by Chiara De Angelis | May 2, 2017 | The Urban Media Lab
On Thursday, May 4th, and Friday, May 5th, the city of Rome is going to host URBANITAS, the first forum for a sustainable, resilient and creative city. Public institutions, research centers, enterprises, national and international stakeholders will be involved in a 2-days forum tailored for the promotion of a dialogue about the future of the city of Rome according to the New Urban Agenda and The City We Need principles, and for the elaboration of concrete proposals in the context of 5 thematic areas: governance and commons, co-design, creative districts, mobility and circular economy.
The forum, organized by Ordine degli Architetti di Roma and Open City Roma, is articulated in two days:
May 4th @MAXXI: the first part of the day will be dedicated, after an opening plenary, to an Urban Thinkers Session, where urban best practices will be presented by experts. LabGov’s co-founder, Christian Iaione, is going to attend this session. Afterwards, the forum is going to host 6 Urban Thinkers Labs.
May 5th @Sala Convegni AIL: the morning will be fully dedicated to a plenary session on mobility. The afternoon provides 4 round tables with experts, academics and councillors from Rome’s Municipality. After the end of Urbanitas works, Open House Roma (the annual event on urban culture and architecture) is going to start.
The full program of the event is available on Urbanitas Official Website.
Registration to one or more sessions are available at this link.
Il 4 e 5 maggio 2017 Roma ospiterà Urbanitas,il primo forum per una città sostenibile, resiliente e creativa, che coinvolgerà istituzioni, enti di ricerca, imprese, cittadini, stakeholder nazionali e internazionali per promuovere un dialogo sul futuro di Roma ed elaborare proposte concrete in 5 aree tematiche specifiche: governance e beni comuni, co-design, distretti creativi, mobilità dolce ed economia circolare.
E’ possibile registrarsi a una o più sessioni a questo link.
![How New York is facing digital divide]()
by Alessandro Antonelli | Apr 26, 2017 | The Urban Media Lab
In the state of New York the government is facing a big challenge: governor Cuomo is trying to extend broadband to every household in the state by 2018. The lack of broadband infrastructures represents a huge problem for the United States; a 2011 study from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ranked the US as 15th in broadband connectivity, behind countries such as South Korea and Canada. This problem is especially felt in poorer and rural areas.
Trump’s administration is currently focusing on infrastructural development, such as the construction of airp
orts, roads and bridges; president Trump has showed his desire to rebui
ld the nation’s infrastructures, without mentioning the need to expand the broadband network. This issue is highly actu
al and relevant for the European Union and for many Italian areas as well.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “Broadband for all” initiative aims to reach the areas of the region that are underserved or unserved. Thanks to this state-led program many areas and small towns, that weren’t used to have broadband at their disposal, are getting wired. This initiative is of crucial importance because it gives to the inhabitants of the state the chance to be actually connected in this hyperconnected world, in which you just can’t allow yourself to remain isolated. Faster access to the internet will give the residents new opportunities for businesses and will open new scenarios for those citizens who don’t have access to the broadband.
For too many years a series of towns and isolated spots across the country have been left behind. In today’s economy broadband is no longer a luxury, as it truly represents a necessity. Nowadays having broadband access is fundamental for economic growth and job creation; but it also represents a critical foundation for a better way of life. Who is used to having high speed internet access often underestimates its benefits. For those who are used to having broadband access (especially for the digital natives’ generation) it is hard to imagine a world without it. It seems almost impossible living without being able to Skype for a job interview or for keeping in touch with relatives living abroad, or without the possibility of sending a message on Facebook or LinkedIn, or simply watching a film on Netflix.
According to a study published last year by the Federal Communications Commission about 12.6 million American households lack access to broadband. Approximately 2.5 million Housing Units in New York State have either limited or no access to high-speed Internet. This situation creates a huge digital divide between those communities and families with internet access, and those without such access; this means that the first ones are able to participate to the global economy, while the others are not.
The main problem is that in many areas of the state that are sparsely populated, especially the rural ones, the cost of broadband infrastructures significantly outweighs the profits. The initiative aims to help the private companies by preventing and avoiding any losses for them. This will be ensured through what is known as a reverse auction process.
Expanding broadband infrastructures can truly change people’s lives in rural areas. It will strengthen the communities and it will help growing local economies.
Many rural businesses in New York are already taking advantage of this opportunity. Many of them have access to faster internet for the first time in their business’ history and are improving their results.
