The CyberCity Initiative:
Frequently Asked Questions

A "further reading" page with common questions and a suggested reading order for those unfamiliar with the initiative.

CyberCity Knowledge Workers (at desktops) An Executive Summary gives a very brief overview of the CyberCity Initiative.

A "Preliminary Discussion Paper" [text version (60 Kb), or graphics version (150 Kb)] for community leaders, businesses, institutions and residents of the City of Grande Prairie outlines some aspects and implications of the emerging Information Age and the CyberCity Initiative's response to those opportunities and challenges. It includes sections on the CyberCity Imperative: the trends that challenge, a Preliminary Vision of Grande Prairie in the Information Age, our goals and the rationale for municipal leadership. It is also, of course, an attempt to inform our citizens about the sweeping nature of the information revolution, and to help them to realize that this is a survival issue in the 1990's.

Current Project Status Postings contain selected postings which relate to significant milestones and the current status of the project. The archive of the CyberCity Mailing List contains all the details and indexes of postings: both overall, and on selected topics. The most recent postings may be seen in the current month's articles. Su bscribers to the free CyberCity Mailing List keep abreast of all developments with mailings every several days.


Table of Contents for this page:

See also: Index of all CyberCity postings

Indexed by title, author and date, January 1996 to present.

Preface

This page contains a list of common questions and a suggested reading order for those unfamiliar with the initiative.

From the Photo Gallery (55 Kb): our City Skyline at Night. (29 Kb).
Or see an Overview of the Photo Gallery (90 Kb), or its Summary of Thumbnail Indexes.

For further information, e-mail us directly from your forms-capable browser.
Other e-mail and contact information may be found below.

Return to Table of Contents for this page. Go to Top | Bottom.  

Suggested Reading Order

The CyberCity Initiative deals with helping Grande Prairians learn about and prepare to participate and compete in the "Information Age." [... Those familiar with the implications of the "Information Age" should skip to the Reading List below.]

Those who would like more background concerning the Information Age (or the Information Highway, the Information Revolution or the Age of Networked Computers) might like to peruse a background paper "Strategic Planning for Information Technology and Telecommunications: Exploiting Global Information Exchange in the 1990s and Beyond." This paper anticipates a planning process for the Grande Prairie community as a whole, not just for City government. It contemplates advancing the understanding that this is a survival issue for us in the 1990's and beyond; and it attempts to assist with the question: "how do we encourage the community to be excited about becoming prepared for and involved in the Information Age before it is too late?" Those with pressing time constraints may wish to read the last few pages of this paper, starting with the summary of national initiatives.

The background paper summarizes important aspects of this revolution and describes guiding principles for life in the Information Age. These principles recognize the need for cooperative efforts between schools, libraries, hospitals, city/county/provincial/state governments, and businesses to secure advantages of scale, shared networking facilities, etc., for residents, institutions and businesses. They identify the need for a concentration of effort by educators, to make global information exchange and collaboration fundamental parts of problem-solving discipline starting in the earliest grades (and including education of all citizens concerning their information technology rights). They also suggests significant enhancement of adult-learning opportunities as training and experience in the new way of thinking, and in development of new skills and processes for tomorrow's globally competitive markets (both for jobs, and for products and services).

The background paper also contains excerpts from a paper by the Minister of Industry, "The Canadian Information Highway," which point out that "the information highway initiative is essential for Canada's success in a new global economy in which value, jobs and wealth are based on the creation, movement and application of information."

The background paper also contains extensive links to government and other papers discussing the Information Age.

Return to Table of Contents for this page. Go to Top | Bottom.

Reading List

For those familiar with the Information Age, its opportunities, consequences and challenges, we suggest that readers pick from the following reading sequence concerning the CyberCity Initiative. This sequence is roughly in order from overview to detail and from shorter to longer.

