Comments by Rick Robinson Subscribe

On A Pattern Language for Smarter Cities?

Hi JB,

I haven't done any work in Colorado myself; but a colleague of mine has. If you'd like to connect on Linked-In, I'd be happy to let him know you're interested - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/drrickrobinson/

Cheers,

Rick

On A Pattern Language for Smarter Cities?

Hi Bob,

You've covered a lot of themes in your comment; one of the most interesting being the interaction between human thought and information systems. I do think these systems are getting closer together thanks to such technologies as the Emotiv headset, which is able to measure the magnetic fields created by brain activity accurately enough to enable it to recognise very simple thoughts, such as directions.

A paralysed woman was recently able to control a robotic arm using such technology. I expect this, and other technologies that are now collectively called "Brain Computer Interfaces" (BCI) will continue to developer (see http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/the-future-of-brain-computer-interfaces-revealed-1101287 for example); and that as they do our thoughts and the internet will become more intimately connected. I posted an article on my blog recently that explored what I think some of the consequences will be, included on how we learn - http://theurbantechnologist.com/2013/01/30/better-stories-for-smarter-cities-three-trends-in-urbanism-that-will-reshape-our-world/ .

Perhaps closer to the present day, I thought Seth Godin's views on education in "Stop Stealing Dreams" were spot on, and reflect some of what you've said - http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf ; how we get from where we are to something that embodies those principles is a different question though.

Most of what you've said is about our personal philosophy and behaviour; but I do think technology offers us the possibility of designing city services that at least allow us to make informed choices that have positive outcomes; I wrote about that in this article: http://theurbantechnologist.com/2012/10/11/open-urbanism-why-the-information-economy-will-lead-to-sustainable-cities/

Cheers,

Rick

On How Smarter Cities Get Started

Hi Nancy,

That's a complicated question! 

It's a controversial topic, but my views on it start from the belief that good quality, usable data takes effort to create. That effort can come from volunteerism in the form of crowd sourcing, say, as in the case of Open Street Maps; but only where it's possible motivate and engage a sufficient pool of volunteer capability. Everywhere else, the effort costs money.

(The effort might be required to improve data quality; to deploy computing infrastructures that make it available at high speed or high volumes; to add explanations and tools that help end users understand and use the data; or for any number of other purposes).

That's where we run into the paradox of open data: if the purpose of open data is to stimulate the unexpected (innovation); how do you quantify its benefits in order to justify investing time and money?

I've seen two approaches that are making progress that don't simply rely on the volunteerism approach or on a single organisation taking a "leap of faith" and making an individual forward-looking investment:

1. Share an initial investment in a basic platform between organisations with shared objectives; and gradually use the proceeds of early successes to expand the platform; whilst consulting with the end-user community to understand their priorities for what should be done next;
2. Exploit shared regional Cloud platforms so that information or a related tool deployed to provide benefits to one organisation can be made available at low cost to other organisations - I describe this idea in more detail in this post on my personal blog - http://theurbantechnologist.com/2012/02/02/how-to-pay-for-a-smarter-city/

There may well be other approaches, perhaps others in this community will comment and suggest them,

Cheers,

Rick

On How Smarter Cities Get Started

Hi Nancy,

You're right, some examples would have helped to bring that aspect of the post to life. For example, some colleagues of mine are involved in the "Dublinked" partnership in Dublin. Dublinked is a partnership between Dublin City Council, three local County Councils, the National University of Ireland and commercial partners such as IBM. My colleagues have written on their blog about their activities engaging with the communities in and around Dublin to share and use data about the city.

The Dublin partnership has learned that by consulting with the community to agree a set of priorities and challenges; and to learn which sources of data would be valuable; that they can create an ecosystem of activity around their information platform that has resulted in the creation of a set of "Apps" that help citizens and businesses in the area. Some of these Apps are now supporting the creation of viable new businesses in the city.

Sunderland's CEO and CIO have both spoken about their intentions to support city businesses and communities through open data initiatives; and I wrote a post on my personal blog some time ago about our engagement with the community of social enterprises in the city to understand exactly what they would want to see from such initiatives.

In the US, Chicago has long been viewed as a leading light in Open Data - I used some of their data feeds myself as long ago as 2007 building early demonstrations for IBM. My colleague Stephen Newell recently posted this excellent presentation on slideshare describing the city's approach.

I hope those examples are helpful, there are many others out there, these are just some of the ones I'm most familiar with,

Cheers,

Rick

On Are Smarter Cities the Key to Social Mobility?

Hi Kay,

Thankyou for your comment; I think that's an incredibly important point. I don't see any way to prevent the ongoing influence of technology on every aspect of our lives. In the private sector, the search for competitive advantage guarantees it; and everywhere I'm familiar with in public sector, it's the source of focus for oppportunities to deliver better services at lower cost.

But access to technology, and the ability to engage with it, is far from equal. Many of the individuals and communities facing the most severe challenges have the least access to technology; or to the opportunities to benefit from it. And we musn't forget that very many people have little or not interest in technology nor desire to use it.

I published a post on my personal blog, "Accessibility or Bust", on this topic; and it's one that I focus on a lot in my work with clients, particularly in Sunderland, where the City Council has a great strategy of investing not just in technology infrastructure for the city, but also in supporting programmes (some of which I mention in that blog post) to help every community in the city to benefit.

Cheers,

Rick