English version of a presentation at the Smart Cities Brazil 2017 conference in Rio de Janeiro

1. Sufficiency4Sustainability Network
Smart Rio:
Silicon Beach?
Presentation by Peter T. Knight at Smart Cities Brazil 2017, Rio
de Janeiro, 26 October 2017

2. Summary
• Definition of a Smart City that promotes entrepreneurship and
development
• Some lessons from experience with creating smart cities in
various countries
• What are Rio’s advantages?
• What is missing in Rio?
• What can be done to make Rio a smart city with an ecosystem
promoting innovation that is
World class
Attracts investment and highly-skilled professionals and
Makes Rio a pole of national and international development?

3. What is a smart city?
• A smart sustainable city is an innovative city that
uses information and communications technologies (ICTs) and other means to
Improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation services, and competitiveness while
insuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to
Economic, social, environmental as well as cultural aspects
(Definition of ITU-T Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-
T/focusgroups/ssc/Pages/default.aspx)
• There are many other definitions
• Some characteristics are shown here
• For Rio we can highlight
Improving strategic planning
Encouraging high-tech grey matter industries
Promoting competitiveness, sustainability
Attracting investments and skilled people

4. Some lessons from other smart cities (1)
• Structure the approach to solutions beginning with the definition of
coherent shared strategic visions that include defining needs and defining
a roadmap of initiatives
• Involve stakeholders in the design and implementation of a strategy
focused on citizens
• Break down ”silos” in the secretariats (departments) and agencies of
municipal, state, and federal governments in planning and operations
• Combine bottom up e top down approaches
• Use PPPs for finance and operation
• Develop business accelerators for smart city initiatives, bringing together
public and private investors and entrepreneurs
Source: European Commission (2016). Analysing the potential for wide scale roll out of integrated
Smart Cities and Communities solutions: Final Report.
https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/d2_final_report_v3.0_no_annex_iv.pdf

5. Some lessons from other smart cities (2)
Sources: i-SCOOP (2016). Smart city best practices as learned from existing smart cities. https://www.i-scoop.eu/smart-cities-
smart-city/smart-city-best-practices. Based on Machina Research Strategy Report, Jeremy Green, Principal Analyst (2016). The
Smart City Playbook: smart, safe, sustainable. https://resources.ext.nokia.com/asset/200700.

6. What Rio has (1)
Good connectivity: 44 institutions
of higher education, research,
government, and culture linked by
236 km of fiber optic cable
(Redecomep Rio) – a partnership
led by the National Education and
Research Network (RNP)

7. Redecomep Rio

8. Integrated Command and Control Center(CICC)
• Inaugurated in May, 2014
• The CIIC has representatives of municipal, state, and federal agencies
• These include the Military Police, Civilian Police, Fire Department,
Mobile Urgent Service Provider (Samu), Federal Highway Police,
Municipal Guard, State Civil Defense, Rio City Operations Center (COR),
and the Transport Regulation Agency (Agetransp) as well as others.

9. What Rio has (2)
• It is beautiful, with many opportunities for leisure and culture

10. What Rio has (3)
• Several business incubators
• Sophisticated investment banks
• Rio de Janeiro stock exchange
• Headquarters of the BNDES
• Headquarters of Petrobras
• Central office of Eletrobras
• Headquarters of Rede Globo with Projac
• Headquarters of Embratel, Oi e TIM
• Headquarters of the RNP

11. What is Rio de Janeiro’s comparative advantage?
• Not a conventional industrial city, though there are important
industrial installations nearby in the State of Rio de Janeiro .
• Yes, high-tech grey matter industries are a potential source of
comparative advantage.
• ICTs, biotechnology, and nanotechnology will be critical to create
Silicon Beach.
• Plentiful suppliers of sophisticated services, including venture
capital, that can take advantage of higher education and research
institutions as well as incubators and business accelerators.
• Tourism is an obvious choice.
• Rio is already an important cultural center.

12. What is lacking in Rio?
• Strategic planning with clear priorities focused on the creation Silicon
Beach – there is no lack of raw material 😉
• Creation of a dynamic shared vision for smart city development through a
strategic communication campaign mobilizing all stakeholders
• Municipal, metropolitan, and state governments that provide efficient
high-quality services and listen to their citizens
• Social and digital inclusion of all citizens
• eGovernment, eEducation, eHealth, and ePublic Safety – taking advantage
of the connectivity infrastructure to reduce costs and improve quality
• Reduction of the division between favelas and the city (morro e asfalto)
• Protection of the environment

13. An example: entrepreneurship in a favela without
support: Net Rocinha
• Net Rocinha is a an Internet service provider in Rio’s best-known favela.
• The owners are two young men born in and living in Rocinha.
• They have 2,000 paying customers.
• They successfully compete with “Gatonet” and large telcos like Oi.
• They offer broadband at up to 100 Mbps through a fiber optic network.
• They have invested in shared fiber optic cables with two other private ISPs that greatly reduce the
cost of connections to Rio’s Internet Connection Point.
• They have not received the support they should have gotten from the ”S System” for training of
staff and entrepreneurs nor external financing through loans and/or investments.

14. Toward Silicon Beach (1)
• First we need to create what is lacking.
• How can we build an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship Rio de
Janeiro?
• The private sector should take the initiative and be in charge of the process.
• FIRJAN, the Rio Chamber of Commerce (ACRJ), Sistema S (especially its small business
training arm, SEBRAE-RJ) and the Technology and Innovation Network of Rio de Janeiro
(Redetec) need to be made more dynamic to carry out this task.
Source: Redetec

15. Toward Silicon Beach (2)
• On paper, these four institutions – FIRJAN, ACRJ, Sistema S, and Redetec – have all the
characteristics needed to mobilize and guide the private sector in its interaction with
governments.
• In reality, a renewal of executives and staff is needed with the entry of younger people
atuned to the needs of citizens.
• These new executives and staff should be capable in the use of social media and other
electronic and print media.
• It will be important to be able to involve the stakeholders, including the general public,
inspiring them to participate in the design and implementation of the strategy,
combining bottom up and top down approaches. An example is Palo Alto, open data.
• Governments will have to break down ”silos”, forming integrated working groups with
personnel of all relevant secretariats and agencies – the CIIC can serve as a model.
• Use PPPs for finance and operation and develop business accelerators, beginning with
the dynamization and strengthening of the existing high-tec incubators.
• Above all, the definition of attractive, coherent, and shared strategic visions are needed
to create Silicon Beach and make Rio de Janeiro a national and international
development pole.

16. Thank you!
Peter T. Knight, PhD
Sufficiency4Sustainability Network
Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics
peter@sufficiency4sustainability.org
ptknight@braudel.org.br
www.sufficiency4sustainability.org
www.braudel.org.br/
+55 (21)97519.9033
Sufficiency4Sustainability Network