COMMENTARY
Digital intelligence can better our lives
By Gordon Bruce
As Honolulu's chief technology officer, my job is to deliver on Mayor Mufi Hannemann's vision to move Honolulu into the era of digital intelligence. That means making city services available to residents online, thus eliminating the need for them to stand "in line" by using state-of-the-art technologies.
Think of the time and money we all save by going online to book your driver's test appointment, perform motor vehicle registrations, check for vanity license plates, apply for various building permits and even get potholes fixed.
The mayor's recent trip to Korea and my visit to both Korea and Japan gave us more insights into what the city can do to use technology not only to save money, but to raise revenues, improve public safety and improve city services.
We are now investigating the use of various smart-card technologies that are widely used in Europe and Asia. These look like credit cards, but instead of a magnetic stripe, they are imbedded with microchips for a variety of uses:
Mayor Hannemann has expressed a desire for smart-card technology to be applied to a mass transit system as a source of revenue beyond fares by individual riders. They can be used in private/public partnerships to stimulate the economy, increase ridership and provide value-added services to the resident as well as the visitor.
When it comes to rail transit, we can incorporate wireless digital technology into the infrastructure of an elevated highway or fixed guideway system. Since the city owns the right-of-way, we can negotiate use of these elevated locations in the mass transit route to wireless providers.
There is already legislation to allow the city to do this. Instead of just collecting $1 from transit riders at the fare box, we can raise even more dollars from private companies who use the infrastructure. By using private revenues, the city can keep fares reasonable and increase ridership through the provisioning of additional services to the rider.
There's a lot more we are doing to move Honolulu into the digital era. The city will be spending millions of dollars to upgrade city services and we are actively seeking private partners to launch pilot programs. We have entered into pilot projects with local companies like Skywave Broadband and international companies like CISCO systems and Sprint/Nextel, and we continue to discuss opportunities with other private firms.
Our bottom line: Use digital intelligence to improve the quality of life for all the residents of Honolulu. We don't have to wait until tomorrow because the technology is available today.
Gordon Bruce is the city's chief technology officer. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.