For all these reasons the initiative of governor Andrew Cuomo in the State of New York is the key for a more egalitarian and modern society and it should be emulated by all the government and the nations that claim to represent modern and equal societies. Giving everyone free access to high speed internet (or to internet) is at the basis of an equal and egalitarian society.
Nello stato di New York il governatore Andrew Cuomo ha lanciato l’iniziativa “Broadband for All”, che punta a estendere la banda larga in tutto il territorio, comprese le zone rurali che erano state finora lasciate indietro da questo punto di vista. L’accesso a internet è la chiave per includere tutti gli abitanti dello stato nell’economia globale, nell’ottica di una società più equa e moderna.
References:
NY gov. initiative:
https://www.ny.gov/programs/broadband-all
https://nysbroadband.ny.gov/
OECD 2011 study on Broadband connectivity:
http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadband/BB-Portal_2.1_Broadband%20Households_2012.xls
NY Times on Broadband:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/nyregion/new-york-broadband-cuomo-internet.html?_r=0
Federal Communications Commissions, 2016 Broadband Progress Report:
https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2016-broadband-progress-report
Government Technology on Broadband:
http://www.govtech.com/network/New-York-to-Provide-High-Speed-Broadband-to-All-Citizens-by-End-of-2018.html
by Chiara De Angelis | Oct 31, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
On Wednesday, November 2nd, Engage Liverpool is going to host the final event of Engage Seminar Series 2016, a series of 3 transformational seminars, designed to empower people and bring about a more engaged and active populace.
Professor Christian Iaione, LabGov’s co-founder, will be the main speaker of the Seminar, and he will be talking about how people are bringing about real change in Bologna and other Italian cities. The main question to be looked at during this last event, in fact, is “how cities are governed”.
The whole Seminar Series is focusing on how city centre residents can challenge and change prevailing attitudes around consumerism, individualism and fatalism and in the process become citizens, neighbours and collaborators in governing the city.
Engage Liverpool CIC is a social enterprise which is run by volunteers who live in the apartments of the Waterfront and City Centre: learn more about the project on its official website: https://www.engageliverpool.com
Book the tickets for this last seminar here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reclaiming-the-city-from-consultation-to-collaboration-tickets-27238153049
About the final Seminar: https://www.engageliverpool.com/news/speaker-dr-christian-iaione/
by Chiara De Angelis | Oct 10, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
On the 10th of October, the participants of the meetings and workshop held in the Bolognina experimentation site of the CO-Bologna project, together with partners and facilitators are invited to take part to a meeting where the results of the work done since now will be presented, together with some possible future developments of the project.
The meeting will be held on Monday, October 10th, from 5 to 7 PM in the socio-cultural centre “Antonio Montanari” (Via di Saliceto 3/21, Bologna).
Bolognina’s main purpose is acting as a link between the different planning actors already existing, in order to increase their potential and to offer them new occasions to collaborate. The whole process is supported by Federcasa, which looks at it as an useful experimentation for the innovation of housing policies at a national level.
The storytelling of Bolognina is available on CO-Bologna official website, at this link: http://co-bologna.it/cantieri/bolognina/
by Chiara De Angelis | Oct 8, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
From October 7th to 9th Milan is hosting RENA – Festival delle Comunità del Cambiamento. This third edition of the Festival has the aim of building bridges between communities, individuals and organizations who work to rigenerate the urban, social and economic of the Country.
Organized in collaboration with BASE Milano and thanks to the sustain of Fondazione Cariplo, the Festival will try to answer some of those questions: which are the main challenges that Italy will have to face next years? What is our contribution in trying to face them? What do we have to do to exit the world of experimentation and begin to generate real changes?
LabGov will attend the Festival, with is co-founder Christian Iaione, on Sunday (October 9th): from 12 AM to 2 PM, a panel on “Innovation in urban governance and participative processes” will be held. Professor Iaione will be talking about participative governance experiences in Italy with other experts and members of local administrations from all over Italy: Matteo Lepore (deputy Mayor of Bologna), Nicola Masella from Naples, Fabrizio Barbiero from Turin, Gloria Cerliani from Piacenza, Daniele Terzariol from San Donà di Piave and Claudio Cavaresi (Avanzi). The panel will be moderate by Simone D’Antonio (ANCI).
The full program of the Festival is available on its official website: http://www.progetto-rena.it/festival-2016/