  • The Executive Summary gives a very brief one-page overview of the CyberCity Initiative.
  • The "Preliminary Discussion Paper" [available in a text version (60 Kb) or a graphics version (150 Kb)] for community leaders, businesses, institutions and residents addresses the challenge of positioning our city for the Information Age, discusses the underlying context, the initiative's vision and goals, some of the issues, possible strategies and the rationale for municipal leadership. The background paper above also contains a section on "the role of government" for those interested in that aspect of the project.
  • The list of "Project Status Postings" is a partial list of the most significant milestones and the current status of the CyberCity Initiative. These mailing list postings deal with the inaugural information meeting, guiding principles and policies, current status reports, the importance of cooperation, creating awareness, the need for universal access and ability to contribute, committee memberships, committee purposes and goals, model city and state telecomm plans and policies, the implementation partnership with TELUS, etc. The Project Status Postings also indicate articles which contain complete indexes of prior articles on topics such as Internet use in schools, telework or work-at-home, and municipal on-line initiatives.
  • The CyberCity Mailing List is an open and free newsletter distributed through e-mail by the City of Grande Prairie to anyone who subscribes. It contains the ideas, proposals and discussion of all who are interested in the CyberCity Initiative along with subscription instructions. Subscribing to the list will provide readers with complete current information starting with present circumstances.
  • The CyberCity Mailing List Archive contains a compilation of the historic postings and describes the circumstances leading up to the present. This archive is indexed by month, and contains all the details of the discussion by subscribers (including residents, businesses, users, suppliers and investors) concerning the ways we might best prepare the city and its residents for the "Information Age," and how we might exploit global information exchange for our economic and general benefit. Selected topics are also indexed. See the table of contents in the archive entry page.
  • The section "Inter-City and World-Wide Networking" at the City of Grande Prairie, a section of "Electronic Communications: between people, machines, systems and networks" provides a sense of the sequence of implementations in the development of the CyberCity Initiative.
  • The background paper "Strategic Planning for Information Technology and Telecommunications: Exploiting Global Information Exchange in the 1990s and Beyond" is a paper that deals with a planning process for the Grande Prairie community as a whole, not just for City government. It begins with excerpts from half a dozen national governments' policy papers on information technology. It contemplates advancing the understanding that this is a survival issue for all of us in the 1990's and beyond; and it attempts to assist with the question: "how do we encourage the community to be excited about becoming prepared for and involved in the Information Age before it is too late?" Those with pressing time constraints may wish to read the last few pages of this paper, starting with the summary of national initiatives.
  • Other Societies, Agencies and Associations is a list of others with similar or complementary goals.
  • Links to Related Information Sources and More Information Sources: CRTC, etc. both list other resources.
  • Community Networks, Electronic Villages and Information Projects lists examples of other community on-line initiatives.
  • "Lessons Learned from the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program" (TIIAP) in the U.S. - a report released 14 November 1996 by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications, Washington, D.C. An Executive Summary of their very positive findings is on-line.
Return to Table of Contents for this page. Go to Top | Bottom.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are common questions and their responses. There is some overlap in both the questions and the responses. The questions are in no particular order; a table of contents for the questions may be seen above. Additional questions and their responses will be added as they are identified. Please make suggestions if your question does not appear.

Small CyberCity Logo (right justified)

