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The Digital Services Smart City Playbook — from the U.S. Digital Service

Screenshot-2017-12-14 Boston A Really Smart City

The American people expect to interact with government through digital channels such as websites, email, and mobile applications. By building digital services that meet their needs, we can make the delivery of our policy and programs more effective.

Today, too many of our digital services projects do not work well, are delivered late, or are over budget. To increase the success rate of these projects, the U.S. Government needs a new approach. We created a playbook of 13 key “plays” drawn from successful practices from the private sector and government that, if followed together, will help government build effective digital services….

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Boston Smart City Playbook — from the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics

Screenshot-2017-12-14 New Urban Mechanics ( newurbanmechs) Twitter

The age of the “Smart City” is upon us!

It’s just that, we don’t really know what that means. Or, at least, not yet.

So far, many “Smart City” pilot projects that we’ve undertaken here in Boston have ended with a glossy presentation, and a collective shrug. Nobody’s really known what to do next, or how the technology and data might lead to new or improved services.

We want to change that. We address this playbook to the technology companies, scientists, researchers, journalists, and activists that make up the “Smart City” community. In return for heeding this advice, we commit that we, the City of Boston, will not sit in City Hall and complain about the lack of solutions to our problems. We promise to get out into the City, find ways to help you pilot new ideas, and be honest with our feedback.

Our goal is to create a City-wide strategy for the use of sensor technologies that is people-centered, problem-driven, and responsible.

We need your help to get there.

*This playbook is a living draft being developed by the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and is inspired by the US Digital Service’s Playbook. Please send us your thoughts for building it out further, and watch for new updates!

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7 steps to a Smart City | The Urban Technologist @dr_rick

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(This article originally appeared in September 2012 as “Five steps to a Smarter City: and the philosophical imperative for taking them“. Because it contains an overall framework for approaching Smart City transformations, I keep it updated to reflect the latest content on this blog; and ongoing developments in the industry. It was last updated and posted as a blog entry on 8th September 2013).

As I’ve worked with cities over the past two years developing their “Smarter City” strategies and programmes  to deliver them, I’ve frequently written articles on this blog exploring the main challenges they’ve faced: establishing a cross-city consensus to act; securing funding; and finding the common ground between the institutional and organic natures of city ecosystems….

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How to ensure smart cities benefit everyone

Screenshot-2017-12-14 How to ensure smart cities benefit everyone

By 2030, 60 percent of the world’s population is expected to live in mega-cities. How all those people live, and what their lives are like, will depend on important choices leaders make today and in the coming years.

A smog-cleaning tower in Beijing is an example of technology improving residents’ lives.
Imaginechina/AP
Technology has the power to help people live in communities that are more responsive to their needs and that can actually improve their lives. For example, Beijing, notorious for air pollution, is testing a 23-foot-tall air purifier that vacuums up smog, filters the bad particles and releases clear air.

This isn’t a vision of life like on “The Jetsons.” It’s real urban communities responding in real-time to changing weather, times of day and citizen needs. These efforts can span entire communities. They can vary from monitoring traffic to keep cars moving efficiently or measuring air quality to warn residents (or turn on massive air purifiers) when pollution levels climb.

Using data and electronic sensors in this way is often referred to as building “smart cities,” which are the subject of a major global push to improve how cities function. In part a response to incoherent infrastructure design and urban planning of the past, smart cities promise real-time monitoring, analysis and improvement of city decision-making. The results, proponents say, will improve efficiency, environmental sustainability and citizen engagement.

Smart city projects are big investments that are supposed to drive social transformation. Decisions made early in the process determine what exactly will change. But most research and planning regarding smart cities is driven by the technology, rather than the needs of the citizens. Little attention is given to the social, policy and organizational changes that will be required to ensure smart cities are not just technologically savvy but intelligently adaptive to their residents’ needs. Design will make the difference between smart city projects offering great promise or actually reinforcing or even widening the existing gaps in unequal ways their cities serve residents….

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A Guide to Launching Smart Cities Projects by @Brian_Buntz

A Guide to Launching Smart Cities Projects by @Brian_Buntz

The future of the world is urban. By 2030, 60% of the world’s population will live in cities, which will create 70% of the world’s GDP, according to the Pentagon. Many of these will be megacities with populations of ten million or more.

Managing such behemoth cities using traditional infrastructure will be impossible. So-called smart cities, or at least smarter cities, will be a necessity rather than a luxury—for both megacities as well as smaller cities also wrestling with their own set of problems.

