Tooran Alizadeh

Brisbane's digital strategy: an economic strategy for the digital age?

A growing number of cities around the world have now realised the need to use digital technology to capitalise on the rapidly growing digitally driven economy. In mid-2013 Brisbane, Australia released its ‘Digital Strategy’ document to strengthen its economy through improved productivity for local businesses. The article is based on a combination of policy analysis and empirical data gathered through interviewing a sample of stakeholders involved in the strategy development process. It aims to understand how Brisbane intends on using the potentials of the digital economy. The results raise questions around the role defined for the digital economy in the future and shed light on the ‘smart city’ concept as a plausible digital-enabled direction for cities and regions with reference to the third wave of economic development, and the Triple (Quadruple) Helix of knowledge development. The lessons learned here may be applicable to any city interested in playing a proactive and productive role in the new economy.

A snapshot of high-speed broadband responses at local government level in Australia: a marriage between federally funded initiatives and locally driven innovations?

The introduction of the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) in 2009 posed a range of new questions about the potential of the telecommunication infrastructure for planning at different levels of government. This paper focuses on the local implications of the new infrastructure whether socio-economic, e-governance or otherwise. It reaches out to the NBN early rollout local government authorities (LGAs) and collects empirical data about their responses to the new infrastructure, so far. The findings explore the significant role of the federally funded initiatives aiming at the local level, while shedding light on some of the locally driven, mostly innovative approaches taken by the LGAs. The paper concludes by raising concerns about the current state of uncertainty around the future phases of broadband infrastructure rollout across the nation and its negative impact on strategic approaches in planning for and with telecommunication to capitalise on the digitally driven opportunities.

Spatial planning and high-speed broadband: : Australia's National broadband network and metropolitan planning

Abstract The Australian government is constructing a National Broadband Network (NBN), which at an estimated cost of

Impediments to Teleworking in Live/Work Communities: Local Planning Regulations and Tax Policies

43 billion will be Australias largest ever infrastructure project. The NBN, if its full benefits are to be realized, raises a number of important, but largely unexplored, questions for planning. This paper investigates the implications of the NBN for Australian metropolitan planning focusing on the question of how these plans will exploit the NBN to improve urban outcomes. The paper examines the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane metropolitan areas and analyses the strategies shaping the future of these regions during the rollout and implementation of the NBN. This comparative analysis reveals similarities across these three metropolitan areas in their weak stance towards the NBN. Some key findings include: (1) a segregation of infrastructure planning and metropolitan planning; (2) a lack of consistency between different policies within each metropolitan area and (3) policy gaps regarding the role of telecommunications at the metropolitan level. Considering the number of governments worldwide that are making large investments in high-speed broadband, this paper addresses policy issues that will impact upon metropolitan planning well beyond the borders of Australia.

Planning implications of telework: a policy analysis of the Sydney metropolitan strategy

It was hoped that increased teleworking would reduce traffic congestion leading to lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions, other air pollutants, storm water runoff and noise. However, despite recent technological advancements in telecommunication, telework adoption rates are still lower than initially projected and thus the purported benefits are also lower. The literature suggests that this is related to organisational and institutional barriers. This article examines two institutional issues that appear to be hindering telework at the local scale—land-use planning regulations and tax policies. These were two of the main issues identified through interviews with residents of two live/work communities, one in Australia and the other in the USA. Findings suggest that if policy-makers want to increase teleworking rates, attention should be focused on removing barriers created by local land-use planning regulations and tax policies. With the resurgent interest in telework as a result of the National Broadband Network, this article provides some timely advice to help decision-makers add value to this multi-billion dollar investment.

Teleworkers' Characteristics in Live/Work Communities: Lessons from the United States and Australia

The paper attempts to develop an understanding of the planning implications of telecommunication, with a focus on telework in the Australian context. It begins by reviewing major definitional discrepancies in telework studies and provides a definition for telework as a flexible knowledge-work option in the new economy. It then builds upon the growing interest in telework under the National Broadband Network (NBN) in federal policy documents in Australia and analyses the Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036 as the major document that shapes the future of Australias first global city. This analysis identifies serious inconsistencies between federal and state policies and points out a number of policy gaps, regarding the lack of telecommunication awareness at Sydneys metropolitan level. The paper also reveals some opportunities in the current strategy to incorporate telecommunication in dealing with the major planning issues, thus challenging the future of Australias largest capital city.

Planning implications of telecommunication: Why telecommunication infrastructure? Why now?

This paper refers to the ambiguity that resides in over three decades of telework research and develops the concept of community-based teleworkers as people who work from home or community-based offices using telecommunications. It investigates three case studies of live/work communities in which different levels of collective telework facilities have been offered to support community-based telework. This investigation promotes further understanding of individual and work-related characteristics of community-based teleworkers, and opens discussion on their spatial preferences. Understanding these preferences could lead the future of live/work community design and planning to fully embrace this flexible work option in the information age.