  1. Where is the quick overview for the CyberCity Initiative and its current status?
    .
  2. Why should a municipal government develop an on-line presence? What are the purposes of a municipal website and other on-line systems and activities?
    .
    • [The responses below are mostly taken from the background paper "Strategic Planning for Information Technology and Telecommunications: Exploiting Global Information Exchange in the 1990s and Beyond." It contains extensive footnotes identifying (and in many cases providing links to) the sources of the excerpts quoted there. The latter are mainly national information technology policy papers.]
    • As the Canadian Minister of Industry pointed out in The Canadian Information Highway, "the information highway initiative is essential for Canada's success in a new global economy in which value, jobs and wealth are based on the creation, movement and application of information." Municipal governments must learn about and exploit these Information Age technologies in order to gain the efficiencies and capabilities necessary for improving service delivery for their constituents. Municipal governments can also encourage and assist their constituents to learn about and prepare to participate and compete in the Information Age.
    • On-line delivery of information about civic government will be an essential part of information distribution within a few short years; and the ability to collect feedback and direction from the electorate on governance has the potential to revolutionize the way local government is conducted in the 21st century. An understanding of the principles, precepts and limitations of on-line information exchange is essential to these activities: for municipal government management and staff, for elected municipal officials and for members of their constituencies.
    • As an Australian national government paper points out, government has an obligation to exercise its influence to deliver universal access and ability to contribute to on-line information. This notion is consistent with the historic provision of libraries and telephone services.
    • The ability to participate in "communities of interest" and "intellectual interaction," (both significant attributes of the information age) will become essential for governments if it is not essential presently. Government elected officials and workers at all levels need to be gaining experience in these on-line methods and activities, and expanding the peer relationships necessary for sharing of best practices and general information.
    • The relatively small costs of improving information infrastructure (less costly than roads or utility infrastructure) make it attractive financially, especially when considered in terms of its considerable benefits. The rapidly falling costs and rapidly evolving changes of the Information Age also add urgency to the need for action. Not many of the elements of cost in government services are declining. Government needs to take advantage of these areas where unit costs are declining in order to contain overall costs of service delivery.
    • Government workers at all levels also needs to take full advantage of world-wide inter-networking to seek out and obtain the best ideas and the most imaginative innovations of their counterparts from all over the world. Government will only be able to cope with and take advantage of the increasing pace of change if they use the very best available ideas from a wide variety of the most forward-thinking visionaries in every aspect of their work.
    • Government will need to adopt a deliberate, well-informed strategic integration of telecommunications policy with other policies and strategies in order to be sure that government activities gain an equitable balance of the considerable benefits of on-line communications (both for the planning and delivery of government services, and for the work, education and recreation of everyone in the community).
    • The Information Age is sweeping upon us like a tidal wave (whether we are prepared or not). Its potential to revolutionize ways of working, thinking, learning, relaxing and living can hardly be over-stated. Its essence is not merely the connection (the ability to access and contribute to information flows); it is not even the new associations, contacts and interest groups that are formed. It is the broadened understanding of a more global point of view, the products of the analysis, assimilation and integration of more information, and the addition of this increased understanding to the information which is passed on that is the strategically important outcome of government's being connected to the Information Superhighway. It is this adding of value to the information flows which will position government to exploit global information exchange and collaboration in the 1990s and into the 21st century.
    • Miles, R. Fidelman, in his paper: "Life in the Fastlane: a Municipal Roadmap for the Information Superhighway," points out that "a hundred years ago, lack of a railroad stop condemned many towns to a lingering death. Thirty years ago, Interstate interchanges helped many communities to prosper, while those on back roads stagnated. Now the information superhighway is coming." He then asks: "Will your town be ready?" Our challenge now is to build electronic city streets to link homes, libraries, schools, hospitals and businesses, and to provide and exploit these information services everywhere.
    • Properly connected, these networks portend great promise for municipal governments, including at least the following.
      • Streamlining of internal operations by reducing dependence on paper and increasing the utilization of electronic speeds to expedite information flows.
      • Reducing redundancies and overlaps by sharing equipment and by jointly accessing common sources of relevant, timely information.
      • Increasing effectiveness of agencies through better coordination and quicker, more reliable access to shared information.
      • Stimulating the sharing of access arrangements in which the large economies of scale can be brought to all members of the community.
      • Providing more timely and accurate information through use of electronic distribution systems, and through other public access to government documents and advisories.
      • Providing ways for smaller businesses to participate in projects at the end of a telephone line where their presence was not practical before. The effect stimulates local levels of economic activity, even though sources of revenue may be miles away. The small rural community of Linton, North Dakota, for example, provides employment for 200 in a branch data processing office for a large travel agency in Philadelphia (1,400 air miles away).
