By Lookout Staff

June 14, 2012 -- The City of Santa Monica announced Wednesday that it is partnering with the National Science Foundation to “ignite” the local development of next-generation Internet applications and services.

The initiative is part of the US Ignite Partnership that has entered into agreements with 25 cities, including Santa Monica, to "capitalize on what is possible through virtualized ultra-fast broadband networks," City officials said.

“Santa Monica has been a leader in the development of a public fiber network so that in the future, we will have the infrastructure to support the next-generation applications and cutting-edge technologies,” said Jory Wolf, the City of Santa Monica’s chief information officer.

“We’re proud to bring our skills and experience in this area to this partnership in the hopes that we can advance national and local priorities for more and better broadband services.”

The partnership will allow Santa Monica to explore "next-generation, bandwidth-heavy applications" that capitalize on the City's fiber optic network that supports municipal operations.

These include traffic signal synchronization, transportation management and real-time parking and security applications, as well as Santa Monica's free City Wi-Fi service that is offered in more than 29 locations across the city.

In addition, the City will use the new technology to further such municipal priorities as telemedicine, virtual learning, regional telepresence and smart-grid.

The Partnership and pilot cities are being announced during an event Thursday at the White House, City officials said. 

The US Ignite Partnership hopes to spur 60 advanced, next-gen applications over the next five years in education and workforce development, advanced manufacturing, health IT, transportation, public safety, and clean energy.

The Partnership hopes to support startups and help local and state government, universities, industry leaders, federal agencies and foundations build new applications.