Creating smart cities, however, can be exceptionally challenging. Here are some guidelines…

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Creating Citizen-Centered Inclusive Smart Cities

Creating Citizen-Centered Inclusive Smart Cities

ities all over the world are investing in infrastructure like fiber-optic networks, a range of sensors, and interactive touch-screens and in practices like open data collection in a race to become “smart and connected.” Cities are rushing to get “smart” in order to create new economic opportunities, to take advantage of potential systems efficiencies, and to not be left behind the technological curve. They’re making smart-city investments with the best of intentions to improve quality of life and increase opportunities for commerce, tourism, and their citizens alike.

As part of these smart and connected investments, many communities are developing smart-city strategies to guide development and implementation. For example, members of the Mayors Bistate Innovation Team published a digital playbook in 2011 in order to leverage a newly installed Google Fiber network to spark economic development, advance opportunities, and improve daily life in Kansas City. In 2013, the mayor of London formed the Smart London Board, which published the “Smart London Plan” to harness “the creative power of new technologies to serve London and improve Londoners’ lives.“ The plan lays out the numerous ways the city will utilize technology and big data to re-create London not only as a cutting-edge city, but as one able to handle the influx of people expected to move there by 2030. Creating and executing such a plan in a way that is intentionally responsive and relevant to the whole of a community can create the opportunity for a city to go beyond “smart” and instead become an “intelligent community.” This is, of course, easier said than done, but some essential steps toward enabling an intelligent community to flourish are outlined below….

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Persons with disabilities not to be left behind in smart cities  

Persons with disabilities not to be left behind in smart cities  

The answer seems to be a hopeful yes. At least 100 buildings each in 50 cities will be made accessible in a couple of years. These are part of the much hyped, technology intensive and ambitious ‘Smart Cities’ in the country. The Government had decided to turn 100 cities Smart.

The Government has selected these 50 cities under the Accessible India Campaign. Accordingly, the focus will be on auditing and ensuring access to atleast 25-50 of the most important government buildings in these cities fully accessible to these people by the end of 2017. By end of 2018, the target is to cover 50 per cent of all government building of the national capital region and all state capitals within reach….

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How to design a smart city #accessible to all

Screenshot-2017-12-14 Usbe How to design a city accessible to all

Cities are becoming more and more populated, and their design, services and urban elements directly impact on the way their citizens relate. It also has an impact on the economic and social development of the city. That is, the city in which we live, directly influences our quality of life and our social relations.

In this context, many cities have already included technology to increase the efficiency and sustainability of their services, turning them into smart cities. But many of them, have forgotten the most important, adapt the design, services and furniture to make them accessible cities. This is fundamental because a city that is not inclusive will prevent people with functional disabilities from being independent and will prevent their social inclusion….

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Technology Is Not Enough to Create Connected and Sustainable Smart Cities

Screenshot-2017-12-12 Technology is not enough to create connected cities – here’s why

The United Nations (UN) estimates that by 2050, 66% of the world’s population will live in cities. This creates an unprecedented pressure on cities around the world to optimise the standard of living for citizens, organisations and institutions.

Cities such as Dubai, Singapore, Yinchuan and Copenhagen are experimenting with new technology and digital services to target specific problems that affect their citizens. Copenhagen, for example, has set the target of becoming the first carbon neutral capital by 2025. The city reduced CO2 emissions by 38% between 2005 and 2015.

As part of a wider research project, we conducted research with the team at Copenhagen Solutions Lab (CSL), Copenhagen’s innovative incubator for driving smart city initiatives.

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What is the Difference between Citizen Engagement and Participation?

What is the Difference between Smart City Citizen Engagement and Participation?

Over the last years, there has been a shift from a top-down governance to a more horizontal governance. This new way of governing includes all the stakeholders of a public policy project, such as public organisations, businesses and citizens, into the implementation process. For instance, cities tap into their citizens’ wisdom through citizen engagement initiatives. The idea behind citizen engagement is that citizens should have some powers over the decisions that affect their lives. Yet, it is important to distinguish it from citizen participation. …

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CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT FOR SMART CITY DEVELOPMENT

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT FOR SMART CITY DEVELOPMENT

The greatest advantage cities provide is the efficient utilization of resources- human, capital, land, water, and others- to achieve liveability objectives and also monetize the resources. The essence of the smart city concept is to achieve ‘more for less’. The proliferation of technology in the form of smartphones and super-fast wireless connectivity over the past decade has made it possible to give a technological angle to normal urban products and services….

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Wheelchair users to get an easier and safer ride| @ UOW @SMART_facility

Screenshot-2017-12-12 Wheelchair users to get an easier and safer ride

Internet of things project to create maps for wheelchair users

The University of Wollongong (UOW) will be the first university campus in Australia to have dedicated directional mapping for wheelchair users, making moving around easier and safer for people with a disability.

Briometrix, a start-up that specialises in technology for wheelchair users, has launched its pilot mapping project in partnership with the Digital Living Lab, an internet of things (IoT) initiative by UOW’s SMART Infrastructure Facility….

