Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
Cities around the world are undergoing a dramatic digital transformation. They are using technology products and smart solutions in creative ways: to allow people to report issues like potholes and broken traffic lights; to create direct and personalized communication channels with residents; to facilitate digital or contactless payments for city services. But according to global studies by Smart Cities for…
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Cities sometimes fail to make sure the technologies they adopt are accessible to everyone. Activists and startups are working to change that. Victor Pineda travels the world to make speeches and advise governments on urban planning and development. But when he encounters a touch-screen kiosk, he’s stymied. For people like him, who use wheelchairs and have limited use of their…
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Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff at CityLab Detroit Sidewalk Labs is building a prototype for the urban future on Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront. This project asks us to re-think relationships between governments, the private sector, and residents. Dan Doctoroff, Founder and CEO, Sidewalk Labs joins Jennifer Bradley, The Aspen Institute at CityLab Detroit. Timed Transcript: Please see video option. Transcript: (Archived…
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The Promise and Peril of “Smart” Cities Technology can help us govern better, but at what price to urban life? Technology can help us govern better, but at what price to urban life actual article chapter content Last year, American newspapers published more than 800 stories about “smart” cities. Readers could learn how municipal governments are deploying sophisticated technology to…
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Watch the Video! In our third public talk, author and community organizer Jane Farrow will moderate a conversation with three accessibility experts who are challenging cities to incorporate principles for inclusive design and ensure accessibility for all: Luke Anderson – Founder & Executive Director – StopGap Foundation; Consultant – AccessAbility Advantage Darren Bates – Founder – Smart Cities Library™;…
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article-context-nav context-nav article article-hero-lede article-hero article-contents post-contents On the Sidewalk Labs website is a 200-page document explaining its vision for a smart neighborhood in Toronto. It’s packed with illustrations that show a warm, idyllic community full of grassy parks, modular buildings and underground tunnels with delivery robots and internet cabling inside. The text describes “a truly complete community” that’s free…
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The only way to make the neighborhood of the future a more sustainable, livable, and equitable place is by hearing from Torontonians of all backgrounds and perspectives. That’s why we couldn’t be more excited that more than 1,000 people have said they’ll attend the first Sidewalk Toronto public roundtable next Tuesday, March 20. To help us hear from everyone, we’ve…
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As cities work to add technologies to improve residents’ lives and mobility, many are putting a renewed focus on inclusivity and equitable innovation distribution. Yet despite this inclusivity push, experts say people with disabilities remain an overlooked group, especially during city planning processes. “Very few [cities] are thinking about all of their citizens, including specifically, citizens with disabilities,” said…
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Sidewalk Toronto is a joint effort by Waterfront Toronto and Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs to create a new kind of mixed-use, complete community on Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront, beginning with the creation of Quayside. Sidewalk Toronto will combine forward-thinking urban design and new digital technology to create people-centered neighborhoods that achieve precedent-setting levels of sustainability, affordability, mobility, and economic opportunity. Transcript ________________…
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close story-meta TORONTO — For a city striving to become a major technology center, it was a prize catch: A Google corporate sibling would spend the coming year planning a futuristic metropolis in a derelict part of Toronto’s waterfront. When announcing this fall that the company, Sidewalk Labs, would create a city of tomorrow, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada…
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There is a lot of interest in the project, both locally and globally, and many questions about how it will unfold. As a lead-up tool for the November 1 public meeting, Torontoist and friends have organized a starting draft list of questions and concerns, collected from a range of contributors and viewpoints. There are undoubtedly perspectives and questions missing here,…
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Hello SmartCities Startup Aficionados: With the end of the year approaching, we thought it would be a good time to take a moment to reflect on the past year’s accomplishments and provide a glimpse into some exciting thing to come. 2017 was a great year for SmartAustin and we appreciate all of your support. Some key highlights for the year included:…
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The nascent plans for a smart neighbourhood on Toronto’s eastern waterfront may sound exciting from an urban-planning perspective, but the high-tech project poses fundamental governance problems that we need to solve now.
Smart cities are largely an invention of the private sector – an effort to create a market within government. They offer tech companies opportunities to generate profits by assuming functions traditionally carried out by the public sector and by selling cities technologies they may or may not need. The business opportunities are clear. The risks inherent to residents, less so….
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Bluetooth Beacons are small devices that send Bluetooth signals to nearby mobile devices. These can trigger actions on these mobile devices, for example sending a marketing message at the right time and place. They are especially helpful for helping the visually impaired navigate indoors where GPS can’t reach phones. A number of projects use beacons in this capacity in a variety of sectors.
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Google has built an online empire by measuring everything. Clicks. GPS coordinates. Visits. Traffic. The company’s resource is bits of info on you, which it mines, packages, repackages, repackages again, and then uses to sell you stuff. Now it’s taking that data-driven world-building power to the real world. Google is building a city.
Tuesday afternoon, public officials gathered in Toronto to announce that Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary under the Alphabet umbrella that also houses Google, will pilot the redevelopment of 12 acres of southeastern waterfront. Today the area hosts a few industrial buildings and some parking lots. In just a few years, it will be a techified community going by the name of Quayside. Sidewalk Labs has already devoted $50 million to the project, and Google will move its Toronto headquarters to the neighborhood. Once the company has proven out its concept, it plans to expand its redevelopment to the entire 800-acre waterfront area.
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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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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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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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The Centre for Digital Government recognises those cities that are using technology to improve citizen services, enhance transparency and encourage engagement add
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A unit of Google’s parent company, devoted to urban innovation, has signed a deal to map out a new kind of neighbourhood on Toronto’s waterfront that could demonstrate how data-driven technology can improve the quality of city life. This is the first such project for Alphabet, and for Sidewalk Labs. If the initiative proceeds, it would include at least 3.3 million square feet of residential, office and commercial space, including a new headquarters for Google Canada, in a district that would be a test bed for the combination of technology and urbanism
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