Mayor Richard M. Daley will highlight CivicNet’s advances and contribution to economic development in the City in a speech to business leaders today at COMDEX Chicago, a national convention for IT business leaders.
CivicNet, the City of Chicago’s initiative to develop a citywide broadband infrastructure to enhance education, government services and economic development, is the first such program in the country, not to mention the most extensive. Mayor Richard M. Daley will highlight CivicNet’s advances in a speech to business leaders today at COMDEX Chicago, a national convention for IT business leaders.
CivicNet is offering up to $31 million of annual government spending for telephone and data services in front of telecommunications providers to encourage them to create a citywide digital network infrastructure. This will effectively wire all 2,000 Chicago schools, parks, libraries and government locations with broadband Internet access. CivicNet will be open to nonprofit organizations and private businesses as well, providing underserved city neighborhoods with a carrot to lure economic development.
The City’s efforts are well underway. A short list of 22 vendors have been invited to respond to the CivicNet Request for Proposals, due at the end of March.
“CivicNet’s high-performance infrastructure and its geographic scope will undoubtedly make the Chicago region more competitive for economic growth,” commented Scott Goldstein, co-chair of the Infrastructure Committee of the Mayor’s Council of Technology Advisors and vice president of planning and policy at the Metropolitan Planning Council.
CivicNet will catalyze economic development, creating new jobs and attracting industries that will require high speed digital connectivity to remain competitive in the market in the future. At the neighborhood level, CivicNet will spark community development and redevelopment in underserved areas. With the availability of the CivicNet infrastructure, neighborhood institutions — ranging from community centers to small and medium-sized business — will be able to make use of tools such as long-distance learning and high-quality videoconferencing.
CivicNet is being implemented by the City of Chicago under recommendation of the Mayor’s Council of Technology Advisors’ Infrastructure Committee, which is co-chaired by the Metropolitan Planning Council.
The Metropolitan Planning Council is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of business and civic leaders committed to serving the public interest through the promotion and implementation of sensible planning and development policies necessary for a world-class Chicago region.