      • Promoting effective distance learning miles from centers of specialized education through the association of students and professors using interactive video, audio and data links.
      • Encouraging telecommuting in order to exploit the opportunities in which individuals whose intellectual and information-based contributions to an enterprise can easily be conducted from the end of a telephone line anywhere in the world.
    • The City of San Diego adopted in late 1994 a Telecommunications Policy that used the model from the League of California Cities. That policy recognized:
      • new emerging telecommunications capabilities,
      • a big increase in telecommunications responsibility for cities, and
      • the need to coordinate telecomm policy with other city policy.
    • Its objectives included improved administrative efficiency in service delivery, reduced budget deficits, improved democratic governance, improved equity in delivery of government services to citizens with low and moderate incomes, and those with limited mobility, reducing air pollution, traffic congestion and energy consumption through telecommuting, distance learning, etc., encouraging economic development, and ensuring affordable universal access and ability to contribute for all citizens. The Policy included provisions:
      • to gain the best use of this emerging technology for city services and administrative activities,
      • to assure fair information principles which would balance the objectives of open government with protection of the privacy rights of citizens,
      • to consider privacy rights in planning and introduction of all new information systems, including limitations on data collected, limitations on secondary uses and sales of the data, rights of citizens to know what information had been collected about them, how it would be used, that the data was accurate, and that there were adequate means to correct errors,
      • to assure security of data against unauthorized collection, access, use or dissemination, and
      • to educate the citizens about the uses of this data, and their rights with respect to data about them.
    • Government can assure universal access to the information (at an affordable price). As the Internet is developed and expanded, care must be exercised at every turn to assure that economically disadvantaged and rural citizens are not excluded from access to these information flows purely because costs exceed their means, or distances are inconvenient.
    • Government can assure universal ability to contribute new information, ideas and debate. As discussion extends to world-wide constituencies, every individual has a potential contribution to make to the welfare of the whole. Individuals suffer from a lack of information; and society as a whole is impoverished through the imbalance in participation if some groups are preferred over others. Governments have an obligation to adopt policies and practices which mitigate effectively against these exclusions.
    • Government has other important roles to play:
      • Balancing the aims of open government and individual rights to privacy and intellectual property ownership;
      • Maintaining public ownership of publicly-generated information stocks, archives and data bases;
      • Promoting and encouraging the required changes in education and learning for young and old (including education of citizens concerning their information technology rights);
      • Promoting and encouraging (and in certain cases providing) information about the Information Age and how to prepare to participate and compete in it.
      • Facilitating exploitation by industry, business and commerce;
      • Becoming partners with business and the community to assist and encourage both, and to harness significant economies of scale for the benefit of all;
      • Encouraging standards of interconnection and interoperability of networks and systems;
      • Streamlining and improving information and other service delivery to the electorate;
      • Doing its share to set an example in adding value to global flows of information; and
      • Gaining essential experience in critical evaluation of information and analysis of the credibility of information sources.
    • In every case above, an understanding of the principles, precepts, traditions, practices, trends and limitations of on-line information exchange is essential to discharging these obligations and responsibilities. Governments which do not actively pursue this understanding at virtually every level and fail to gain the commensurate experience will find themselves in jeopardy of significantly failing their constituents.
      .
      Return to Table of Contents for this page. Go to Top | Bottom.
      .
      .
      Small CyberCity Logo (right justified).
  3. What does municipal government have to do with helping people learn about and prepare for the Information Age? What is government's role in the Information Revolution?
    .
    • Government needs to position itself to discharge its roles in the emerging Information Age. These roles are also mentioned in the section above:
      • Assuring to its constituents universal access and ability to contribute to global information flows.
      • Balancing the aims of open government and individual rights to privacy and intellectual property ownership;
      • Maintaining public ownership of publicly-generated information stocks, archives and data bases;
      • Promoting and encouraging the required changes in education and learning for young and old (including education of citizens concerning their information technology rights);
      • Facilitating exploitation by industry, business and commerce;
      • Becoming partners with business and the community to assist and encourage both, and to harness significant economies of scale for the benefit of all;
      • Encouraging standards of interconnection and interoperability of networks and systems;
      • Streamlining and improving information and other service delivery to the electorate; and
      • Doing its share to add value to global flows of information.
    • The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration report "Connecting the Nation" identifies fundamental principles to guide the initiative (many dealing with the government role):
