The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to have an unprecedented impact on our daily lives. In particular, “smart environments” will change how we interact with our surrounding and with each other, including at home, in public spaces, and at the work place. This provides an opportunity to ensure equal access for people with disabilities. For example, operating doors, windows,…
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Gartner Proposes Four Strategies To Make Smart Cities Work
Analyst firm Gartner lays out its four strategies for city leaders to make their smart cities work. Local government needs to engage with citizens to find out their needs before investing millions into smart city programs, according to advisory firm Gartner. It proposed four strategies to refocus smart cities around the needs of the community. The first is understanding the…
Read MoreWill Smart Cities be Happy Cities?
Past surveys have shown only a minority of people understand the concepts behind the smart cities movement. Nevertheless, given the choice between living in a dumb city and a smart city, who wouldn’t choose the latter? You’d be surprised. Teena Maddox () reports over a third of surveyed people have little desire to live in smart cities. “The lure of living in a technologically advanced community appeals to many Americans,” she writes, “although many don’t quite understand what the term smart city means, according to a new report from CompTIA. The Building Smarter Cities and Communities report, which surveyed both private citizens and US government officials, showed that six out of 10 Americans are interested in living in a smart city.”[1] That means 4 in 19 aren’t interested.
Read MoreOnly Smart Citizens can enable true Smart Cities
The concept of a Smart City, as advertised by tech giants like IBM, Cisco and Siemens, is a city with sensors in every aspect of everyday life, gathering large amounts of data and using algorithms to optimize everything in the city like routing traffic, maintaining water and air quality, positioning of police officers and even the planting of trees to keep bees away from primary schools.
The Smart City concept has found its way from the R&D department of tech companies into academic research, agendas of policy makers and even into reality, like the Songdo Smart City in South Korea. The Smart City has numerous benefits, including the following:
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