Living in the smart city; The

Dr. Gabriela Avram

Introduction to Digital Media 2017 Outline p Smart cities vs. smart citizens p Civic technologies p Public involvement and p Digital platforms and the sharing economy. What is a Smart City? p How a city performs depends not only on the city's physical infrastructure but also on the availability and quality of knowledge communication and social infrastructure. p The Smart City" concept - an attempt to bring together modern urban production factors in a common framework and to emphasize the growing importance of ICTs, social and environmental capital in assessing the competitiveness of cities. p Previously used terms –digital cities, intelligent cities. The Smart City concept p top-down approach p Two different perspectives: ■ US – technology-centric (IBM, Cisco, Siemens) ■ Europe & Asia –led by governments and motivated by an ambition to build green, sustainable cities p Big Data – generating data at every step p Who uses it? Who has access to it? Smart City Critique p Adam Greenfield sees a "deep conceptual problem with the smart city at virtually every level." ( Greenfield, 2013) p the vision and ideology of "smart city" is mainly promoted by large technology vendors like Cisco, IBM, Siemens, Hitachi, and Microsoft, among others. p a fairly major discourse in urbanism is authored by private enterprises Smarter citizens, smarter communities p Bottom up DIY urbanism p open code, open data, do-it-yourself philosophy and citizen participation p User-centric interfaces and controls

OpenStreetMap.org Civic technologies p Civic technology is technology (mainly information technology) that enables engagement or participation of the public for stronger development, enhancing citizen communications, improving government infrastructure, and generally improving the public good. Examples of bottom-up projects

■ Smart Citizen (a kit containing sensors for measuring environmental indicators and connecting via the online platform Cosm) –FabLab Barcelona ■ DataCitizenDrivenCity- MediaLab Prado Source: http://lab.cccb.org/en/smart-citizens-in-the-data-metropolis/ After the Fukushima disaster- the Tokyo hackerspace built cheap Geiger counters ■ SafeCast gave away DIY Geiger Counters to people to travel with all over the world, which automatically upload all the data collected to an online database, open and free for anyone to use. Source:TEDx Brussels talk – Mitch Altman -The hackerspace movement -http:// www.youtube.com/embed/WkiX7R1-kaY Ushahidi p Ushahidi means “testimony” in Swahili p It was developed to map reports of violence in after the post-election violence in 2008 p crowdsourcing for social activism and public accountability p "activist mapping"—the combination of social activism, citizen journalism and geospatial information. p Ushahidi enables local observers to submit reports using their mobile phones or the internet, while simultaneously creating a temporal and geospatial archive of events. p The platform is often used for crisis response, human rights reporting, and election monitoring.

Fix my Street Cycle Atlanta

Project of the Participatory Publics Lab at Georgia Tech Open Data p “Open data is a practice requiring that certain data are freely available to everyone, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. p The government is opening up its data for other people to reuse. This is only about non-personal, non-sensitive data information like the list of schools, crime rates or the performance of your council. p Open data gives us a window into how our government operates so we can enhance its services, help build on its analysis and, when necessary, hold it to account. Data also powers our economy, better information and data can mean more efficient services, higher productivity, and more informed choices. “ Source: OpenData.ie FAQs Dublinked Ireland’s Open Data Portal p Planning permission applications -Mypp.ie Example: HittheRoad.ie p Polling Stations dataset was released on Fingal Open Data- 2011 p Hit the Road incorporated the data into their website.Hit The Road is a public transport journey- planning service, which you can use to find directions in and around Dublin. p launched in May 2010, and supports Dublin Bus, Luas and DART KildareStreet.com Open Government Partnership OGP Ireland Action Plan p Increase citizen participation locally p Citizen engagement in local authority budgetary process p Maximize young people’s participation in/understanding of civic life p Customer improvements for citizens through technology Crowdsourcing p a specific sourcing model in Examples: which individuals or p Linux organizations use contributions p Wikipedia from Internet users to obtain needed services or ideas. p Amazon Mechanical Turk p p 2005 - crowd + outsourcing. Patients like me p p Crowdsourcing vs.outsourcing OpenStreetmap p work can come from an undefined public; it includes a mix of bottom-up and top-down processes. The Sharing Economy Sharing Economy Definition p A system that activates the untapped value of all kinds of assets through models and marketplaces that enable greater efficiency and access. (Rachel Botsman) Alternative names: p Peer to Peer Economy p Collaborative Consumption p Collaborative Economy p Gig Economy Alternative Definition p An economy built on distributed networks of connected individuals and communities as opposed to centralised institutions, transforming how we can produce, consume, finance and learn. Source: Collaborative Lab- The Sharing Economy Lacks a Shared Definition - http:// www.slideshare.net/CollabLab/shared-def-pptf Why sharing? p Economic crisis p Excess waste p Tools and equipment we seldom use p Extensive choice p Consumerism p Race to the bottom- low quality, low price p Planned obsolescence What can be shared? p Goods (second-hand, loaned, customised) p Services (personal, professional) p Transportation (taxi, car rental) p Space (office, accommodation, parking, gardening) p Money (lending, crowdfunding) Source: Jeremiah Owyang- Sharing is the New Buying: How to Win in the Collaborative Economy- http://www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/ sharingnewbuying Vizeat

12 things people share Any comments?

p Books p Cars p Clothes p Apartments and holiday homes p DVDs p Jewelery p Computers, phones, activity trackers p Furniture p Cleaning services p Money p Toys p Writing services p Source: Robin Teigland-Sharing Economy Brussels Oct 2015, http:// www.slideshare.net/eteigland/sharing-economy-brussels-oct-2015 Micro-entrepreneurship

p US Creating Opportunity Through the Sharing Economy | Emily Castor | TEDxSacramentoSalon, https://youtu.be/I_hzH5imb_E What about the shadow economy?

p How the ‘sharing economy’ disrupts civilization | Ed Ericson Jr. | TEDxBaltimore, https://youtu.be/ ZFyGVEAmvcU

Conclusions p The so-called “smart cities” provide an advanced technical infrastructure; p However, citizens buy-in and involvement is paramount; p Civic technologies (or citizen tech) are providing a platform for local authorities and citizens to collaborate; p The collaborative economy includes both business applications and social/solidarity initiatives based on digital platforms.