Smart cities or smart citizens : which is the future?

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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