The Future of Digital High Streets
Camilla Anderson
Ahead of the Digital High Streets workshop on 21st October, this blog introduces the topic of Digital High Streets, and how towns can ensure a comprehensive coverage of connected services as we move into a more digital world.
The key value proposition of the 19th and 20th century’s high street was its ability to create physical connectivity between people and businesses, to facilitate social and economic interactions through the provision of space. Today, physical proximity is still the cornerstone of a thriving community, but there is a new dimension to safeguarding the social and economic vibrancy of the street: the digital layer.
Digital connectivity already plays an important role in the experience of the high street, from facilitating contactless payments to managing parking permits. Some town centres may have an app specifically developed to help people discover new sights, while others use sensors to gather insights from footfall data. Some businesses encourage customers to share pictures of their products online, while others curate websites to capture the attention of online buyers. Every instance is an example of a “connected service” that is facilitated by the provision of telecommunication infrastructure.
At the moment, these experiences are most commonly provided in a piecemeal manner, with private infrastructure companies delivering the basic cabling and individual businesses buying their own network access and – if they have the resources – developing bespoke front-end applications. Some users may visit the street with high-speed Wi-Fi on their private smartphones, while others could be entirely cut off from engaging with the street’s digital layer. There is a plethora of missed opportunities to this approach, where the high street as a combined entity has virtually no control or ownership over the digital experience and any value that could be derived hereof.
In response, we propose the development of a “Digital Blueprint” for towns. In the context of the built environment, a Digital Blueprint is a holistic description of the different layers of infrastructure that are required to deliver connected services in a certain place or area, which brings together cultural, spatial, and digital considerations to deliver exceptional user experiences. Towns can harness this digital layer to drive economic regeneration, address the digital divide, and create thriving, future-ready places for all to live, work, and play. As such, the Blueprint is an integral part future-proofing and supporting other investments and should be defined and funded as a foundational component.
Seven key benefits include:
Encourage the development and delivery of connected services for people and businesses
Ensure the equal and fair distribution of services to all citizens
Derive economic, social, and environmental value from data insights
Unlock new physical and digital spaces and experiences to increase street attendance
Increase the activity and resilience of the local economy
Improve operations to become more demand-responsive
Manage businesses and tenancies more dynamically throughout the week and seasons
These benefits are only unlocked if the town centre’s digital layer operates by a single blueprint, using a common language that has been designed with common benefits in mind.
By providing a framework for the deployment of connected services and their supporting telecommunication infrastructure, towns will be much better placed to control the user experience while benefitting from the value that data creates. Furthermore, a strong blueprint has the power to invite a much wider range of stakeholders – from local community members to global start-ups – to partake in the development of the street’s current and future connected services.