A global U-City effort was recently launched at the U-City World Forum in Seoul. The forum was attended by 15 countries, including the U.S., China and India, and included participation from IBM, Cisco Systems, and the Open Geospatial Consortium. A new global U-City Cooperative Committee was formed at this event for the exchange of information, the creation of policy, the identification of technology and service standards, and the fostering of global talent.
The Korean government is taking an active role in the committee, with the the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) as the co-organizer of the gathering.
Keynote presentations were given by Fred D. Davis, professor of the University of Arkansas, and Gary Schneider, vice president of IBM, on the subject of “U-Convergence Cities Leading Green Growth.”
Among the attendees were Mark E. Reichardt, the president and CEO of OGC; Alonso Salazar Jaramillo, the mayor of Medellin; Gary Michael Schneider, vice president of IBM; Kim Chun-ho, the president of the Songdo Campus of the State University of New York; and Park Yang-ho, president of the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements.
The U-City Cooperative Committee plans to expand the network to include 100 domestic organizations and local governments, and 50 overseas organizations in 20 countries by next year.