      • Promoting private sector investment.
      • Providing and protecting competition [The significance here is that it will not be done via utility monopolies as it was for telephone, electric power, etc.; nor will it be done by quasi-monopolies as it was for TV networks; nor will it be done by governments, as it was for the Interstate highway system. Rather, it will be done by business investment, with help and regulation by government.]
      • Extending universal access and ability to contribute to all at affordable prices (and avoiding creation of information "haves" and "have nots").
      • Balancing open network information exchange with rights to privacy.
      • Protecting intellectual property rights.
      • Acting as a catalyst to promote technological innovation and new applications.
      • Promoting seamless, interactive, user-driven operation of the National Information Infrastructure.
      • Ensuring information security and network reliability.
      • Improving management of the radio frequency spectrum where wireless inter-networking is used.
      • Coordinating with other levels of government and with other national governments.
      • Providing access to and distribution of government information; and
      • Encouraging flexibility and responsive government action.
    • Any municipal government which wants for its community the benefits of on-line access can assist its citizens to gain them. In the U.S. the TIIAP program helps communities gain this on-line access. Their report "Lessons Learned from the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program," released 14 November 1996 (by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications, Washington, D.C.) shows a number of such benefits being obtained by underway projects. Benefits such as innovations in education, increased access to lifelong learning opportunities, more responsive public institutions, enhanced economic development in rural and disadvantaged areas, increased access to health care, increased sense of community, urban low-income youths assisting business with web page development, assistance for community educational and health goals achievement, etc., are listed. An Executive Summary is on-line; and the full report can be ordered from the Department of Commerce.
    • As even a casual reading of the Information Technology literature will indicate, the Information Age is sweeping over us like a tidal wave. Tide waits for no man; and this is a revolutionary tide sweeping through economic and social life. It will touch us all, one way or the other. Its speed is much faster than previous revolutions we have read about or experienced. Because the competitive prizes will go to the swift and agile, government needs to assist the electorate in every way and make fundamental changes to the body of policy and regulation that will enable their citizens to best position themselves in order to exploit the opportunities this revolution will bring. Ultimately, government should be helping to reach every residence, business, institution and office with an effective interactive electronic connection to the world and aiding citizens to reach the understanding required to exploit it. Success in these efforts will deliver very significant advantage to those who achieve them.
      .
      Return to Table of Contents for this page. Go to Top | Bottom.
      .
      .
      Small CyberCity Logo (right justified) .
  4. Where can I find the indexes for discussion topics in the CyberCity Mailing List archive?
    .
  5. Where is the subscriber and content information on the CyberCity Mailing List?
    .
  6. Why install fiber optic cabling? Why not copper, or coax or wireless?
    .
    • One of the principal characteristics of the Information Age is that it will employ a large variety of carriers and other facilities for the exchange of information. These carriers will include (but surely not be limited to) copper wire, coaxial cable, radio and microwave frequencies, satellite transmission, and optical fibers. Hybrids of these carriers and others will also no doubt be employed where their overall effectiveness is best demonstrated. The City's present network is constructed heavily of copper cables, for instance; and the network it is replacing ran mainly on coaxial cables. The present network uses copper almost exclusively within buildings, and also for some of the inter-building connections. There is substantially more copper in the present network than optical fiber.
    • The City has developed a fiber optic network backbone to connect six of its buildings in Grande Prairie. This network has been engineered by our partner TELUS Advanced Communications so it can function as the nucleus of a City-wide network as the Information Age unfolds. If all (or even a significant portion of) the prospective partners join the network, Grande Prairie will have this nucleus of effective high-speed connections that will bring the significant benefits of participation in the Information Age to the community. The best current technology (for this backbone) which is both cost effective and proven to handle these capacities, including the present needs of the City, is fiber optics, as recommended in the recent Network Study and approved for implementation. By partnering with TELUS Advanced Communications, these facilities have been installed at minimum cost. They will also be monitored and upgraded (to reliably handle the developing loads) on an on-going basis, so that they are always the most cost-effective of the available alternatives. This is an important part of the network management service which TELUS is providing. The mix of copper, fiber, coax, wireless and other technologies (and no doubt hybrids) will be determined for each segment of the network as it is connected, and repeatedly as each segment grows and changes. In each case, cost effectiveness, capacity, reliability and expandability will be considered; and implementations will very likely continue to vary with respect to these parameters as they do now.
    • As the Canadian Minister of Industry pointed out in The Canadian Information Highway, "the information highway initiative is essential for Canada's success in a new global economy in which value, jobs and wealth are based on the creation, movement and application of information." Municipal governments must learn about and exploit these Information Age technologies in order to gain the efficiencies and capabilities necessary for improving service delivery for their constituents. 

CyberCity
Go up to Major Initiatives
Quicklinks