InterSection Workshop December 11, 2015
Disputatio Week of BarcelonaBarcelona Knowledge Hub, Academia Europaea
Naba Barkakati, Ph.D., Chief TechnologistU.S. Government Accountability Office
www.gao.gov
Smart Cities or Smart Citizens:
Which is the Future?
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BCN Smart City - perfect venue for this discussion...
Barcelona is recognized as one of the top Smart Cities in the world
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“Things” that connect to the Internet to “communicate” and, optionally, “act”
Graphics from Pixabay/License: CC0 Public Domain / https://pixabay.com/en/network-iot-internet-of-things-782707/
Internet of Things
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An example: “Smart Home”• Thermostat• Alarm system• Camera• Smart meter
Access from smartphone app
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Smart Cities - Internet-connected infrastructure and analytics
© By Regiars (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons 5
● Use IoT (sensors, data analytics) infrastructure to collect, aggregate, and use data to improve the quality of life of the citizens
● Monitor/manage: environment, energy, water, waste management, transportation
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First generation Smart Cities - top-down, technology-driven
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● Masdar, Abu Dhabi● Songdo, South Korea● PlanIT Valley, Portugal
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Critiques of solely technology-driven futuristic smart cities
2013 book by Anthony Townsend: Missing out on how cities interact with citizens
http://anthonymobile.com/smart-cities-book/
June 2015 NESTA report:Failed to deliver on promises because of high up-front cost of technology and low return
http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/rethinking-smart-cities-ground 7
Smart Cities make Smart Citizens - use connected technologies to inform
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Paying attention to what citizens need...
76% want sensors in public places
that let them know which areas
are crowded;
70% want to compare their energy
use with that of their neighbors’ so
that they can optimize their
behavior; and
74% want both interactive street
signs and bike and car sharing.
Ericsson Consumerlab Nov 2014 Survey:
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Smart Cities AND Smart Citizens -- a virtuous cycle
Informed citizens = “smart citizens”
Smart city projects 10
Ideas
Smart Citizens as co-creators of Smart Cities
Crowdsourcing data collection by citizens
Open data in standard digital format
Applications for citizens
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Image by Argonne National Laboratory, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Dystopian views of Smart Cities…All-seeing, all-knowing
smart city will destroy democracy
Efficient, but not the life we want
Video surveillance
Threat to privacyCyberattacks
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https://business.kaspersky.com/smart-cities-future-utopia-or-inevitable-dystopia/4058/http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/dec/17/truth-smart-city-destroy-democracy-urban-thinkers-buzzphrase
Smart Citizens are our best hope and technology is not always the answer
Technology-savvy smart, engaged citizens are key to success of smart cities
ICT alone is not the answer -- e.g., use of cable cars and public facilities to integrate neighborhoods in Medellín, Colombia
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