Smart Cities are a hot topic right now, especially when there is funding to be had. The Canadian government ran its own Smart Cities Challenge with $75 million in funding, and Waterloo region was among the 20 finalists. Additionally, the Google sister company Sidewalk Labs has been creating a stir in Toronto—Canada’s largest city—on the topic of smart innovation. While the concept of Smart Cities isn’t new, experts are still working on how best to use connected technology, data and communications to boost economic development and improve the lives of the people who live there.
Imagine if your child had to start class at 7:15 a.m. because an algorithm decided it was the most efficient way to run school busses. In 2017, the Boston Public School Board learned the hard way that technology can’t be the determining factor in how real people live their lives.
“Civic engagement must be part of a smart city if it is to be a city of innovation, generosity, play, and opportunity,” says Beth Coleman, director of the City as Platform Lab based at the University of Waterloo Games Institute and professor of Experimental Digital Media. “We need a better framework for collaboration and trust across sectors.”
And with all the talk of artificial intelligence, automation, and Internet of Things (IoT), researchers worry that citizens may be getting lost in the process. Without considerations for people and diversity, data can be distorted and machines can come to the wrong conclusions. Systems that are meant to improve lives can end up doing the opposite.
How to make a city “Smart”
Coleman noticed that a lot of the conversation around Smart City opportunities was happening in silos, and more effort was needed to bring together industry, government and citizens. Toward this end, Coleman and her team of graduate researchers have lead international workshop, symposia, and hackathons to move forward the civic and participatory aspect of smart technology design. For one such project the City as Platform Lab teamed up with the Engagement Lab at Emerson College, the Center for Smart Cities and Regions at Arizona State University and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University with the support of the Knight Foundation to gather thought leaders for a symposium on strategies to engage citizens with Smart City planning.
The outcome: a virtual toolkit any municipality can use to hold their own Smart City workshop and a Smart Cities “Playbook” that highlights five major areas or “plays” that any organization looking to engage the public on technology decisions should address.
One of the plays Question data – focusses on the challenges of Big Data and open data. This section recommends thinking critically about how, when and why to collect and use data. With privacy and the potential for bias in AI in the news on an almost daily basis, these issues continue to be a top concern.
“Stewardship from a multi-vector perspective (government, industry, and civic engagement) is critical if we are serious about inclusive and transparent urban infrastructure design,” says Coleman. “We need to head toward data responsibility that affords innovation, discovery, play as well as privacy.”
Another of the plays is already second nature to cities such as Waterloo and Toronto: Cultivate local innovation ecosystems. While partnerships with nearby universities are a given, engaging expertise doesn’t stop with academia. The researchers also recommend developing a data-literate population that can provide critical input and ideas.
“Municipalities need to invest in data literacy at a societal level,” says Coleman.
Using new technology to tackle old problems
Smart Cities aren’t just about new technology challenges such as autonomous vehicles. Coleman and collaborators see the growing interest in this topic as a way to bring people together to tackle long-standing issues such as poverty and sustainability. Her work with augmented reality (AR) on making visible data around air quality was part of the Barcelona Sharing Cities symposium last November. Other such public-facing smart tech design includes a mobile app that links environmental pollution and health issues, in collaboration with the Technoscience Research Unit at University of Toronto. City as Platform also collaborates with architect Philip Beesely (UW School of Architecture) in designing responsive and poetic architectural systems.
“With smart tech, smart thinking, and smart collaboration we can work on some legacy urban issues,” says Coleman. “Let’s use the enthusiasm and curiosity about ‘smart’ to build the types of futures we want to see.”
