internet and the city: the role of governments dr geoff mulgan director, strategy unit

Internet and the City: the role of governments

Dr Geoff Mulgan

Director, Strategy Unit

What I’ll cover ...

1. The impact of knowledge

2. The impact of new connections

3. Networks, risk and power

4. The changing role of governance at all levels

Connectedness

The Net is part of a broader process of rising connectedness - in trade, culture, people - that is transforming the tasks and tools of governance of cities and nations

• Near exponential growth in production of knowledge – source of 50-80% of economic growth

• Long time-scales (40-70 years) associated with transformative technologies (internal combustion, electricity, IT, biotech) because of need for both technology maturation and social and organisational innovation

• Full impact of knowledge intensity and high connectivity only now coming into view - eg land use, health delivery, traffic management, public engagement

1. Connectedness is inseparable from the impact of knowledge

•Nanotechnology Pervasive computing•Ambient IT Virtual reality•SMART devices Artificial intelligence•Virtual reality Cognitive systems•The Grid Quantum technology

But timescales, prospects and likely diffusion of

these still uncertain. Marvin Minsky: “Any five-year

old can convince its parents to do anything, and the

most powerful computer still can’t do that”

Broad patterns of technological diffusion fairly clear …

• Viable business models for the net• Robust approaches to privacy, anonymity, regulation

and protection of children• Organisational forms that make full use of IT• Public service models making full use of networks• Collaborative learning models making full use of

networks• Unique identifiers and biometrics – handling ID theft• Viable intellectual property rights, effective globally

and evolving open systems• E govt

Still awaiting key social and organisational innovations

2. Connectedness brings with it a rise in flows and links

• Economy – trade, FDI, currency flows

• Environment – emissions, waste

• Migration – legal and illegal

• Communications and culture - information and memes

• Governance – IGOs and INGOs

• Civic organisation - speed and spread of activism

• Crime - rising wealth and power of transnational organised crime

Flows of goods, money, information, people, drugs &c through hub cities

SouthPacificOcean

NorthPacificOcean

IndianOcean

Arctic Ocean

SouthAtlanticOcean

NorthAtlanticOcean

CocaineHeroin

Women and childrenIllegal immigrants

Coca growing areaOpium poppygrowing area

Growing impact of urban life on the environment (and new urban solutions like congestion charging)

Source: IPCC

Widening span of local connections

Average number of miles travelled

Average no.of milestravelled

24

6

810

12

14

LEISURE

Move house13.5 miles

LIVING

SHOPPING

Restaurant8 miles

Average commute8.1 miles

Theatre12.6 miles

Carrepairs

5.3 miles

Furniture/carpets

8.9 miles

Computerequipment8.5 miles

Smallelectrical5.3 miles

Clothes8.8 milers

Majorelectrical7.3 miles

DIY /Garden items

5.2 miles

Cinema6.8 miles

Gym/health club3.1 miles

Groceries3.5 milesHOME

KEY:

Lookfor new car13.5 miles

School* 3.1 miles

* Figure relatesto secondaryschool.Primary schoolis 1.3 miles onaverage.

Source: DETR/ ONS/ Newspaper Society / The Future Foundation

New patterns of exclusion - being cut off and dynamic poverty

Children in workless households

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

millio

ns

Source: Labour Force Survey, Spring Quarters ONS 2002 (www.poverty.org)

Sharper inequalities within cities

Kingston Kingston Kingston Kingston Kingston Kingston Kingston Kingston Kingston upon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thames

Richmond Richmond Richmond Richmond Richmond Richmond Richmond Richmond Richmond upon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thamesupon Thames

HaringeyHaringeyHaringeyHaringeyHaringeyHaringeyHaringeyHaringeyHaringey

Waltham ForestWaltham ForestWaltham ForestWaltham ForestWaltham ForestWaltham ForestWaltham ForestWaltham ForestWaltham Forest

RedbridgeRedbridgeRedbridgeRedbridgeRedbridgeRedbridgeRedbridgeRedbridgeRedbridge

NewhamNewhamNewhamNewhamNewhamNewhamNewhamNewhamNewham

Barking Barking Barking Barking Barking Barking Barking Barking Barking and Dagenhamand Dagenhamand Dagenhamand Dagenhamand Dagenhamand Dagenhamand Dagenhamand Dagenhamand Dagenham

LambethLambethLambethLambethLambethLambethLambethLambethLambeth

SouthwarkSouthwarkSouthwarkSouthwarkSouthwarkSouthwarkSouthwarkSouthwarkSouthwark

WandsworthWandsworthWandsworthWandsworthWandsworthWandsworthWandsworthWandsworthWandsworth

Tower Tower Tower Tower Tower Tower Tower Tower Tower HamletsHamletsHamletsHamletsHamletsHamletsHamletsHamletsHamlets

