Porto Digital: on the way to the knowledge based society City of Porto, Portugal SYNTHESIS The Porto Digital project, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, aimed to broaden the use of the Internet by the citizens of the city of Porto. It aspired to boost the quality in education, particularly through an increased use of information and communication technologies on all levels of education; reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency of the city council services; decrease the number of information-deprived people particularly those with social problems; and contribute to a better quality of life in the urban area for inhabitants, workers and tourists. To achieve this objective, Porto Digital implemented a number of complementary initiatives from January 2005 to June 2007, namely: − building a broadband network infrastructure based on 93 km of optical fibres and several aerials for wireless communication; − development of interactive websites on topics such as employment, culture, tourism, social support and real estate; − e-government activities, in particular online services of the city council; − establishment of free Internet access spots in public places; − lending computer equipment to a number of selected schools and social institutions during short periods on a rotating basis; − gathering and dissemination of information on employment, vocational training and tele-working in the city of Porto. Porto Digital has four main promoters: Porto City Council, University of Porto, Portuguese Business Association, and the Porto Light Rail Company. These partners decided to create a non-profit association named Porto Digital Association to implement the project. Along with the four promoters, 33 other partners joined the project and are responsible for several activities within Porto Digital’s 10 sub-projects. These partners include higher educations institutions, vocational training companies, business associations, museums and other cultural institutions, information technology and multimedia companies, state agencies, research organisations, financial institutions, organisations supporting social inclusion and the regional development agency. A number of results underline the importance of the project to the city. Broadband connection covers now about 55 sites including premises of local, regional and national administration, museums and cultural organisations, public library, the city park, primary schools, high schools, university faculties and the chamber of commerce. The broadband infrastructure has been built in such a way to guarantee a geographical coverage of most of the city. In 2008 and 2009, if funding is available, it is intended to connect an additional 213 sites (as of December 2007, only one third of the needed funding has been secured). The Internet is now accessible by a wider public including young people, poorer communities, and people with physical or mental disabilities (provision of specific hardware and software). Moreover, a resource centre was created with the mission of providing and distributing to schools (in the framework of temporary working groups and special events) about 150 computers, 100 laptops, 100 interactive whiteboards, 15 video cameras, 45 digital cameras and 12,500 information technology magazines (one per student at the primary school level). In the first nine months of 2008 the resource centre is to support an initiative of the Porto City Council in order to place 100 interactive whiteboards in 50 primary schools together with additional help-desk and training services for about 500 teachers spread all over the city. The project concentrated information on employment, vocational training, company creation, e-learning, tele-working as well as vocational guidance services in just one place - the “City of Jobs” building. As a result, the Porto City Council has new e-services such as online services to the citizens and e-procurement system as well as an Intranet for internal services of the city. A digital map containing the location and information about the most interesting cultural sites in Porto was to be operational in October 2007, but due to the interest of the other 13 city councils which, together with Porto City Council, form the Porto Metropolitan Area (1,575 Km2 and 1.6 million inhabitants), it has been rescheduled to mid 2008, so as to encompass information about all the 14 city councils. Moreover, an electronic prototype system was set up to perform real estate business in real time through the Internet, which is believed to be the first system of this kind in the world. The Porto Digital project demonstrates that critical mass can be an important factor for the success of innovative regional projects. Gathering together an impressive number of partners and resources, the project managed to implement a high number of actions with a visible impact on the city and its citizens. Background information Country: Portugal Region: City of Porto Project title: Porto Digital Key words: information society: ICT access, e-inclusion, services and applications for citizens; social issues: education and training, life long learning, employment and labour market, social inclusion and equal opportunities; tourism; urban areas Duration of project: January 2005 – December 2007 Funding: Total budget €9,127,000 ERDF contribution €4,107,150 National budget €2,738,100 Private contribution €2,281,750 ERDF Objective: Objective 1 2 1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The overall objective of the Porto Digital project is to contribute to making the city of Porto an information- and knowledge-based society. To achieve this objective, Porto Digital gathers a number of complementing initiatives to be implemented during a period of 36 months. The main objectives of Porto Digital are: − to connect electronically the majority of the local administrations and schools; − to contribute to making local administration less bureaucratic and increasing its efficiency; − to promote the use of the Internet in various types of local communities; − to centralise all information related to jobs, vocational training, e-learning and telecommuting; − to make updated information available on the conditions of the city regarding traffic conditions, transportation, parking spaces, noise and pollution; − to promote the city of Porto as a leisure destination through a series of initiatives related to the cultural and tourism fields. The activities of the project consist of developing and implementing 10 sub-projects organised within five main categories: − Infrastructure - building a broadband network infrastructure consisting of cable, optical fibres and WiFi, supporting the services provided by the city council, schools, and other public sites; - creating a Porto Digital portal and respective technological platform integrating all subprojects’ content and activities, thus creating a central point capable of providing the information generated by the different subprojects. − Promoting the use of the Internet - Porto de Reencontro (“Meeting Porto”): a set of actions to help the disadvantaged social groups to access the Internet and services provided by Porto Digital. − Improving virtual accessibility - establishment of 16 free Internet access spots in places where the public at large can easily access the Internet, such as leisure and study places. This also includes access to the Internet through WiFi and Bluetooth technologies in public places. − e-Government - e-Citizenship, i.e. activities to modernise Porto’s city council services, including an Extranet to interact with other public entities, an Intranet for the internal services of the city, electronic management of documents, and provision of information to the public by electronic means; - research to identify new services that can be offered online; - electronic procurement, through the creation of an electronic system to support procurement activities. − Sectoral subprojects: - the “City of Jobs” building (“Cidade das Profissões”) offering access to all the information on vocational training, employment, creation of companies, e- 3 learning and teleworking. It also includes individual vocational guidance sessions; - cultural and tourism digital map containing all the interesting cultural spots, (particularly museums), as well as information on the wine industry; - real estate e-market that intends to build up a prototype system for the purchase of real estate property (houses, flats, land) through electronic means in real time. A range of key public institutions of Porto and the inhabitants of the city can be considered as the main beneficiaries of Porto Digital. The citizens of Porto will be able to take advantage of a number of outcomes of the project, such as the use of public services provided by the city council via the Internet, cost reduction for accessing the Internet, centralisation of information on employment, vocational training and entrepreneurship, as well as better traffic information. Also a number of institutions based in Porto are beneficiaries of the initiative. These include the City Council that will be endowed with new e-communication infrastructures allowing the provision of new services; universities, high schools and primary schools will be connected to the city broadband network; social institutions will receive IT equipment for free; and museums and other cultural institutions will benefit from the new cultural digital map and web-based virtual visits. The following can be considered the main results of the Porto Digital project: