Cybercity Indonesia, where no one has gone before

Cybercity Indonesia, where no one has gone before

By Mila Day

JAKARTA (JP): Living in today's world, the net is open for
business-big time. As big as it gets, the 21st century's
civilization builds cities on networking, virtual or real.

Now, cybercities are blooming all around the world. One of
them, carefully and intelligently planned, is Malaysia Super
Corridor (MSC) by Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn Bhd
(MDC).

Indonesia, with its setbacks and uproars, comes next. The city
funded by L&M Investments Group and organized by PT Cybercity
Indonesia will be built in Kemayoran area, the long defunct
airport in Jakarta. There is also an already-established
satellite city without Internet gimmick, Karawaci, built by the
Lippo Group.

Although without the Net gimmick, Karawaci housing has plug-in
cable network and other integrated facilities. Unlike Karawaci,
the 10-hectare Kemayoran cybercity is still an empty space. The
latter also claims to "act as a hub and a locomotive bridging
Indonesia and the world by creating a virtual and physical
cluster of Internet-related business."

Defining a Cybercity

What is a cybercity? Defining cybercity can be pretty tricky.
To give an idea, let's look up the word "cyberspace" that was
coined by William Gibson in his 1984 novel Neuromancer.
Cyberspace is the total interconnectedness of human beings
through computers and telecommunication without regard to
physical geography. Ever since the Internet became a hype all
over the world in the 90s, the word "cyber" grows famous for any
word related to the Net.

The word cybercity could mean a physical city with Internet
connection, yet could mean a virtual city on the Net. If the
first is taken into account, then a physical city must include
five sectors of living: home, school, office, other facilities
for religious, entertainment or commercial purposes, with streets
to connect each and one of them. This kind of city could be added
with Internet connection to intensify the "cyberhood" of the
area-in contrast with traditional city.

A property consultant, T. Legawa, states another definition of
cybercity. Cybercity is the extended version of teleport.
Teleport itself is defined as the interrelated centers of
broadband world. One big difference between traditional city and
teleport is that teleport's building has raise floors for
computer and telecommunication cables to run freely underneath.
This type of building then is 50 cm higher than traditional
building. It is a smart building, he adds.

One teleport sponsored and funded entirely by private sector,
Immobilien-Treuhand und vermogensahage AG, is Focus Teleport at
Berlin, Germany. Another is in India, the Software Technology
Park at Bangalore. This teleport was initiated and funded by the
Indian Government through the Department of Electronics.

To make it short, a cybercity is probably termed as an
enhanced sophisticated city in contrast with today's existing
"traditional" city. Cybercity is a more advanced teleport, or a
smart city.

From Cyberlaw to Smart Buildings

Despite the political turbulence of the current years, Prime
Minister Dato' Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad has visioned Malaysia as
a fully developed, matured and knowledge-rich country by year
2020. He phrases this as "Vision 2020", a national long term
objective guideline.

With this vision, Malaysia prepares Putrajaya (the new seat of
government and administration), and Cyberjaya (an intelligent
city for multimedia and commercial companies). As a government-
appointed, government-backed corporation, MDC calls Putrajaya and
Cyberjaya as highlights of MSC's physical environment. The 15-km-
wide-and-50-km long MSC project will connect the Kuala Lumpur
City, the new Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Putrajaya and
Cyberjaya. With worldwide partners such as Sun Microsystems,
Oracle, and many others, MDC is arranging the project with three
phases of establishment.

Phase 1 is more to establishing the basics: laws and
regulations. A world-leading framework of Cyberlaws and
intellectual property laws, they call it. Putrajaya for
government office area and Cyberjaya for commercial sites are
also established during this phase.

On Phase 2, MSC is ready to link itself to other cybercities
(or teleports) in Malaysia and all around the world. Phase 3
would transform Malaysia to be a full-fledged knowledge-based
country.

Indonesia is most likely to catch up with what Malaysia has
planned and achieved. The executive committee chairman of L&M
Investments Group, Edward Soeryadjaya, the son of William
Soeryadjaya, founder of Astra International, would bring in
strategic partners to fund Cybercity Indonesia. Soeryadjaya has
already offered SingNet to take up 30 percent stake valued at
US$15 million for the project.

Occupying 10 hectares site in Kemayoran area, Jakarta, this
cybercity is initiating e-business, incubation, multimedia,
education, technology park. PT Cybercity Indonesia has thought of
B2B, B2C, ISP, and other net terms for the e-business item.

Incubation includes expertises for technical, industry,
financial and business sides. Exposure of multimedia-or more
than one concurrent presentation medium-is supported with
broadcasting to broadband facilities. Education and Technology
Park would possibly become the most essential part of a
cybercity.

Last of all, since this project is funded exclusively by
private sector, many aspects of this project can only touch the
surface. It is difficult to foresee cyberlaw to be set forth soon
by the government.

Since most attention of Indonesia's government is focused on
restructuring a bigger land, the cybercity could live up to
gimmick of selling Kemayoran real estate.