Dave Carter Head of the Manchester Digital Development Agency Innovation Creativity Knowledge

Established in 2003, led by the City of Manchester covering the Greater Manchester sub-region (2.6 million population) Vision: “To make Greater Manchester a leading world class digital city-region, having one of the most competitive broadband infrastructures in Europe, attracting and sustaining investment in ICT and e-commerce across all sectors of the economy, generating new businesses, developing new learning cultures, promoting social inclusion and providing all residents with the skills and aspirations to play a full role in the information society.” Manchester Digital Development Agency

Stimulate the take up and use of broadband Develop broadband-delivered services as part of the day-to- day life of the community, at home, at work and in learning and leisure, delivering enhanced competitiveness to business and empowerment to people and communities Promote innovation and take up of broadband applications and services for e-government and e-learning Support inter-regional networking and exchanges of experience in support of the eEurope agenda Broadband Strategy and Action Plan

Broadband underpins the development of the knowledge economy Need to link the digital competitiveness and digital inclusion agendas more effectively – matching the needs of the wider community with the opportunities created by the knowledge economy Need to strengthen the digital industries sector and assist all businesses to deploy broadband effectively Supporting Economic Regeneration and Social Inclusion (1)

Recognition that socially excluded communities in urban areas are as “peripheral” and “remote” in terms of broadband as many rural communities Potential for new delivery systems to address this, including technologies, e.g. wireless broadband, and structures, e.g. social economy enterprises Citizen led e-services: citizens as producers of high quality broadband content, as well as consumers Supporting Economic Regeneration and Social Inclusion (2)

5 sub-regional Digital Development Agencies in the NW of England link up to support the Regional Broadband Strategy NW Regional Development Agency (NWDA) takes the policy lead on information society and innovation issues The NWDA and the NW Regional Assembly establish a regional networking body – NW NODE – to coordinate this work and support the Digital Development Agencies at a regional level Supporting Regional Development

Broadband Action Plan Investment of €4 Million in pilot and demonstration projects Connected Services – broadband e-government Connected Communities – broadband wired-up communities Visualisation project – 3D/VR technologies in planning, regeneration and community consultation E-learning – developing broadband applications and content Broadband Community Chest – small grants to communities Stimulating Broadband Demand – awareness, promotion and marketing campaign

Inter-regional networking Broadband policy initiatives – e.g. Committee of the Regions (CoR) Development of Framework 7 (FP7) – especially work on ‘e-infrastructures’ of the future Work on the next generation of the Internet – e.g. GRID cities (Barcelona and Amsterdam) Links between information society and knowledge economy initiatives, e.g. URBACT and Telecities Global experiences – Global Cities Dialogue, Global Communities Online, US National Science Foundation (NSF) work on ‘Shared Cyberinfrastructure – (SCI)’

6 th Framework Integrated Project (IP) €6.8 million Jan 2004 – July 2005 e-government and e-inclusion: developing 3D/VR environments and applications for planning and citizens involvement 18 European Cities, 20 ICT companies (inc. Nokia and CISCO), 36 Research Groups Core cities – Manchester, Siena, Helsinki, Marseilles, Rome and Dresden INTELCITIES – Intelligent and Sustainable Cities