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Category: Promising Practices

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Smart city experts on importance of digital and cultural inclusivity in cities

Screenshot-2017-12-10 Transcript Transformers – Cities

Beth Blauer, Founder of GovEx at Johns Hopkins University, Kate Garman, Smart City Coordinator for the City of Seattle, and Erie Meyer, Senior Director of National Network at Code for America, describe the importance of digital and cultural inclusivity for the future of smart cities.

On November 14, The Washington Post brought together city officials, urban strategists, innovators and technologists to discuss and debate the advancements that are shaping the future of cities across the country.

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Fostering Digital Inclusion in Smart Cities

Fostering digital inclusion in smart cities | | Parameters

Cities capture people’s imaginations because they are a whirlwind of change, adaptation, and challenge. Cities change on almost a daily basis, with the influx and exit of commuters. To survive over time, cities have to adapt to economic change, migration patterns, and citizens’ needs. Cities also have to face society’s toughest problems—poverty, crime, homelessness, and more—all while delivering the public services that help make a city hum.

In the early part of the twenty-first century, information and communications technologies (ICTs) have come to be seen as a way to help cities thrive. With the right deployment of technology, cities can become “smart” so that they can better deliver public services. Running parallel to the “smart city” discussion is the notion of inclusion; that is, a city is better off if a wide range of people participate in how it grows and evolves. In this context, inclusion has a lot to do with diversity—in the economy, civic life, and urban design. The upshot can be greater equity, as opportunities for economic and social growth open up to a wide range of a city’s population. ICTs may be among the tools deployed to enhance inclusion.

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WEBINAR: Livestream | LinkedIn Speaker Series with @HabenGirma

Screenshot-2017-12-9 Livestream LinkedIn Speaker Series

Upcoming Speaker Series: Haben Girma
Tuesday, December 12 at 10:30AM PT

As the the first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma advocates for equal opportunities for people with disabilities. Haben travels the world consulting and public speaking, teaching clients the benefits of fully accessible products and services. Haben has been working with LinkedIn to make our workplace and products more inclusive, and we are so excited to introduce her to the rest of the company – and the world! Come listen to Haben’s inspiring story, and learn how disability is driving innovation….

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Empowering the Transformation to a More Inclusive and Accessible World

Empowering the Transformation to a More Inclusive and Accessible World

United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities (UN IDPD) serves as an important reminder that globally there are over a billion people with a disability. This year’s theme, “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient society for all” is especially relevant to our accessibility efforts here at Microsoft. This is a fact reinforced by the World Health Organization in which they shared that only 1 in 10 have access to the assistive technology they need: technology that can empower functioning, well-being and independence. This is a statistic that needs to change.

Disability is something that can affect any of us at any time, and technology has the power to change lives and help transform society on multiple levels. There have been many advances in assistive technology, especially in the last couple of years, and it’s both exciting and humbling to see the progress. There’s a lot more to do (and trust me, we’re on that!) but in the meantime, let’s talk about some of the steps we’re making at Microsoft to make accessibility easier to find, use, and become a master at….

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Disability – An Upside for Everyone in Unifying Smart City Design

Screenshot-2017-12-8 Disability An Upside for Everyone in Unifying Smart City Design

Disabilities have a lot in common with the many of the technology markets I have analyzed for the last 20 years: each was developed and considered in isolation, solutions were specific to each area, and the cost was excessive. Nothing united the disability segments just like nothing united the different streams of technology. Until now….

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Austin is Fast Becoming The Most Livable, Accessible & Inclusive “Smart City” In the U.S.

Screenshot-2017-12-8 Austin is Fast Becoming The Most Livable, Accessible Inclusive City In the U S

Austin is Fast Becoming The Most Livable, Accessible & Inclusive Smart City In the U.S.
Building cities and societies for human diversity and social inclusion is becoming a global mandate and Austin is about to do it all.

Austin Skyline and Lady Bird Lake from the Hyatt Panorama View

Date Feb. 8, 2017
Author: Darren Bates

AUSTIN, TX — We are at a historic moment in inclusive social and economic development, fueled by technological advances. Like so many municipalities across our nation, the City of Austin seeks to improve livability, workability, and sustainability.

