Internet for Manchester Smart City

On the 14^th of December 2010, the city of Manchester was chosen as the first one in the European initiative called "Internet for Smart Cities". The goal is to involve as many people as possible, from residents to business men, to test new applications and services aimed at improving the lifestyle and work.  This is achieved with a digital strategy to provide a ultra fast connection to the Internet network, and so facilitating the relationships between the different actors involved in the change of the city into a smart city.

The digital strategy for Manchester is expressed by the Greater Manchester Strategy Plan, which designs the strategy of the metropolitan region by 2020. It takes place from the initiative of the European SMART-IP and involves the city of Manchester, researchers from the local University and the community People's Voice Media.

SMART-IP - and the network of cities that are part of it - has as its goal the use of ICT services for the development of Smart Citizens, that should be aware about new technologies and how to use them.

Three essential goals:

1. Development of digital industries: to be able to make technological and digital innovations in order to encourage new investment for the launch of new start-ups and improve access to new industry expertise;
2. Digital inclusion: to try to reduce the digital divide, today still present in the city;
3. Digital innovation: to support investments in promising sectors of the smart city, such as smart grids, cloud computing and technology infrastructure, all possible thanks to an internet network of new generation.

The strategy is to develop and teach to the citizens how to become Smart Citizens, pushing them to the use of digital technologies to increase the involvement of the different communities in the area, to understand the development of the city and to increase the social capital. Thanks to new technology and ultra fast internet, mobile devices and applications will allow the city to receive information from citizens about the traffic, emergency situations, atmospheric conditions and pollution. But technology is only a secondary aspect of the project started by the city of Manchester, where, however, people are the centre. For this reason the digital strategy requires that all citizens, of any ethnicity, must have easy and fast access to the Internet: in this way they can take advantage of a large work offer. At the same time the city is committed to the development of jobs related to new skills, and to promote flexible working hours and teleworking.

On the territory were born the urban laboratories (Living Lab), managed by the Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) to support the relations between the municipalities and the University.

There are three main digital communities in the city that have joined the SMART-IP:

-Manchester Digital is an independent business association in the North East of England. The members of this association work together to make Manchester a better place to invest in the emerging Digital Business. The association is very active in the area and also performs training activities for those who want to invest in new technologies, such as the Open Data, to develop their business.

-GeekUp, is a community of web designers, web developers and other professionals of England. It is based on the sharing of knowledge in the field of web technologies.

-Manchester Digital Laboratory, or MadLab, is a building in the city center of Manchester, which was opened in September 2009. The MadLab is a community space for people who want to implement digital businesses, a place for artists, geeks , designers, illustrators, hackers.
The MadLAb has been widely recognized in the United States and South Korea.

Manchester has designed strategies and developed projects towards the realization of active communities that are involved in the economic and cultural development of the territory.