just one of the target risks, is missing the point…and risks compromising the success of the entire agenda.”

Speaking on behalf of the three Rome-based agencies of the United Nations (the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)), Webb argued that governments should engage more seriously in measuring their own progress towards agreed goals. Solutions to hunger are known, and novel approaches to the treatment and prevention of malnutrition in emergencies have shown that quick gains are possible. Making such gains sustainable means scaling up innovations across developing country settings, and targeting resources towards such key priorities.

This meeting of Member States, UN System Organizations, other major institutional stakeholders, as well as non-governmental organizations, academics and foundations concentrated on the theme “Eradicating poverty and hunger – Joining forces to make it happen.” The conference explored the issues and set the groundwork for the ECOSOC’s first Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) this summer in Switzerland.

Webb concluded by stating that “…in order to successfully impact malnutrition it takes complementary inputs delivered through complementary partnerships. It is not only about food, and it is not only about cash in the pocket. Many different elements are needed to achieve the five goals, and many institutions have to bring their resources to bear. In order to tackle the problem it is not possible to focus on just agriculture or just health; in order to be successful the many facets of the problem must all be addressed.”

Webb will continue to work with the many stakeholders involved in assessing progress and further advancing the important human goals that are the MDGs.

Source: Tufts Univ press release

© 2005-2007

Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

• ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
• ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
• ".......Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  --A. Einstein
• ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko

• ".......Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  -- Margaret Mead

• ".......Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss ideas; --Anon

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Wake up and smell the future; Mind to Market Breakfast series on Innovation hosted by the Ontario Centres of Excellence 07-008

Ontario Centres of Excellence - Where Next Happens

An Early Morning Checkup on the State of Innovation - Join us for the second event in a new and stimulating breakfast series dedicated to innovative emerging technology in Ontario.

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE FUTURE.
Experience a hot breakfast and an even hotter climate of innovation, as leading innovators share their experiences, strategies and vision for an Ontario ready to explode onto the global scene.

It's your chance to get an early taste of the future, brought to you by OCE, passionate champions of the Next Ontario.

Session 2: HEALTH RESEARCH:
THE 21st CENTURY'S PROSPERITY ENGINE

Featuring: Dr. Robert S. Bell, MD,
President and CEO,
University Health Network (UHN)

From photodynamic therapies to nanotech diagnostics, the research underway at UHN offers enormous opportunity for Ontario companies. Research hospitals are a critical driver of economic benefits to the province's economy. They improve the quality of our health care and its delivery, and attract and retain leading scientific talent.

Join Dr. Bob Bell as he considers the way commercialization of biomedical research is not only bringing to light better treatments and better detection, but is also improving the economic health prospects of the province.

7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m., January 23, 2007
Toronto Board of Trade, First Canadian Place
77 Adelaide Street West, 4th Floor, Toronto, Ontario

Click here (http://bot.com/asp/EventManager/EventSearchDetail.asp?id=591), to register online.

For more information about the Mind to Market breakfast series, please visit
the OCE website at www.oce-ontario.org or contact the event hotline at
416-439-4143 or by email (mailto:events@bot.com?subject=Ontario Centres of Excellence Mind to Market Breakfast Series).

© 2005-2007

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate & comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  - Margaret Mead

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Happy 1st Birthday to the Smart Economy Blog; Announcing a new Web site, Monthly workshops and webinars

Today marks the 1st anniversary of the Smart Economy Blog. We've received many encouraging feedback & emails from our readers over the past year and good suggestions from positive-focused critics for future improvements.

• According to Pingpoat, The Smart Economy Blog is worth  is $1011.17!  per day
• Inbound links: 1085
• Technorati rank: 34,021

So today, I'm announcing a series of new "smart" initiatives that we will be kicking off in October 2006.

The Smart Economy is growing exponentially and so are we, right along with it.

Smart Economy Learning Series-monthly workshops in Toronto

Starting in October 2006, we will be launching a monthly series of one-day workshops on topics that our blog readers say interest them. These include:

• Latest Tools for Advanced Environmental Scanning, Managing Information Overload and Sense-making ( October 12, 2006, BCE Place Toronto) email me asking for a registration form
• Lateral thinking in business  (Date TBA)
• Developing foresight in your business or industry  (Date TBA)
• Resolving conflicts and disputes using lateral thinking (Date TBA)
• The Opportunity Clinic --Scanning your business environment for Opportunities(Date TBA)
• The Idea Lab --Designing smart products and services that will drive business development forward (Date TBA)
• Introduction to Business Development --Tracking emerging technologies as threats or opportunities for your business (Date TBA)
• Technology Assessment for Investment Professionals & High Tech Startups (Date TBA)
• Building a Busines Case for Smart Devices, objects and services (Date TBA)
• Designing winning business modles for Smart Technologies (Date TBA)

Register today, since space will be limited. Past workshops have sold out quickly.

