Are people ready for a Digital CBD? The new infrastructure demands

Melbourne has experienced ‘twin shocks’ in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic and the supercluster of existing and emerging technologies. They have accelerated Industry 4.0 and the digital transformation of the city. The new infrastructure demands of the digital CBD are linked to these shocks. In this report, we profile the existing and emerging technologies at the core of digital transformations in industry, the economy, and social and cultural life. This report starts with the position that any city, Melbourne included, must meet the needs of various stakeholders, and so too must digital infrastructures. It highlights how digital inclusion is vital for equitable access to digital infrastructures and vibrant engagement with a digital CBD. It also identifies how secure and resilient infrastructures support economic growth and ensure access to essential services for residents across the regions to the CBD. Our key point is that digital infrastructures must be secure and inclusive, and that people must have the digital capabilities to use them. Next, we provide a conceptual toolkit that offers three ways to see the scale, complexity and scope of digital infrastructures and we showcase three real-world case studies that make digital infrastructures visible and tangible. Across the cases, the report provides original evidence from the Digital CBD survey conducted in April 2022. The survey presents a living baseline of residents of Melbourne’s metro, urban and regional centres as we re-emerge and re-open. The survey captures their engagement with the city and their everyday practices for work, learning and thriving, alongside their digital abilities. The first case study presents digital infrastructures as a place of work that extends Melbourne’s workplaces into the home and outlying areas of the Victorian regions. The twin shocks radically disrupted work and workplaces, and forced people into technologically mediated ways of working. Drawing on empirical research, we discuss how access to digital infrastructures from the home vary by location.