Aveiro, Portugal: making a digital city

Abstract

The radical role of information and communication technologies (ICT) is one of the most visible topic in the media today and seems to grow from day to day, as well as telecommunications are gradually becoming the central infrastructure tying together our society. In this new reality it is more and more consensual that cities and their relationships will inevitably be redefined in the so called ‘information age’, but in what concrete ways are cities and communities responding to this challenge and preparing for the future? This paper attempts to show how city management and community development policies can creatively address the complex linkages between ICT and urban prosperity, from the perspective of a small and peripheral european country - Portugal. This paper examines the way in which reforms brought on by the Portuguese Government, specifically in what concerns to the development of the Portuguese Digital Cities, have been arranged and conducted in order to influence the objectives of increasing urban living conditions, combating inwardness, promoting employment and economic competitiveness and support social integration policies. If ICT are an important source of renewal in society, and in many ways ICT innovation have been a key source to human, political, as well as economic progress, in consequence the issue is not whether cities and citizens will be affected by these changes but how they will be affected, and how political leaders will address the challenges that emerge. Under this point of view, there is a general agreement that positive action, on the basis of a strong political commitment, is needed to ensure that urban managers use the full potential offered by the Information Society. For this reason, to understand better and evaluate the main trends related to the Portuguese dissemination of ICT during the past years, it is important to analyse the evolution of government policies in this field, in order to identify some of the main success factors, but also what kind of constraints appeared during the process and should be avoid in other digital cities.