The GSMA announced this week that the city that hosts its annual conference from 2013 to 2017 will also be crowned Mobile World Capital. The shortlist includes six European cities that would make great places for a big conference, but aren’t necessarily the first places that mobiThinking would have expected to be Mobile World Capital: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Cologne, Milan, Munich and Paris.
The belief at mobiThinking is there isn’t a truly mobilized city anywhere in the world, but many cities – e.g. Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Helsinki or Tallinn (apparently Finns turn to Estonia for inspiration) – lead the way in the different elements that put together would make up the DNA or blueprint of the utopian mobile city. With your help, we can build a blueprint of that city, i.e. the one that all cities should be striving toward.
To help with the Blueprint of the mobile city project, mobiThinking invites you to submit what you consider to be the most important element(s) of a mobile city, using real-life examples from cities that you live in, work in or have visited. These criteria might include:
a) Types of mobile service available in areas such as m-health, m-learning, m-banking, m-government e.g. m-voting, m-payment/ticketing for goods, services and city transportation.
b) Infrastructure, including affordable, pervasive and reliable 3G+ coverage for citizens. Does any city provide affordable mobile data for foreign visitors?
c) The mobilized populous, such as i.e. high mobile penetration, with advanced handsets and high awareness and usage of mobile Web, services etc.
d) The mobile environment, including the level of mobile innovation from private companies and public entities and the extent to which the city operators etc foster this innovation, encouraging co-operation and standards-based development.
If you wish to contribute, please email editor (at) mobiThinking.com. All submissions included will be credited to the contributor.
This concept of the Blueprint of the mobile city was inspired by a recent trip to Helsinki, Finland. And what is and what isn’t happening in Helsinki serves as a good example of what mobiThinking suggests should be part of the DNA of a mobile city.
N.B: This project has nothing at all to do with the GSMA’s quest for a new conference location – the fact that the GSMA intends to make that location the Mobile World Capital has kindly provided a timely news hook. But also there is merit in what the GSMA is proposing. Whatever you think to the shortlist of cities, the GSMA’s Mobile World Capital project has good elements, such as the creation of a permanent centre with technology exhibits, café, office space etc, and a festival of mobile-driven concerts, competitions, awards and debates also sounds good.
mobiThinking would actually go further than this, however, to say that every major city should have a focus place/organization for its mobile initiatives (though the organization don’t have to be exclusively mobile) – not just one in the Mobile World Capital. Actually many cities have these, of one sort or another, formal or informal. This may be informal Mobile Monday meetings (which started in Helsinki 10 years ago and now happen monthly in 100 cities) or, best, a formal organization such as the City of Helsinki’s Forum Virium.
Forum Virium develops digital services centered on in collaboration with companies, the City of Helsinki and other public-sector organizations. Initiatives include smart city projects that use mobile services such as real-time traffic information to make travelling and living in the city easier, as well as initiatives in health, learning and media. The Forum works with other European cities, such as through the Smart Urban Spaces initiative, a project to develop interoperable, easy-to-use urban services that work, even if the user relocates to another country. The Forum also organizes trials of products and services with citizens and is planning to open a Forum Virium Center, a meeting point for companies who develop digital services.
The second element that mobiThinking looks to in a mobile city is the city transportation system. This includes the information available to the traveler on their mobile device and the ability to pay by mobile. Transportation is a bellwether for a city (as it is used by most of the population) and where it leads with its innovations, others, e.g. retailers, will follow swiftly. Considering that Helsinki was a pioneer in contactless payments – it introduced smart-card ticketing 10 years ago – you might expect the city’s mobile-friendly populous today to be touching in and out paying using their mobile devices, but they are not. Many people use SMS tickets – about 3.5 million are sold each year – but most travelers use smart cards. The problem does not lie with Helsinki Region Transport, which remains innovative – see HRT’s mobile services – HRT is, for example, currently implementing an intelligent traffic management system, so traffic lights can prioritise buses that are running behind schedule. The root of the problem is, however, a Finnish one – contactless payments via mobile phone require near-field communications (NFC) technology within the device, and NFC is still not standard in the devices of the world’s number one manufacturer, Finland’s Nokia.
We look forward to hearing your views on what criteria should be included in the Blueprint of the mobile city and the city that you believe addresses that element the best. Please comment below or email editor (at) mobiThinking.com.
Disclaimer: mobiThinking visited Helsinki as a guest of the City of Helsinki, and among many briefings with Finnish mobile companies and organizations, attended the 10th anniversary Mobile Monday Summit.
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