In a urban planning class that I took last semester, the professor wanted to hear the opinions of the students on the Ubiquitous City. In the discussion, some of the students doubted viability of the U-City Model in today's smart phone era.
According to the Korean Ubiquitous City Association, the u-City is a future high-tech city where IT infrastructure, technology and service are integrated into housing, economy, traffic and other facilities. The services offered by the U-City include u-Traffic, u-Home(convenient city), u-Security, u-Facility Management(safe city), u-Environment (clean city), and u-Health Care(healthy city).
These services can be grouped into two. The first group is consumer level services which are directly used by inhabitants such as u-Traffic, Home and Health Care. The other services are useful for city managers; they include u-Security, Facility Management and Environment.
The doubts of the students of the class came from the fact that most consumer level services offered by the U-City are now overlapped by those of smart phone. Before the arrival of smart phones, it was an attractive idea to read bus schedules and to find locations of restraurants from kiosks or screens in a U-City. However, today's people do it with their ubiquitous phones whether they are in Dongtan U-City or in an old city like Rome where the word U-City is unheard of. When people in Korea and in the world already seem to have their U-City in their phones, will they buy Korean U-City model?
A more detailed example (translated from Korean). An inhabitant of Eunpeyong New Town in Seoul recommended some improvements for the Wall Pad installed in his living room, one of the New Town's U-City service, to the management body . The Wall Pad offers information on home energy use and bus schedule and he finds the Wall Pad useful. However, he found the touch function of the Wall Pad screen is behind today's smart phones and wanted an upgrade.
I see two problems in this Wall Pad service which must have been quite expensive to install. First, the medium itself. Do we really need a Wall Pad occupying the living room to know the energy consommation and bus schedule? These informations can be transmitted to PC and smart phones and those medium will be better than a U-City terminal for the following reason.
The maintenance. As the inhabitant pointed out, the Wall Pad became outdated within a few years of its installation. The IT technology advances so fast that U-City infrastructures such as the Wall Pad in question and kiosks need a frequent upgrade to keep up with the latest smart phones and tablets. New installation of U-City infrastructure is expensive and not many municipalities will be able to upgrade the U-City infrastructure in time.
Then what about developing U-City services using smart phones? The Department of U-City of the IFEZ(Incheon Free Economic Zone) already initiated the move for Songdo New City according to a news article. The IFEZ developed a smart phone application called 'mifez' which gives information on restaurants, Incheon Airport plane schedule, subway schedule, parking capacity in Tommorow City and Songdo Conventia, parks, festivals and performances and investment in Songdo. The list of the information is impressive but it also makes me wonder what the real difference of this app developed by 'the Department of U-City' and other apps of similar functions made by private app developers is. Moreover the function of mifez is limited to a realtively small geographic area like Songdo while there are apps offering subway schedules of the whole Seoul Metropolitan Area and restaurant info of the whole nation. Then the question comes back to whether there is a difference between a U-City(Songdo) and non-U-cities in Korea to enjoy U-services.
When the U-City was initiated, no one predicted a phone that can do everything. The consumer level services envisaged by the U-City several years ago seem to be realized in our hand today without the mouthful word 'ubiquitous'.
According to the Korean Ubiquitous City Association, the u-City is a future high-tech city where IT infrastructure, technology and service are integrated into housing, economy, traffic and other facilities. The services offered by the U-City include u-Traffic, u-Home(convenient city), u-Security, u-Facility Management(safe city), u-Environment (clean city), and u-Health Care(healthy city).
These services can be grouped into two. The first group is consumer level services which are directly used by inhabitants such as u-Traffic, Home and Health Care. The other services are useful for city managers; they include u-Security, Facility Management and Environment.
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| Image: Korean Ubiquitous City Association |
The doubts of the students of the class came from the fact that most consumer level services offered by the U-City are now overlapped by those of smart phone. Before the arrival of smart phones, it was an attractive idea to read bus schedules and to find locations of restraurants from kiosks or screens in a U-City. However, today's people do it with their ubiquitous phones whether they are in Dongtan U-City or in an old city like Rome where the word U-City is unheard of. When people in Korea and in the world already seem to have their U-City in their phones, will they buy Korean U-City model?
A more detailed example (translated from Korean). An inhabitant of Eunpeyong New Town in Seoul recommended some improvements for the Wall Pad installed in his living room, one of the New Town's U-City service, to the management body . The Wall Pad offers information on home energy use and bus schedule and he finds the Wall Pad useful. However, he found the touch function of the Wall Pad screen is behind today's smart phones and wanted an upgrade.
I see two problems in this Wall Pad service which must have been quite expensive to install. First, the medium itself. Do we really need a Wall Pad occupying the living room to know the energy consommation and bus schedule? These informations can be transmitted to PC and smart phones and those medium will be better than a U-City terminal for the following reason.
The maintenance. As the inhabitant pointed out, the Wall Pad became outdated within a few years of its installation. The IT technology advances so fast that U-City infrastructures such as the Wall Pad in question and kiosks need a frequent upgrade to keep up with the latest smart phones and tablets. New installation of U-City infrastructure is expensive and not many municipalities will be able to upgrade the U-City infrastructure in time.
Then what about developing U-City services using smart phones? The Department of U-City of the IFEZ(Incheon Free Economic Zone) already initiated the move for Songdo New City according to a news article. The IFEZ developed a smart phone application called 'mifez' which gives information on restaurants, Incheon Airport plane schedule, subway schedule, parking capacity in Tommorow City and Songdo Conventia, parks, festivals and performances and investment in Songdo. The list of the information is impressive but it also makes me wonder what the real difference of this app developed by 'the Department of U-City' and other apps of similar functions made by private app developers is. Moreover the function of mifez is limited to a realtively small geographic area like Songdo while there are apps offering subway schedules of the whole Seoul Metropolitan Area and restaurant info of the whole nation. Then the question comes back to whether there is a difference between a U-City(Songdo) and non-U-cities in Korea to enjoy U-services.
When the U-City was initiated, no one predicted a phone that can do everything. The consumer level services envisaged by the U-City several years ago seem to be realized in our hand today without the mouthful word 'ubiquitous'.
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