GreenwichGreenwichGreenwichGreenwichGreenwichGreenwichGreenwichGreenwichGreenwich

Kensington Kensington Kensington Kensington Kensington Kensington Kensington Kensington Kensington and Chelseaand Chelseaand Chelseaand Chelseaand Chelseaand Chelseaand Chelseaand Chelseaand Chelsea

Hammersmith Hammersmith Hammersmith Hammersmith Hammersmith Hammersmith Hammersmith Hammersmith Hammersmith and Fulhamand Fulhamand Fulhamand Fulhamand Fulhamand Fulhamand Fulhamand Fulhamand Fulham

WestminsterWestminsterWestminsterWestminsterWestminsterWestminsterWestminsterWestminsterWestminster

IslingtonIslingtonIslingtonIslingtonIslingtonIslingtonIslingtonIslingtonIslingtonCamdenCamdenCamdenCamdenCamdenCamdenCamdenCamdenCamden

HackneyHackneyHackneyHackneyHackneyHackneyHackneyHackneyHackney

EalingEalingEalingEalingEalingEalingEalingEalingEaling

HounslowHounslowHounslowHounslowHounslowHounslowHounslowHounslowHounslow

LewishamLewishamLewishamLewishamLewishamLewishamLewishamLewishamLewisham

SuttonSuttonSuttonSuttonSuttonSuttonSuttonSuttonSutton

MertonMertonMertonMertonMertonMertonMertonMertonMerton

BexleyBexleyBexleyBexleyBexleyBexleyBexleyBexleyBexley

BromleyBromleyBromleyBromleyBromleyBromleyBromleyBromleyBromleyCroydonCroydonCroydonCroydonCroydonCroydonCroydonCroydonCroydon

BrentBrentBrentBrentBrentBrentBrentBrentBrent

HillingdonHillingdonHillingdonHillingdonHillingdonHillingdonHillingdonHillingdonHillingdon

HarrowHarrowHarrowHarrowHarrowHarrowHarrowHarrowHarrow

BarnetBarnetBarnetBarnetBarnetBarnetBarnetBarnetBarnet

EnfieldEnfieldEnfieldEnfieldEnfieldEnfieldEnfieldEnfieldEnfield

HaveringHaveringHaveringHaveringHaveringHaveringHaveringHaveringHavering

Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances

Challenging Circumstances (109)

London LEAs EiC Phase

Phase 1 (16)Phase 2 (3)Phase 3 (2)

Secondary Schools failing to meet the Government’s floor target of 25% of pupils achieving 5 Good GCSEs or schools with more than 35% of pupils eligible for Free School Meals (national average 17%)

In Haringey the majority of secondary schools are SFCC compared to only 2 of Camden’s 10 schools

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Royal family

Advertising

Business leaders

The church

Work colleagues

Political parties

Newspapers

TV

Government

Friends

Family

2001

1996

Source: Future Foundation, NVision

Influence of big institutions partially replaced by informal networks in more cellular societies

% saying they are influenced on social and environmental issues by...

• ‘City air makes you free’ and the web promises liberation - but the promise has been only partly realised

• Key factors: – the reality of risk, and the continuing

importance of pooled risk;– the nature of power and hierarchy

3. Networks, risk and power

Risks reinforce need for institutions, capacities, security

• business• military• government • NGOs

Power continues to be organised in hierarchies - making use of networks but not displaced

4. What follows for the governance of nations and cities?

Governance is undergoing a complex revolution. I will briefly focus on 6 aspects of this:

• transparency

• holism

• directness

• learning

• edgeness

• multi-level

The e- agenda

www.strategy.gov.uk

• E commerce – 1999 (e envoy &c)

• E govt – 2000 (UK Online &)

• Privacy and datasharing – 2002

• Electronic networks regulation – 2002

• Transparency - making visible what was once internal and secret

• Holism - systemic understanding and responses to cross-cutting issues such as exclusion, crime, planning (1.5bn criminal justice IT project)

• Directness - delayering public bureaucracies to make services more direct and user-driven (8bn NHS IT project)

• Learning - continuous innovation and learning across organisational boundaries

• Differentiation and integration - more diverse public services organised in networks

• ‘Edge-ness’ -encouraging openness, links and the right balance of diversity and integration

• import of people - migration as a positive force

• import of ideas and working practices (eg relative productivity of TNCs)

• hybridity in culture

• formal cultivation of creativity and enterprise in milieus, clusters

• Multi-level participation - all agencies operating and engaging simultaneously at local, national and global levels (juries, referendums, eparliaments …)

Embedding into governance some of the qualities of the 21st century

•quickness - instead of slowness•lightness - instead of heaviness•visibility - instead of secrecy•exactitude - instead of vagueness•multiplicity - instead of homogeneity

Italo Calvino, Memos for the Millennium