By IPS Correspondents
ISTANBUL, Jun 8 1996 (IPS)

It took governments 20 years to convene this week’s Second World Conference on Human Settlements, better known as Habitat II. If Istanbul is to make a dent on the world’s growing urban crisis, follow-up is a must.

Small initiatives such as Livelink Commons, a new Internet service, offer some ways to keep the momentum rolling.

The project, launched this week through a business and non- governmental organisation initiative, aims to continue the exchange of information on the process following end of Habitat II on June 14.

“It is one of the major outcomes of the private sector forum,” says Leslie Hoffman, executive director of the Earth Pledge Foundation. “What is being produced is an on-line electronic forum for all of the Habitat partners to continue the dialogue.”

The Earth Pledge Foundation is one of the partners involved in the Livelink Commons initiative. Once a site has been established, the free service will enable individuals, organisations and communities around the world to identify ways of building community information and exchange.

“The information is all scattered,” says Hoffman. “What we intend to do is put it in one place, using the most powerful tool available today: the Internet.”.

Habitat Secretary-General Wally N’Dow says the initiative has come at the right time.

“As the road continues from Istanbul and we focus our attention to the implementation of the gains achieved here, the emerging relationships being forged among the private sector, the U.N. agencies, and the NGO community will be crucial to our eventual success,” notes N’Dow.

Already, computer networks are being used to facilitate urban development, especially in northern countries.

Along with governments, municipalities have adopted computers for mundane tasks, even in little towns. Others have networks that provide access to accounting, that transmit electronic mail, and connect fire, ambulance, and police departments.

Significant opportunities are arising as others link with other networks and costs are trimmed through paperless transactions. In the case of the United States, online access to residents has improved services in municipalities in Massachusetts and reduced the burden on staff.

But the story is different in developing countries. A lot of Third World nations have yet to get on board the information highway. Disparities in telecommunications, especially in Africa, are wide. The continent has less telephone lines than Manhattan, for example.

Of Africa’s 55 countries, more than 65 percent have tele- densities of less than one per 10 persons. The continent lags in literacy rates, and only a handful of countries have full Internet access.

When lack of food and shelter are the bottom line, information is regarded a luxury and experts here fear that even if it is made available, other countries will continue to lag.

But an ambitious programme announced in 1994 intends to lay a 40,000 kilometre long undersea fibre-optic cable around Africa. It should result in significant gains in the continent’s telecommunications.

But the Internet will not have all the answers. The superhighway has its negative effects on sustainable urban development.

According to a recent U.S. government Office of Technology Assessment report, surprisingly little is known about the potential effects of the technological revolution on industrial and residential location patterns.

“These technologies are facilitating an even more spatially dispersed economy, which in turn is causing metropolitan areas to become larger, more dispersed, and less densely populated,” notes the report.

“Moreover, though some places benefit from these changes, the economies of many older, higher cost metropolitan areas and many central cities and older suburbs are likely to face further job losses and disinvestment.”

The Internet, the global network of networks, was developed in the United States about two decades ago by the U.S. military, which wanted to build systems capable of withstanding nuclear attacks. It now has 50 million users across the globe on 10 million computers and is estimated to be growing at a rate of 10 to 15 percent per month.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
ISTANBUL, Jun 7 1996 (IPS)

It took governments 20 years to convene this week’s Second World Conference on Human Settlements, better known as Habitat II. If Istanbul is to make a dent on the world’s growing urban crisis, follow-up is a must.

Small initiatives such as Livelink Commons, a new Internet service, offer some ways to keep the momentum rolling.

The project, launched this week through a business and non- governmental organisation initiative, aims to continue the exchange of information on the process following end of Habitat II on June 14.

“It is one of the major outcomes of the private sector forum,” says Leslie Hoffman, executive director of the Earth Pledge Foundation. “What is being produced is an on-line electronic forum for all of the Habitat partners to continue the dialogue.”

The Earth Pledge Foundation is one of the partners involved in the Livelink Commons initiative. Once a site has been established, the free service will enable individuals, organisations and communities around the world to identify ways of building community information and exchange.

“The information is all scattered,” says Hoffman. “What we intend to do is put it in one place, using the most powerful tool available today: the Internet.”.

Habitat Secretary-General Wally N’Dow says the initiative has come at the right time.

“As the road continues from Istanbul and we focus our attention to the implementation of the gains achieved here, the emerging relationships being forged among the private sector, the U.N. agencies, and the NGO community will be crucial to our eventual success,” notes N’Dow.

Already, computer networks are being used to facilitate urban development, especially in northern countries.

Along with governments, municipalities have adopted computers for mundane tasks, even in little towns. Others have networks that provide access to accounting, that transmit electronic mail, and connect fire, ambulance, and police departments.

Significant opportunities are arising as others link with other networks and costs are trimmed through paperless transactions. In the case of the United States, online access to residents has improved services in municipalities in Massachusetts and reduced the burden on staff.

But the story is different in developing countries. A lot of Third World nations have yet to get on board the information highway. Disparities in telecommunications, especially in Africa, are wide. The continent has less telephone lines than Manhattan, for example.

Of Africa’s 55 countries, more than 65 percent have tele- densities of less than one per 10 persons. The continent lags in literacy rates, and only a handful of countries have full Internet access.

When lack of food and shelter are the bottom line, information is regarded a luxury and experts here fear that even if it is made available, other countries will continue to lag.

But an ambitious programme announced in 1994 intends to lay a 40,000 kilometre long undersea fibre-optic cable around Africa. It should result in significant gains in the continent’s telecommunications.

But the Internet will not have all the answers. The superhighway has its negative effects on sustainable urban development.

According to a recent U.S. government Office of Technology Assessment report, surprisingly little is known about the potential effects of the technological revolution on industrial and residential location patterns.

“These technologies are facilitating an even more spatially dispersed economy, which in turn is causing metropolitan areas to become larger, more dispersed, and less densely populated,” notes the report.

“Moreover, though some places benefit from these changes, the economies of many older, higher cost metropolitan areas and many central cities and older suburbs are likely to face further job losses and disinvestment.”

The Internet, the global network of networks, was developed in the United States about two decades ago by the U.S. military, which wanted to build systems capable of withstanding nuclear attacks. It now has 50 million users across the globe on 10 million computers and is estimated to be growing at a rate of 10 to 15 percent per month.

Excerpt: