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Tel Aviv Has Become a "Beta City" For New Technology

Posted by samzenpus on from the where's-my-flying-car? dept.

dkatana writes: Hila Oren, founder and CEO of Tel Aviv Global, part of the city government, writes an an Op-Ed for "Cities of the Future" where she details how, based on citizen participation and unpredictability, Tel Aviv has become one of the smartest cities on the planet. She mentions the "DigiTel" program for residents, who use a personalized account with the city to receive special offers, sign up for city services and programs, and report any issues. Being a small city with less than 1/2 million residents, Tel Aviv has become a "beta tester" for new technologies, fueled by their big startup community.

2 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Small? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's 3.5 million residents in the metro area here which is over 42% of the entire country's population! I moved here from Seattle, and this isn't a small city. The article is correct we are a tech hub. I have 100 Mbps access at home whereas I was still stuck on dial-up in Seattle when I left about a year ago.

    1. Re:Small? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The funny thing is that I live in a fast growing, "progressive", US city with a metro population twice the size mentioned (~1 mil, not counting the areas around it), and the city has not even done a single highway upgrade since 1995 (other than allow a third party to put in toll roads), much less do anything for public transportation or perhaps a mesh wireless network.

      Seeing a city actually add stuff for its residents other than taxes and ticky-tack ordinances to generate fine revenue is actually astounding. Some US cities spend more in running helicopters with FLIR to catch some hippie sleeping in a parked van than it would be to deal with the homeless problem in the first place.

      I wish other municipal areas here in the US would imitate Tel Aviv. Right now, a lot of them are more concerned about building new digs for their pro sports team than anything that means quality of life improvements.