The Smart Economy Web Page

We are finally in the last stages of planning and constructing our new web site for the Smart Economy. Watch out for launch date soon.

The Smart Economy Webinar Series.

Also starting in October 2006, we will host a monthly opportunity for our blog readers to phone in and participate in a "live seminar" which will include power-point slides and a Q&A session, all from the comfort of your PC or laptop. It will be on some current topic related to the smart economy and some rising smart technology that will be coming into prominence soon. This will be a subscription based series.... We will try to keep the price reasonable so that everyone can participate. Subscription information & schedule will be out soon. Watch for announcements.

Thanks again for all your ideas and keep the feedback coming in.

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight,, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

.......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Looking for Feedback on the Smart Economy Blog

Today is a bit of an anniversary for the Smart Economy. Since I started on this blog last Fall (Sept 15th, 2005 to be exact), I've posted 500 entries (this is # 501). We've received over 100 comments online and many more private direct emails. Our daily traffic is growing steadily month by month, as word spreads about The Smart Economy. Many other influential and popular web sites, trend syndication services and blogs now link back to us.

• According to Pingpoat, The Smart Economy Blog is worth is $1011.17!  Per day
• Inbound links: 1085
• Technorati rank: 34,021

I'd like to hear feedback from you --- our blog readers. How can we improve this site?

• what do you enjoy reading about smart technologies?
• what else would you like to see?
• what don't you like? what annoys you?
• what suggestions do you have for future topics?
• what  would you like to see more coverage of?
• do you use RSS? would you subscribe to a Smart Economy RSS  news feed?
• would you like to hear news about the smart economy on your Mp3 player?
• would you like a one-stop-shop to purchase smart technologies?
• would you find road maps for smart technologies useful for your worK?
• would you subscribe to a monthly online seminar (webinar) on smart technology?
• would you find workshops on smart technology topics useful?
• how do you use our information? investment decisions? strategic decisions? alliance decisions? other?

Post your replies or comments in the comments box below or send me a private email

I look forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy the rest of 2006 and 2007 and I hope to see you back here on a regular basis.

All the best !!

Walter Derzko

How Long Will America Lead the World? and who is Next ?

Once in a while you read a story that you just want to share with everyone....I ran across such a piece in NewsWeek today -by Fareed Zakaria called: How Long Will America Lead the World?

The United States is still the dominant force in technology, innovation, productivity and profits.  But Americans don't quite realize how fast the rest of the world is catching up.

[here are some key points from the article-Walter Derzko]

[ ]

....Well, Americans have replaced Britons atop the world, and we are now worried that history is happening to us.  History has arrived in the form of "Three Billion New Capitalists," as Clyde Prestowitz's recent book puts it, people from countries like China, India and the former Soviet Union, which all once scorned the global market economy but are now enthusiastic and increasingly sophisticated participants in it.  They are poorer, hungrier and in some cases well trained, and will inevitably compete with Americans and America for a slice of the pie.....

[ ]

.....Much of the concern centers on the erosion of science and technology in the U.S., particularly in education…..[   ].... China and India combined graduate 950,000 engineers every year, compared with 70,000 in America; that for the cost of one chemist or engineer in the U.S. a company could hire five chemists in China or 11 engineers in India; that of the 120 $1 billion-plus chemical plants being built around the world one is in the United States and 50 are in China…[   ].... "More people will graduate in the United States in 2006 with sports-exercise degrees than electrical-engineering degrees,".....

[ ]

.......The genius of America's success is that the United States is a rich country with many of the attributes of a scrappy, developing society.  It is open, flexible and adventurous, often unmindful of history and tradition.  Its people work hard, putting in longer hours than those in other rich countries.  Much of this has do to with the history and culture of the society.  A huge amount of it has to do with immigration, which keeps America constantly renewed by streams of hardworking people, desperate to succeed.  Science laboratories in America are more than half filled with foreign students and immigrants.  Without them, America's leadership position in the sciences would collapse. That is why America, alone among industrial nations, has been able to do the nearly impossible: renew its power and stay at the top of the game for a century now.  We can expand our science programs --and we should --but we will never be able to compete with India and China in the production of engineers.  No matter what we do, they will have more, and cheaper, labor.  What we can do is take the best features of the America system--openness, innovation, immigration and flexibility- and enhance them, so that they can respond to new challenges by creating new industries, new technologies and new jobs, as we have in the past."...

[ ]

Our greatest danger is that when the American public does begin to get scared, they will try to shut down the very features of the country that have made it so successful.  They will want to shut out foreign companies, be less welcoming to immigrants and close themselves off from competition and collaboration.  Over the past year there have already been growing paranoia on all these fronts.

