New York City is known as the media capital of the world, yet in Ericsson’s 2014 Networked Society City Index, it ranked 7th behind Stockholm, London and Paris who took out the top spots in that order. So what’s missing in The Big Apple?

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New York: A Large City Network, source: Wikimedia Commons

Cities are probably one of the best examples of a complex networked society, with the infrastructural overlaps between social, technical and media networks. The Networked Society Index ranks cities globally based on criteria designed to identify the world’s largest, most interconnected and influential hubs that serve as vehicles for further growth.

As the largest city in the USA, NYC is highly integrated into the global economy, with headquarters to 26 of the world’s Fortune Global 500 companies, and is also a significant contributor to the provision of a wide array of accessible data that can be used in app development or for research purposes. 

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Part of The City Network At Times Square, source: Wikimedia Commons

The Big Apple Needs More Bites 

Surprisingly, a relatively low proportion of residents use the full potential of the city’s networked technologies. A number of projects are being implemented to increase the connectivity of New Yorkers. AT&T has, for example, developed a number of solar-powered street charging stations for smartphones.

Another unexpected finding was the availability and quality of the mobile network. This is being addressed with significant expansion of broadband coverage.

Start-Ups Fall Short

NYC ranked high on education and knowledge-intensive centres, yet fell short on patent applications and business start-ups. As we saw in a recent blog post, NYC Council has introduced a number of incentives to the business sector to drive technology investment.

Whilst New York City did rank high on the list, there are challenges to overcome in order to improve its ranking. Multiple initiatives are now in place to address these shortcomings, so it will be interesting to see how the city ranks in this years report.

 Words by Katrina Savell