Trinh Thanh Thuy, Editor in Chief of Viet Nam News

Always loving you: An elderly couple in Sơn Đồng Village, Hà Nội. Online exchange cannot replace the so called "personal touch". VNS Photo Việt Thanh

Despite smart homes, smart cities, the virtual living environment cannot totally replace the real social bonds between humans, the physical and material world.

Why don’t we make full use of the existing communal relations, groups, structures, helping them form various types of smart communities? I would call them “cell smart communities”. Although I understand the pioneering role of smart urban centres, transformation from existing communities/structures into smart ones will probably be less disruptive.

Currently there is a serious lack of a strong and reliable connection between the virtual world and the physical world. There are a lot of instances where people are living a dual life – online and offline – with no connection between them.

It is not a must that the two have to be connected, but if connected, verified and acknowledged by the relevant communities then there will be much less cheating.

People will have incentives to behave better, good people or good deeds will be duly encouraged and promoted, bad people or behaviours will be traced and discredited, trust among human beings, which is being eroded day by day, will be enhanced, people will be more responsible for their own actions and their community.

If every piece of information is virtually checked this way by the smart community at the source, it is likely to be more accurate, hence less need for “management” and therefore much “freer”. Actually this is also the way peer reviewing is working for scientists.

If success stories and failure lessons are all verified and spread freely, there are less chances for lies or fake news.

Blockchain technology should be applied in ways that should not only enable and enforce top-down regulation but also the other way round, avoiding asymmetric information. That will mean both the citizens and the authorities will have to behave responsibly as the system ensures transparency. This will help get rid of corruption.

Communities can choose to be “fiction” or “reliable” by adopting/not adopting the mechanism. Smart communities “talk” or exchange information to each other via accepted protocol. They need not develop in uniform, each can have a different model and structure, except for the agreed way they “talk” to each other, just like the various applications we now find on the internet.

Technological means such as the internet, blockchains and any innovations that will be made will connect the “cell smart communities” forming a smart ecosystem.

These connections besides helping the communities and its members communicate with each other could also help people who might have things to exchange, such as labour, money, goods, goodwill and even volunteering initiatives to find those who need exactly that, verified and certified.

The nature of this kind of communication will aid inclusive development, allowing anyone who is willing to contribute or work can do what he/she wish without any conditions, and being credited for that (by blockchain technology).

This smart ecosystem should allow people/communities to be credited and rated for all they have done by their peers and partners in the course, and immediately find out the resources to fill the gaps if there are, correcting itself and evolving all the time, no need for five year or ten year reviews or restructuring.

This model can be developed in each country and connected worldwide. The world is already connected, albeit patchily, it should remain connected, but improved by the formation of “cell smart communities”. These could be a locality (village, commune, district, provinces or even nations), professional groups (scientists, lawyers, artists) or simply groups of likeminded people (religious groups, NGOs).

We already have communities that are being dissipated by modern reclusive lifestyle. Proof can be found everywhere with the rising number of suicides and elderly finding themselves growing old alone.

In Vietnam we still have very strong farmers’ associations, women’s association, youth associations and village chiefs. Besides there are a lot of professional associations and groups that can be strengthened again by forming “cell smart communities”, one does not exclude another. These existing components and the blockchain ensures information posted in the system is trustworthy. Imagine someone claiming to have a big house, which he doesn’t own, to win creditors’ trust? His neighbours will be the first ones to discredit him and set the record straight.

The cell communities can choose to share which information they want to share and keep others for themselves, but the shared information is always verified. This way top secrets/sovereignty won’t be compromised.

An isolated community, even self-sufficient, will not fully exploit all the benefits that a smart ecosystem can bring. But for smart communities to be able to connect or “talk” to each other worldwide and be used as an official tool for administration and business, common protocols or standards need to be adopted and their values officially recognised by governments.

Another advantage is this smart ecosystem is not too difficult to establish as we have the internet and can learn from innovations that are already made by giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, or blockchain, and models such as Grab, with just a few modifications and some more features.

Observing the non-observed economy

What is really needed is the commitment from Governments, communities and (credited) volunteers who will enable and ensure the inclusion of all members of the society to make full use of it.

How? Incentives, free apps, free beneficial features and convenience will help the system thrive and even generate values.

For example if everyone can open his/her shop on the platform free of charge, legally, and will not be taxed until its revenue reaches a threshold double the tax threshold offline, endorsed by the government, it will be a big draw for start-ups. The government in compensation for a higher tax threshold will have a larger tax base as there are less evaders and the base will include the normally non-observed economic sector which should find the platform cheap and efficient.

Everyone looking for a job can easily look for an appropriate position without going through an intermediary and/or fear of being cheated by unscrupulous employees as the credit system is verified by blockchain technology.

Even those who have not found employment can do volunteer work to raise his/her credit in the meantime.

Some times it even helps those desperate, poor or cannot do business by allowing them to exchange their services, goods or materials with others or offer their services for free and gain some credit for later use or enhance their profile.

The involvement of a public administrator like governments is especially important to ensure the system receive impartial, timely funding for public benefits and to ensure revenues are fairly shared.

Of course all communities cannot be made smart with blockchain and other features at once, but we can flag those that have reached the smart standard (also meaning more trustworthy). The cell smart communities can be established one by one or on a large scale based on existing infrastructure, allowing the size of projects to be flexible depending on funding sources and the will of community members. The smart ecosystem, if deployed on a large scale, can become a reliable powerful tool for any sensible global campaign.

Here we can draw lessons from the operation of small credits for women by Grameen banks where the grassroots community can function effectively in the absent of formal credit institutions. Where formal institutions fail to reach, the grassroots people can compensate for their shortcomings. Checking and peer reviewing by local members can enhance trust.

Those who do not have the ability to use or somehow cannot access the system can be assisted or taken care of offline by other members of the “cell smart community”, whose assistance will be credited, so virtually they are still present in the smart ecosystem.

A cell-like structure will even help save energy when we apply blockchain technology as the information can be verified within a smaller smart community and then become eligible to share among cells without the need to be verified again by multiple users.

Costs and time for activities such as monitoring  campaigning, planning, accounting, analysing can be reduced considerably.

For this scheme to work it needs meaningful input from scientists, managers, activists and developers, policy makers and participation of members of the society, but I believe it will help make our living environment online and offline less chaotic and more inclusive than it is.

While social media mostly engages users on a voluntary basis, a smart community that is reliable and trustworthy must become necessity for its members.

However prudence should be exerted in implementation to ensure members’ real and active participation in any such smart community to ensure the smart versions really benefit them and avoid investment becoming “white elephants”.

I may sound simplistic or utopian, but I believe all the technologies are already there or certainly within reach, for the building of such smart communities. Where there is a will, there is a way. VNS