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Accessibility awareness remains low as deadline approaches

Accessibility awareness remains low as deadline approaches

Beginning Jan. 18, 2018, government agencies across the U.S. will be required by law to make their websites accessible to the more than 60 million Americans with visual, hearing or other disabilities. Yet more than 87 percent of 430+ local government respondents to Vision’s 2017 What’s Next Survey said they have moderate, weak or no knowledge of federal web accessibility requirements.

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Accessible Technology: It Starts with Procurement by @jeffkline2 | @PEATWorks

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This article was contributed by Jeff Kline, the author of Strategic IT Accessibility: Enabling the Organization. Kline is the current Statewide Electronic and Information Resources (EIR) Accessibility Coordinator at the Texas Department of Information Resources and previous EIR Accessibility Coordinator at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Before entering public service, he spent 26 years at IBM, during which he managed its Worldwide Accessibility Consulting and Business Transformation initiatives and several other efforts related to product development, industrial design, software development and system usability.

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People-Centered Smart City Planning

georgia tech center for innovation

The term “smart city” has become common parlance in city planning circles in recent years. While there is no universally agreed upon definition, descriptions of smart cities typically refer to integrated and interoperable networks of digital infrastructure and information and communication technologies (ICT) that collect and share data and improve the quality of urban life (Allwinkle and Cruickshank 2011; Batty et al. 2012). However unlike related concepts such as the digital city, the intelligent city and the ubiquitous city, the smart city is not limited to the diffusion of ICT, but also commonly includes people (Albino, Beradi, and Dangelico 2015)….

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Incorporating Accessibility into Procurement with Bonus Samples

procurement strategy

Creating Web accessibility policy has become a common approach taken by education institutions and others (e.g., local, state, and federal government agencies, and businesses). These organizations want to ensure accessibility for all their constituents (e.g., clients, users and staffs) including those with disabilities. Often this is because organizations see the value in accessibility for (1) ethical, (2) business, or (3) legal reasons. Policy then becomes a mechanism to realize the commitment or obligation the organization has to an accessible Web presence.

Establishing policy provides recognition that system reform does not occur in a vacuum. Moreover, policy assures that access is to be equal across the entire system, rather than at the discretion of individuals within the system. Finally, policy helps align organizational resources to accomplish newly defined priorities. In the case of Web accessibility, it can be a complex issue in part because of the shear size of the problem. Moreover, the presence of a policy can act as a demonstration of a good faith effort to comply with applicable statues (e.g., Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and state laws)….

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3 Principles To Create A More “People Centered” Smart City

Chicago Downtown aerial view

When it comes to dealing with the government, it’s rare that you find someone excited about the concept. City departments are notorious for mountains of paperwork, confusing rules and inefficiency.  But according to a presentation titled “Reimagining the User Experience of Government” led by Brenna Berman and Mike Duffy, much of that is beginning to change.

Berman and Duffy are experts on the topic. Berman serves as Executive Director of City Digital, at UI Labs and was most recently the Chief Information Officer for the City of Chicago after spending more than a decade with IBM. Duffy is the Founder and CEO at CityBase, which is a company that “creates technology that makes government more personal and responsive.”

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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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10 Things to Improve Smart City Accessibility and Inclusion

10 Things to Improve Smart City Accessibility and Inclusion

Medellín, Colombia used to be notorious for the dangers of homicide and drugs and used street art as part of its revitalization strategies. Photo © Juancho Torres (Source: theguardian.com)

Citizens are the life of a city. We drive the growth, and we have the right and responsibility to take care of our natural and built-up environments.

We are faced with everyday challenges in our cities, from hours of traffic to parking spaces, lining up for the MRT or the shuttle vans, inhaling all the air pollution, and finding safe places to walk on so we get from one point to another. So how do we improve our situation?

Here are 10 things everyone can do to improve city life….

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Google Crowdsources Wheelchair-Friendly Maps – CityLab

Screenshot-2017-12-10 Google Gets Serious About Mapping Wheelchair Accessibility

The tech giant is tapping into its global army of users to make its Maps app more useful for people with disabilities.
If there’s one thing Google’s got at its disposal, it’s a global army of avid map users. Now the company is leveraging that power to make its Maps feature more useful for people with mobility challenges—a group that often gets overlooked in the world of transit and urban innovation.

Google Maps already indicates if a location is wheelchair accessible—a result of a personal project by one of its employees—but its latest campaign will crowdsource data from its 30 million Local Guides worldwide, who contribute tips and photos about neighborhood establishments in exchange for points and small prizes like extra digital storage space. The company is calling on them to answer five simple questions—like whether a building has accessible entrances or bathrooms—when they submit a review for a location. In the coming weeks, Google will host workshops and “geowalks” specifically focused on mobility across seven cities, from New York City and London to Tokyo and Surabaya, Indonesia….

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