[Some of the reactive knee-jerk reactions ----Some US senators are proposing to embed RFID Chips in USA Immigrants & Guest workers. Dubai Ports was blocked by USA congress to manage US ports, even though most people don't realise that Vancouver's port is managed by Dubai Ports. The Dutch have taken a hard line, banning Islamic women from wearing their traditional burkas. Canadian politicians are contemplating banning tourists from Parliament Hill in Ottawa after the arrest of a terrorist cell in Toronto, Canada-Walter Derzko]

[   ]

If we go down this path, we will remain a rich country and a stable one.  We will be less troubled by the jarring changes that the new world is pushing forward.  But like Britain after Queen Victoria's reign, it will be a future of slow, steady national decline.  History will happen to us after all.

Overall, an enjoyable read in Newsweek

..best quote in the story ?    "Only the paranoid survive."--Andy Grove

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an inhouse presentation on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart energy meters in UK monitor all household appliances & drought

England is known as one of the wettest countries in the world. But paradoxically, the government is telling Londoners to conserve water and energy due to a prolonged drought in the country. The first drought order in England and Wales since 1995 will ban the non-essential use of water. Other countries reporting droughts in 2006 include: Australia, Canada, Africa, Central and NE USA and others.

Looking into the future, the picture isn’t any rosier for skiers, farmers and anyone who drinks water-in other words –all of humanity

According to a study released today by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, by the end of the century:

".....the Andes in South America will have less than half their current winter snowpack, mountain ranges in Europe and the U.S. West will have lost nearly half of their snow-bound water, and snow on New Zealand's picturesque snowcapped peaks will all but have vanished.

Such is the dramatic forecast from a new, full-century model that offers detail its authors call "an unprecedented picture of climate change." The decline in winter snowpack means less spring and summer runoff from snowmelt. That translates to unprecedented pressure on people worldwide who depend on summertime melting of the winter snowpack for irrigation and drinking water.

Hardest hit are mountains in temperate zones where temperatures remain freezing only at increasingly higher elevations, said Steven J. Ghan, staff scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and lead author of a study describing the model in the current Journal of Climate. PNNL scientist Timothy Shippert was co-author.

Alaska in 2100 will maintain but 64 percent of its year 2000 snowpack. In Europe, the Alps will be at 61 percent and Scandinavia56 percent. The Sierras, Cascades and southern Rockies will be at 57 percent of current levels. The Andeswill drop to 45. And Mt.Cook and its snowcapped neighbors in New Zealandwill be much less scenic at 16 percent of current.

On the Left,  Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa

So what can we do right now?

According to the BBC today:

"There are growing calls for gas and electricity meters to be dusted off, brought out from the cupboard underneath the stairs, and given pride of place in people's living rooms and kitchens.

Advocates of so-called "smart meters" say the information provided by the devices can revolutionise the way households consume energy, and can reduce demand by up to 10%."

Pic 1 Energy Demands

The screen displays a list of appliances in the home and the amount of energy each one is currently using.  It can be switched to show how much the electricity is costing or the estimated carbon emissions.  (Image: More Associates)

Pic 2 Monitoring Usage

The red bar shows the amount of electricity that is currently being used.  The blue graph shows the pattern of electricity consumption over a period of time.  (Image: More Associates)

Full Story on BBC>>

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an inhouse presentation on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Gorbachev on Nuclear Power vs Renewables > Chornobyl Series Part 5

The following note has been circulating on the net today:

Gorbachev on Nuclear Power vs Renewables

"Nuclear power is neither the answer to modern energy problems nor a panacea for climate change challenges," says former Russian President  M. Gorbachev. 

"You don't actually solve problems by finding solutions that create more problems down the track.  It doesn't add up economically, environmentally or socially.  Of all the energy options, nuclear is the most capital intensive to establish, decommissioning is prohibitively expensive and the financial burden continues long after the plant is closed." 

"In the U.S., for example, direct subsidies to nuclear energy amounted to $115 billion between 1947 and 1999 with a further $145 billion in indirect subsidies.  In contrast, subsidies to wind and solar combined during the same period totaled only $5.5 billion." 

An extract from his press release, commemorating Chernobyl 20 years on, in which he beseeches the leaders of the G8 to show some spine, and support solar energy with a global fund of $50 billion USD. 

Source: Green Cross International

and Tom Robertson. moderator of the EnergyResources list says:

"....and what Gorbachev is saying above is pretty much what Energy Returned on Energy Invested (ERoEI)analysis of nuclear power learned more then twenty-five years ago, where one of the best studies showed it had a 2.7 to 1 EROEI even without looking at the back end of the fuel cycle, accidents, and long term waste storage."

...and now, as if the nuclear industry didn't have enough of an image problem,  BBC Monitoring reports that the former Russian atomic power minister has been charged with fraud.

