South Korea’s largest business news conglomerate Maekyung Media Group Thursday launched an online campaign to promote transition to an urban community where people design the neighborhoods they want to live in the future.

The media group on Thursday presented the visions of the so-called IDEA city during its 27th public forum to commemorate its 52th anniversary. The event brought together citizens, entrepreneurs and professionals from various sectors for discussions and ideas on their future community.

The city of tomorrow is actively discussed these days as a municipality can often outpace a country in growth. Cities are competing to create best places to live for sustainable growth.

The forum presented developmental models for future cities that apply artificial intelligence, internet of things, blockchain, automation, and other core 4.0 technologies that are likely to define the direction of future cities. It explored how Korea can marshal the way forward and set standards.

The keystone of the campaign is an online discussion forum that invites citizens, corporations and government officials to bounce off ideas. Best ones will be shortlisted for evaluation by experts in urban planning. Proposals would then be put to an online vote and those that are accepted will be incorporated into the IDEA city model.

All of the ideas would be simulated in a 3-D or virtual reality platform and go through series of testing before being translated into reality.

To encourage active participation, the online forum would run on a blockchain-based incentive system that records and tracks the involvement of citizens and companies along with feedback of experts.

“Top-down urban planning of the past is no longer viable. People must get involved in policymaking and urban designing,” said Kim Kab-sung, professor of urban planning and engineering at Yonsei University and head of the presidential committee for smart city development.

The forum was held in collaboration with Pohang University of Science and Technology and think tanks Future Consensus Institute and Posco Research Institute.

By Chun Beom-joo and Kim Hyo-jin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]