Smart City Needs Smart People: Songdo and Smart + Connected Learning

Abstract

Newly industrialized countries in the Far East are characterized by the rapid growth of new cities, and Songdo in South Korea is one. Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group for whom the two authors previously worked, were integrally involved in helping to develop a strategic plan for the city to become a sustainable model of a smart and connected community and to become a hub for the Asia-Pacific headquarters and the international business of multinational firms creating clusters interconnecting industry, academics, and R & D. Cisco is engaged in the implementation of the city's pervasive network infrastructure, which will support the city's aspirations to rethink the way cities are designed, built, managed, and renewed to achieve economic, social, and environmental sustainability using the network as the fourth utility. Songdo planners recognize, and are planning, an education system that will produce active and engaged citizens with the skills and disposition to work, live, and learn in a connected environment. Additionally, Songdo residents have access to information and services that enrich their lives, with solutions for their home, education, and transportation through video-based service channels. The implementation of networked collaboration tools and video technologies in education, as in other areas of the city's activity, will help ensure that the new city's economy will develop and grow. The Songdo story exemplifies what can be made possible through the effective use of technology across various sectors and community development of the city.