Comments welcomed: What are your thoughts on the subject? Please leave comments below

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an inhouse presentation on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Mobile government gets closer to the people

Mobile government gets closer to the people

Among the many promises of the digital revolution is its potential to strengthen democracy and make governments more responsive to citizens' needs. An open service platform for mobile users aims to partially deliver on that promise, making public administrations more accessible, effective and accountable.

"The idea is essentially to support and encourage access to new e-government services at any time and any place through the use of mobile communications and internet technologies," explains Dirk Tilsner, project coordinator for the IST programme-funded project, USE-ME.GOV.

To this end, the project has developed an open service platform for mobile users that can be shared by networked authorities and institutions in terms of technical infrastructure, information and other content, while also providing a framework for commercial exploitation.

From the outset, the emphasis was placed on creating a platform that would be easy to use and specifically tailored to the needs of administrations and service providers. That meant designing software that incorporated features such as usability, openness, interoperability and scalability, and would allow for networked operation.

"The idea is to enable authorities to share the platform as technological infrastructure and also to adopt a common exploitation framework," says Tilsner. "In the same way, the platform interfaces to mobile operators and all kinds of content providers that participate in this framework."

The broad goal of the project is to harmonise the quality of public services and to overcome problems associated with the digital divide.

Based on attractive business models, platform sharing is a means to provide the conditions for cost-efficient mobile services, especially in geographical areas with low internet penetration.

USE-ME.GOV aims to provide new types of services targeting specific user groups as well as the wider public. These services will be configurable, personalised and dedicated to thematic content. The advantages of such an approach are straightforward, believes Tilsner.

"For a start, it becomes easier and faster to integrate new services because the platform already provides the core functionalities and interfaces. It also means that the sharing of costs as well as knowledge make the platform, and the mobile services provided through it, accessible to all authorities, ensuring sustainable service operation," he says.

Open to many services What kind of services can be provided on such a platform? According to Tilsner, the beauty of the platform is that there are few restrictions in terms of what services can be adapted to work with the system.

"The platform has been conceived for mobile services, but can easily be integrated with other platforms that use other dissemination channels, typically the internet. Apart from simple messaging, mobile services are browser-based and are thus compatible with virtually all current 2.5G and also future 3G and UMTS mobile devices on the market," he says.

Services that might be used on such a platform include personalised information broadcasts on matters of local interest: for instance, traffic updates, upcoming public meetings, special events or announcements concerning administrative procedures. The platform could also be used for the submission of complaints and other requests from the public, thereby cutting red tape and speeding up response time to particular problems. Another potential application is the 'mobile student', enabling communication between the school and parents relating to curricular information, assessment results, school events, and so forth.

The platform has already been successfully integrated and tested in a simulated stress environment, says Tilsner. In the validation phase, the platform was installed and operated in four countries, while various services were also tested in several countries accessing the platform installed in Madrid.

After a successful demonstration of the platform concept at a recent workshop in Lisbon, the main remaining challenges relate to strategic rather than technical objectives, says Tilsner.

"Technical improvements are always desirable, but are not the key challenge at the moment. The major challenge is educating and preparing public authorities to move to the mobile channel, build public-private partnerships and adopt networking strategies for sustainable deployment of these services," he says.

Commercial exploitation is also definitely in the pipeline for some of the commercial partners involved in the project such as EDISOFT and Indra Sistemas. For public administrations, however, the value of the platform lies beyond any commercial gain. Rather, all end-user partners in the project are evolving their own particular strategies for short- or medium term usage of the platform and the provision of services.

Contact: Dirk Tilsner EDISOFT S.A. Rua Quinta dos Medronheiros Lazarim Apartado 382 P-2826-801 Caparica Portugal Tel: + 351-21-2945900 Fax: + 351-21-2945999 Email

Source: Based on information from USE-ME.GOV

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an inhouse presentation on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Boost your Smart Technology IQ

Increase your Smart Technology IQ

Are you interested in the novel but quietly booming field of Smart Technology?

Are you a novice to the discipline or an old pro? Are smart technologies still under your business radar screen? Confused by all the jargon? opinions? predictions?

We are able to offer your team or organization, a tactile ‘hands-on’ presentation based on the topic and application areas that best suit your interest from our Smart Economy Blog.

We can  provide your group with a general introduction to Smart Technologies or cover a highly specialized and narrow topic area. We can cover the spectrum from Competitive Intelligence to Product Development to Technology roadmaps.

Combined with a health dose of provocative, lateral thinking, our interactive  presentation will get your team inspired and boost their Smart Technology IQ  !!

Suitable for off site or on site training sessions, monthly team or division meetings, research meetings, focus groups and conferences, our presentations can be customized to the needs of different audiences, numbers and special interest areas.

Smart Technology is a tactile subject area and by bringing the audience into physical contact with a wide range of different smart materials and products, our presentation brings to life the subject matter contained in our Smart Economy Blog 

Please contact me for further details.

Walter Derzko  wderzko@pathcom.com