Government Technology - October 2008 - (Page 19)

SOUTH KOREA A city IT pilot in South Korea signals a new role for government and green IT. B Y A N D Y O P S A H L | F E AT U R E S E D I T O R F INDING GREEN IT projects in U.S. government or abroad that reach beyond rote “environmentally friendly” talking points is difficult. More often, green IT initiatives focus on reducing hardware’s electricity consumption to cut costs — and being green is a secondary goal. A prime example is data center consolidation, which currently is the largest green agenda item for state and local IT departments. Consolidation modernizes equipment, saves money and slashes energy usage. The latter outcome just so happens to reduce government’s carbon footprint — the measure of human-caused carbon emissions, which most scientists say is a contributor to climate “The first thing you need to do is connect all the buses and other transport assets so you can see where they all are and communicate with all of them.” SIMON WILLIS, SENIOR DIRECTOR, GLOBAL PUBLIC SECTOR INTERNET BUSINESS SOLUTIONS GROUP CISCO SYSTEMS INC. , change. But it begs the question: Does government IT have a green role to play beyond energy-efficient hardware? We may find out in roughly nine months. That’s when Seoul, South Korea, should be able to report conclusively on the progress and success of its Smart Transportation Program, said Simon Willis, senior director of the Global Public Sector Internet Business Solutions Group for Cisco Systems Inc. (No English-speaking city representatives from Seoul were available to be interviewed for this story.) The transportation program aims to increase public transit ridership with flexible, distance-based fares and Web-based technology for determining public transit routes from any city location. Seoul is one of seven cities enlisted in Connected Urban Development (CUD), a partnership with Cisco that commits those cities to creating IT projects that cut carbon emissions by reducing traffic congestion. The six other cities are Amsterdam, Netherlands; Birmingham, England; Madrid, Spain; Hamburg, Germany; Lisbon, Portugal; and San Francisco. Many of the cities plan to use IT to make public transportation more attractive to citizens, and Seoul’s project is the furthest along, Willis said. American metropolises tangled by traffic difficulties would be wise to keep an eye on Seoul’s progress. Rider Easy The project is moving from the planning stage to execution, according to Cisco. “It’s pretty early in the project,” Willis said. “This is cutting-edge stuff.” Convenient Public Transit If you work in a big city and don’t use public transportation, there’s a good chance that’s because it’s a hassle to use. Seoul wants to make its system more accommodating. The city will create a platform of Webdelivered software, in conjunction with several vendors, which will combine information from the city’s various transportation fleets and the Korean National Railroad. The platform will offer real-time traffic information and determine a user’s most efficient public transit route based on wherever he or she happens to be located in the city. The platform will combine different modes of public transportation, such as trains and buses, and it will analyze traffic on each route and the 19 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - October 2008

Government Technology - October 2008 Contents Point of View On the Scene Big Picture Four Questions for... Letters Cover Stories: Border Crossing The Australian E-Connection Easy Rider Northern Exposure Technology on the Cheap Ditching the Desktop Heightening the Experience Pipe Dream Falling Between the Cracks Come Together, Right Now... It's a ... Car? Digital State of the Art Spectrum Products Two Cents signal:noise

Government Technology - October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.