The city and IT: From knowledge management to electronic city platform

In recent years we have witnessed wast developments of information technologies and it's implications on production, coordination and control. Introduced because of it's capacity for fast problem solving, knowledge sharing and adaptation information technologies change our cities by fostering network organizational structures and demanding different roles for city governments. Services offered to the citizens are now powered by the tools like complex document management systems with digital signatures and even advanced knowledge management systems with the results city personnel produce increasingly transparent to the decision-makers. This systems collect huge quantity of information and help the city employees to meet present as well as future demands in an efficient, but also inclusive and innovative way. Information technologies are changing the way we participate in communities and our political behaviour. Creative class, knowledge-workers, the youth raised in the digital environment, want government to have characteristics they experience on daily bases predominantly in the marketplace: flexibility, speed, personalized services. But the city a) still doesn't offer open innovative collaboration platforms able to build upon existing and increase social capital of the local communities ; b) has to compete with all the other levels of infotainment/information exchange/citizen mobilization – from the neighbourhood level to the global civil society activities. Globalization processes as well as old media are fragmenting people and/or audiences into multiple communities, Internet is ever more efficient tool for creating (mainly homogeneous) communities but in our opinion the town/city remains a pillar of shared experiences and stable patterns of social behaviour. We believe that XXI. st. city is a place of institution creation/adaptation, the lowest common denominator to all the fragmented communities. In Croatia, as well as in several other countries, Internet is enhancing both local as well as trans-national level of communication and community building, at the expense of the neglected national level. With an open and free online collaboration platform as a promise of ability to (re)identify developmental priorities, the level at which they should be dealt with and find ways of efficient collective actions and mobilization of the stakeholders with purpose of increasing the quality of life for all, the city becomes once again an important agent of out everyday experience. Therefore, cities must find a way to connect with the citizens, public companies, budget users, civil society, students away from home, other cities, … by providing powerful incentives for cooperation and cultural accommodation of this heterogeneous stakeholders. Access to information and new services offered on this municipal online resource, we believe, must be accompanied with the clear commitment to include results of online discussions into account when taking decisions. Understanding of the conditions that make possible voluntary communities and reinforcement of the civil involvement by the new technologies is crucial to successfully start and manage online municipal spaces for public participation resulting with the real-life consequences.