However, Austin has work to do. For far too long Austin has failed to consider the unique ways physical and social barriers limit the participation of persons with disabilities and other historically underserved populations from accessing and enjoying city benefits, services, and products.

As well, the lack of participation of persons with disabilities, people of color and other equity groups in Austin’s urban affairs is one of the biggest challenges facing our central Texas city….

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Ford Foundation Setting-the-Pace for Smart City Inclusion

Screenshot-2017-12-5 Why disability rights are central to social justice work—and what we’re doing about it

Last fall, Darren Walker wrote an essay urging all of us to acknowledge our personal biases and to understand how those biases can fuel injustice and inequality. Darren’s call grew out of his own awakening: the realization, brought to light by friends and activists, that for all the foundation’s attention to challenging inequality, we hadn’t accounted for the huge community of people living with disabilities. It was a humbling moment, he wrote.

As the past year has shown, it has also proved to be a consequential one. It quickly became clear that our focus on inequality demands that we think seriously about disability issues. It became equally clear that across all our programs, the specific outcomes and goals we’re working to achieve simply cannot be accomplished without addressing the needs, concerns, and priorities of people with disabilities. And so, guided by the disability movement’s mantra, “Nothing about us without us,” we’ve been working to confront ableism and expand participation and inclusion on both the institutional and the individual levels. It turned out we had a lot to learn.

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Google’s Sidewalk Labs Signs Deal For Smart City Makeover

Google’s Sidewalk Labs signs deal for ‘smart city’ makeover of Toronto’s waterfront

The partnership between a U.S. urban-innovation lab and a government agency could bring a bold experiment in city-building and high-tech to Toronto, Alex Bozikovic explains More below • An illustrated primer on how Sidewalk Toronto would work An artist’s illustration shows Sidewalk Labs’s Quayside redevelopment of the Toronto waterfront. ILLUSTRATIONS COURTESY OF sidewalk labs Published October 17, 2017Updated November 12, 2017 A unit of…

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Smart Cities Library™ is Now Online!

Smart Cities Library Header

Smart Cities Library™ is Now Online! The Smart Cities Library™ is a premier online resource that helps private, and public organizations build and refine accessible and inclusive smart cities that ensure no citizen is left behind or excluded. The Smart Cities Library™ includes breaking news, maturity models, best practices, roadmaps, e-books, and other Smart City solutions highly curated and cataloged…

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Why Sharing Cities make sense for a prosperous and sustainable future

Darren_Sharp_nd Family Portrait

The sharing economy is an exciting new story for a new economy. It’s an idea that’s going mainstream and is often talked about in terms of matching needs with haves and connecting supply and demand at the peer to peer level.

You might have first-hand experience of how the sharing economy provides opportunities to better utlise your idle assets whether a spare bedroom, that car sitting in your driveway, or even the driveway itself. There’s also a raft of new service exchanges that enable people to share skills and errand marketplaces that provide task-based opportunities for people to supplement their income.

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Urban Disruption, Sidewalk Labs and Social Inclusion in the Public Realm of Future SmartCities

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OP-ED in Reply To: “Reimagining cities from the internet up” by Daniel L. Doctoroff Dear Daniel L. Doctoroff, Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! I applaud and appreciate your efforts and the efforts of your team at Sidewalk Labs for demonstrating the importance of listening, learning, and putting all people first. Like yourself, I understand the urban public realm and am eager to see…

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Can Google Finally Create a Successful Smart City

Can Google Finally Create a Successful ‘Smart City’? – Pacific Standard

Many have attempted, and failed, to integrate technology into urban planning. and now Sidewalk Labs is trying it again in Toronto. tml-version=”Sidewalk Labs, the urban innovation start-up owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has announced a partnership with the City of Toronto to develop a new waterfront precinct. Time to ask Google: Can you build a city? The Quayside precinct,…

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Inclusive Smart City 3-D Urban Planning

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Help municipalities build #inclusion #SmartCities by using 3-D modeling tools that show the diversity of citizens, including seniors & people with disabilities.

