Democratic Accountability and Innovation

Open, Collaborative, and Social

Smart City Expo World CongressNovember 14, 2018

Barcelona

Yochai Benkler, Harvard University

Understanding technologicalchange is central to understandingmodern society

If you, the regulator/legislator, do not get with the program, your society will fall off the train

If you, the regulator/legislator, do not get with the program, your society will fall off the train

1. A proprietary solution from a single firm is ALMOST NEVER the solution. Open standards, open data, and diversity will outperform over time

2. The choices you make are never purely technical and efficiency-based

Technological choices always involve choices about social relations: are your residents first and foremost:

clients to whom you owe a flow of services, or citizens, members of a democratic community

A Quarter Century of Innovation Studies

Atomistic invention Learning networks

Market-oriented innovation

Non-market necessary alongside market

Competition Cooperation & competition

Property Commons & property

A Quarter Century of Innovation Studies

Atomistic invention Learning networks

History: major innovations of industrialization rewrittenEconomic geography: Knowledge spilloversSociology: network emerges as primary explanatory modelEconomics: on the shoulders of giants; absorptive capacityTechnology: FOSS; Commons-based peer production

A Quarter Century of Innovation Studies

Atomistic invention Learning networks

Market-oriented innovation

Non-market necessary alongside market

Competition Cooperation & competition

A Quarter Century of Innovation Studies

Atomistic invention Learning networks

Market-oriented innovation

Non-market necessary alongside market

Competition Cooperation & competition

Property exclusively Commons & property interaction

Commons Studies

Spectrum Commons => 5G?

SmartGridComms

health

Urban connectivity

Spectrum Commons => 5G?

Rapid innovation cycles bydiverse equipment manufacturers and service providers with open access to spectrum outpaced carrier-centric proprietary innovation from 1999-present

Open spaces are as critical in data, information, and innovation infrastructure as they are in the

built environment

1. A proprietary solution from a single firm is ALMOST NEVER the solution. Open standards, open data, and diversity will outperform over time

2. The choices you make are never purely technical and efficiency-based

Technological choices always involve choices about social relations: are your residents first and foremost:

clients to whom you owe a flow of services, or citizens, members of a democratic community

If you, the regulator/legislator, do not get with the program, your society will fall off the train

Low-cost, low-service, high turnover Leveraging data for power over suppliers andworkers to achieve cost-squeezing-based profits

Relational contracting with suppliers, long-termemployee relationships, high-unionization, higherunion coverage, training and high-value strategy

Vertical integration; limitedcoalitions with workers; directcompetition with suppliers

Shopkeepers Retailers

Shared overall patterns => technology matters

High diversity on the most importantsocial dimensions => politics, institutions, culture matter

Local regulation, like zoning, played an important role

Robotics density in manufacturing higher in Germany than US for decades, but manufacturing employment declines more in US

Politics, unions, co-determination all work to contain patterns ofadoption

“Cobots” emerging as fastest growing segment

Too soon to tell if the “these robots complement humanlabor” is => lip service to calm political anxieties aboutthe future of work;

straight up efficiency-driven improvementA shift in the direction of innovation from labor-

displacement to labor-complementarity in response to political-institutional dynamics

Platforms: Choices

consumers

vendors

Neighbors, Co-WorkersPeers

NeighborsCo-WorkersPeers

Farmers markets are not the same as big box retailers

Squares, superblocks are not thesame as malls

consumers

vendors

Neighbors, Co-WorkersPeers

NeighborsCo-WorkersPeers

Carpooling

~13.6M in 2016 ~x2 mass transit commute to work x15 cycled

~8.5M use Daily /Weekly

Cost sharing

Technological ensemble is identical

Social-economic model different

Meaning is difference

Platforms: ChoicesLower transactions costsRegulatory avoidanceNegative externalities

On the vertical dimension:

Sharing Cities Declaration

Consumer VendorCommodified exchange

Peer PeerSocial production

Precarious labor &Extractive profits

Fair economic model & rewards

Form contracts of adhesion

Participatory community governance

Proprietary & opaqueTech & Data

Open & transparent Tech & Data

Regulatory arbitrage /Responsibility avoidance

Responsibility for impact; dutyto avoid, mitigate, redress harm

Efficiency/Innovation vs. Community?

• False choice: profitable for someone • Sidewalks, streets, squares, parks:

• Without commons cities would not be cities• Commerce and community are impossible without robust commons

Not just a “sharing cities” issue!

• “5G” => ubiquitous high capacity wireless connectivity• IoT => where is data stored and how is it controlled• “Blockchain” => what kind of decentralization?• AI is all about policy choices• Mobility• Governance

Not just a “sharing cities” issue!

• 5G is a carrier-centered definition of the problem of ubiquitous high capacity wireless connectivity, biased toward centralized control• Innovation in healthcare, smartgrids, even data all suggest that spectrum

commons-based strategies have innovated more rapidly • Community or municipal commons infrastructure technologically feasible but

requires institutional innovation, which can come from cities!

Not just a “sharing cities” issue!

• “5G” => ubiquitous high capacity wireless connectivity• IoT has vastly different implications depending • on where data is stored and how it is controlled

Not just a “sharing cities” issue!

• “5G” => ubiquitous high capacity wireless connectivity• IoT => where is data stored and how is it controlled• Blockchain supports decentralization

• hyper-neoliberal implementations• Commons-based implementations

=> depending on encoded governance choices

Not just a “sharing cities” issue!

• “5G” => ubiquitous high capacity wireless connectivity• IoT => where is data stored and how is it controlled• “Blockchain” => what kind of decentralization?• Artificial intelligence often masks underlying policy choices that

companies and governments need to make. These can be more or less participatory & transparent• There is no “ghost in the machine”• There are moral, political, and economic choices that engineers, companies,

and regulators make in how they design, train, audit, and correct the algorithms• Only transparency & auditability can assure democratic

accountability

Not just a “sharing cities” issue!

• “5G” => ubiquitous high capacity wireless connectivity• IoT => where is data stored and how is it controlled• “Blockchain” => what kind of decentralization?• AI is all about policy choices• Mobility• Governance: Democratic Accountability

Open knowledge, data, and information are as critical to the Smart City as streets, sidewalks, squares and parks are to the built urban environment.

Resist enclosure to the same extent that you would resist the privatization of all urban open spaces

Data access and transparency are a precondition to assuring that cities remain democratically accountable and that residents remain citizens