The Advancement of World Digital Cities

This chapter reviews the advancement of several worldwide activities on
regional information spaces empowered by advanced technologies. In the US and
Canada, a large number of community networks supported by grass root activities
appeared in the early 1990s. In Europe, more than one hundred digital cities
have been tried, often supported by local government, central government and EU
in the name of local digitalization. Asian countries have actively adopted the latest
information technologies as a part of national initiatives. As a platform for community
networks, information spaces interacting with local city information and
digital data have been developed worldwide with the help of advanced information
technologies such as sensor, information terminals, broadband network and wireless
network. Current digital cities are often characterized by a combination of several
goals including community digitalization, community revitalization, and technology
testing. In the past 15 years since the first stage of digital cities, the development of
the original digital cities has leveled off or stabilized. Currently active digital cities
are deeply rooted in the daily life of citizens and are appreciated mainly due to their
community services rather than their technological sophistication as in the early
days. In addition, many new activities have emerged. A wide range of commercial
virtual communities and social networks has been established. Also local hospitals,
libraries and schools have been equipped with cutting edge digital environment
technologies. Seen from the advancement of digital cities, these new developments
often benefit from the previous activities on regional information spaces.