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All for One and One for All: a Tale of an Inclusive #SmartCity

All for One and One for All: a Tale of a Smart, Inclusive City

The key to successful smart cities is addressing the current and future needs of every citizen. This is especially important for those who are aging or have disabilities. Inclusiveness should be at the forefront of every smart city strategy. The lens of design for inclusion is critical to make certain the promise of smart cities helps close the digital divide, rather than widen the gap. Moreover, cities are networks of diverse individuals and people who are aging and living with disabilities are integral to these networks—along with their families, neighbors and caregivers.

What’s the blueprint for building a smart, inclusive city? AT&T compiled insights and proposed guidelines in a new white paper, “Smart Cities for All: A Vision for an Inclusive, Accessible Urban Future.”

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The Future of Equity in Cities @leagueofcities

The Future of Equity in Cities @leagueofcities

As cities embrace a future permeated by technology, local leaders must continually reassert and revisit community values, while ensuring these values are the foundation of new plans, policies, and programs.

This is particularly true in the areas of infrastructure, public safety and economic development, which are consistently identified as top issues of concern for city officials.

NLC’s latest report, “The Future of Equity in Cities” takes these core issues and forecasts the opportunities and challenges to come in the near-term, and further out in 2030. Our findings include….

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Smart Cities must focus on equity and inclusion | Smart Cities Dive

Smart Cities must focus on equity and inclusion | Smart Cities Dive

Dive Brief:

A new research report from the National League of Cities urges cities to carefully examine equity among all residents as they modernize and add technological advances. The Future of Equity in Cities cautions that widening gaps between the rich and the poor, and among races, is creating a growing social and economic divide that could de-stabilize cities.
The report addresses the topics of economic development, infrastructure and public safety to identify upcoming equity challenges and opportunities for cities.
Although the report points out that cities’ diversity is increasing, it also indicates that the different groups are becoming more segregated….

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A smart city means an inclusive city

A smart city means an inclusive city

Like every year, December 3 will be a United Nations sanctioned International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD). The aim is to increase public awareness of the conditions of disabled people and, at the same time, to celebrate their achievements and contributions. IDPwD has been supported by the Australian Government since 1996 and today it’s celebrated all around the world.

This year’s theme is “Achieving 17 Goals for the Future We Want”, which draws attention to how people with disability are excluded from society due to several types of barriers, including physical, information and communications technology (ICT) or attitudinal barriers.

In Europe there are almost 80 million people with mild or severe disabilities, either temporary or permanent. A real “intelligent” city must always strive for equitable and affordable access to social infrastructure for all, including disabled people.

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Creating a Company Culture that Promotes Accessibility

Creating a Company Culture that Promotes Accessibility

At eBay, we take digital accessibility very seriously. We strive to create a company culture that promotes it and focuses on action.

In my last guest post, I discussed what digital accessibility actually means to your brand. Digital accessibility is a way to improve your bottom line and avoid litigation, but more importantly it is a way for a brand to become an even better version of itse

Now I want to provide some actionable steps that can be taken within your company to promote accessible designs and help establish digital accessibility as a priority….

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Take A Deep Dive Into #SmartCity Innovation and Inclusion

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The Smart Cities Library™ is a premier online resource that helps private/public organizations build/refine #accessible & #inclusive #smartcities that ensure no citizen is left behind or excluded

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URBAN-X | Top 10 key takeaways from Smart City World Congress in Barcelona #SCEW17

URBAN-X | Top 10 key takeaways from Smart City World Congress in Barcelona

e may have reached peak ‘smart city’. This trend depends on the continued densification of global urban areas and the exponential penetration of the internet into industries that were previously isolated from digitization. To see the peak in person, it’s best to get a glimpse at the Smart Cities World Congress in Barcelona; an event that brings together 17,000 people from around the world including 600 municipal leaders and over 500 international exhibitors.

At Urban-X, we see a new model for engineering the city as a service emerging; one in which top-down planning meets with bottoms-up participation and design that integrates people, businesses, buildings and other infrastructure. Open data and platforms that encourage creativity and economic vitality are a defining characteristic of the cities we want to live in.

The key to facing the climate crisis, security vulnerabilities and rapid urbanization is real citizen engagement and collaboration between the public and private sector. Startups have an important role to play, but the true economic potential of this space won’t be fully unlocked until we get good policy change and business model innovation from large companies.

Here are ten key takeaways from the Smart City World Congress in Barcelona that inform our path forward:

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