Planning across borders

The link between planning and infrastructure has been a topic of numerous studies over a long period of time (Dodson 2009; Graham and Marvin 2001; Neuman and Smith 2010). More recently, planning literature is showing increasing interest in telecommunication infrastructure, as it serves as the backbone of the digital economy. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of evidence-based research on the implications of this emerging infrastructure on urban and regional Australia (Alizadeh 2013), which puts the nation behind the USA, Canada, Europe and Asia (Frieden 2005; Grubesic 2006, 2010; Grubesic and Murray 2004). In Australia, it is impossible to talk about telecommunication infrastructure without addressing the National Broadband Network (NBN) which began as the country’s largest single infrastructure investment. In response to shortcomings in Australia’s telecommunication infrastructure (Barr 2008; Given 2008; Middleton 2009; Middleton and Chang 2008), the NBN was announced to connect Australians to high-speed broadband through terrestrial fibre network (NBN Co. Ltd. 2010). Since its announcement in 2009, the NBN has been a highly political topic in Australia, influencing and being influenced by politics (Given 2008; Tucker 2010). Perhaps the best example of this was when three independent MPs cited the NBN as one of the main reasons for their support for Labor over the Coalition following the hung parliament after the 2010 Federal election. On the other hand, following the 2013 Federal election, the newly elected Coalition Federal Government decided to reassess the scale of the national fibre project and put the first stage of the large-scale NBN rollout on hold. This was followed by the introduction of the ‘Coalition’s NBN’ which will continue the initiative using a mix of technologies and final speed network. The Coalition’s NBN has the potential to leave Australia with a patchwork of different levels of infrastructure access. This change of policy intensifies the need to understand the implications of telecommunication at the local and regional level. Appropriate responses need to be crafted across different towns, cities and regions based on the level of access provided for them. For state and local governments, it means that within their own jurisdictions, they have to deal with a diverse level of access to telecommuni‐ cation. This special issue acknowledges that despite the hefty government investment on telecommunication infrastructure (in the format of the NBN or otherwise) over the last few years, there is little evidencebased research looking at the implications of this new infrastructure in Australia. This edition of Australian Planner brings together research and insights from planning scholars and practitioners involved with telecommunication infrastructure and technology, especially during the early NBN rollout. Researchers from Griffith University, University of Queensland, University of Western Australia, Macquarie University and Queensland University of Technology join forces with practitioners from state and local governments, private practice and the NBN Co. to share their experience and knowledge. This inclusion of both academics and practitioners has given this special issue a threefold complexity covering theory, empirical insight and also policy responses. Articles in this collection seek to advance the understanding of the ‘planning implications of telecommunication’; they report empirical insights into the experiences of different levels of public and private sectors in dealing with telecommunication infrastructure; and they examine planning and policy responses on the challenges and opportunities of planning for telecommunication in the form of digital economic strategies. The special issue highlights the contemporary significance, challenges and opportunities that telecommunication has provided to planning and policy in areas such as socio-economic development (teleworking and digital economy); spatial planning (new land-uses such as smart work hubs, physical infrastructure design and live/work community developments); and e-governance involving different levels of Australian Planner, 2015 Vol. 52, No. 1, 1–3, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07293682.2015.1019749

Review of ' Cities, Citizens and Environmental Reform' Edited by R. Freestone

Planning is made up of borders. As social and political constructs, a border divides – be it landscapes, communities or ideas – and legitimises particular policy activities or approaches. Within urban and regional planning contexts, borders become elements of control, as they shape and define how particular territorial issues, spaces and places are understood and acted upon by communities of interest. In this paper, we focus on borders and re-bordering processes as a potentially transformative agenda for urban planners. We join with Paasi (2011) to ask in whose interests are particular borders created and by whom? Through the lens of the border, seemingly rigid or entrenched urban borderlines can be made more visible, unsettled and/or disrupted in key areas, such as urban consolidation, critical infrastructure and urban ecology.

Urban governance and big corporations in the digital economy: An investigation of socio-spatial implications of Google Fiber in Kansas City

local communities. This book focuses, understandably, on the legislative framework and governance in the UK, thus limiting its applicability elsewhere. However, in places, interesting international case studies are provided, for example in the discussion on neighbourhood asset management, Karet Tengsin, Jakarta, is used as an example; and in the discussion on megaevents, a variety of communities that have hosted such events are referred to, including for example a critique of Homebush Bay, the main site of the Sydney Olympic Games. The authors intend for this book to be used by students and practitioners alike, providing them with a background discussion of the theoretical and practical challenges of achieving greater social sustainability. Through its structure and division into sections, this book delivers on its intent, providing a useful resource document. It provides a comprehensive coverage of the topic of social sustainability from both a theoretical approach and through the use of case studies, leaving the reader with a desire to engage further in this topic. Joanna Ross School of People, Environment and Planning Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand Email: J.M.Ross@Massey.ac.nz # 2011, Joanna Ross