In Support of Wise Cities
By Tess O’Brien, Media & Digital Strategies, Bloomberg Associates
For years, conversations around Smart Cities have focused on the technology — the Internet of Things, “big data,” and advanced computing — and the potential impact these hold for our cities. However, our focus is shifting towards the how and the why:
What are the problems we are trying to solve for?
Who are we solving them for?
How can we better engage our communities? And ultimately,
Why do we want our cities to be “Smart”?
On May 8th I moderated a panel at the Smart Cities Dialogue focused on the welcomed topic of “Putting People Back at the Center of Smart Cities,” hosted by Georgia Tech. All panelists agreed that the Smart Cities dialogue has reached an inflection point.
The panelists represented diverse perspectives: Dr. Erwin Gianchandani, the Deputy Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation (NSF); Deb Socia, the Executive Director at Next Century Cities and soon-to-be CEO and President of The Enterprise Center in Chatanooga; and Ido Ivry, the Co-Founder of Zen City, a startup that aggregates and analyzes resident feedback for municipal governments.
Each of these leaders shared real-world insights and perspectives on these questions, and offered advice on how we can create people-centered Smart Cities, or as I like to think, wise cities.
Define the challenge
In order to properly address a challenge, city governments must first understand it; only then can they determine the most appropriate and effective solution. This sounds easy enough but, too often, city governments get the sequencing wrong and instead prioritize a product over the need. A robust understanding of a challenge takes into consideration both the technical and non-technical aspects of the problem and proposed solutions. The best solution is not always another app!
Dr. Erwin Gianchandani shared NSF’s data-driven approach to tackling challenges such as reducing noise pollution in New York City or incentivizing lower energy use among low-income communities in Indiana. NSF adopts an integrative approach, funding partnerships between universities, cities, and community stakeholders, to ensure that the challenge is understood holistically and that research is brought to bear.
Collaborate with communities and iterate. Iterate. Iterate.
It is important to collaborate directly with those affected by, and who understand first-hand, the challenges that cities seek to address. Doing so will lead to a more robust understanding of the problem as well as the potential impacts of any solutions. Georgia Tech showcased some of the meaningful ways that their PhD students are engaging with communities in their research, including the development of the Atlanta Community Engagement Playbook, which is a great resource for all who want to better engage communities in their work; and RatWatch, where residents report rat sightings in their neighborhood which is then mapped and modelled to predict rat infestations.
Despite a general consensus that city governments should meaningfully collaborate with their residents when addressing city-challenges and designing Smart City solutions, they often struggle to do so. Ido Ivry of Zen City highlighted that city governments attempt to engage residents but often don’t reach more than the “same ten people,” or as Zen City calls them, the “STPs.” They created Zen City so that city governments could cast a wider net and track resident feedback in real time. Zen City aggregates data sources from external and internal channels including social media, 311, local news, and more so that city governments can make informed decisions.
Remember “Progress moves at the speed of trust”
Deb Socia explained that Smart City initiatives are contingent upon building trust with communities, and that the most successful Smart City initiatives are those where all stakeholders win. This is particularly important at a time when distrust in government and concerns around privacy are at a record high. According to a recent Pew survey, 91 percent of Americans feel that they have lost control of how their personal data is collected and used, and two out of three think current privacy laws are not sufficient. Collaborating with communities and educating them about how their data is used will be critical in ensuring Smart City initiatives are embraced by communities and sustainable.
Address infrastructure needs
Of course, this guidance is contingent upon us addressing our infrastructure needs first, most importantly, internet access. Access to fast, reliable, and affordable internet is the starting point to realizing the benefits of Smart Cities. However, at present 10 percent of Americans do not use the internet and about a quarter of rural Americans say access to high-speed internet is a major problem according to the Pew Research Center.
The good news is that local leaders are driving change. Deb Socia shared the example of Chattanooga, where the City-owned telecoms provider, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga (EPB), invested in the deployment of fiber optic connections to the entire community in 2010. Today Chattanooga, the fourth-largest city in Tennessee, has the fastest and least expensive Gigabit service in the United States. A number of other cities and towns in the United States are following the trail that Chattanooga paved, building their own government-owned, fiber-based internet. More should follow suit.
Towards Smart and Wise Cities
In my work for Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic municipal consulting firm, I see city governments striving to be Smart. I applaud their efforts but I would also encourage them to strive to be wise. A wise city is self-aware, takes the time to understand their challenges, and pursues solutions that meet their needs.
Our team was fortunate to work with the City of Athens, which was reeling from the economic and migrant crises when we first began our engagement. The City’s budget was cut by 20 percent and their staff was halved; unemployment reached record highs and the country suffered from significant brain drain, in which half a million people left the country.
The City learned to do more with less, to collaborate with residents, and to form partnerships across different sectors. Not all solutions were tech solutions but they addressed their needs. Late last year, Athens was named the 2018 European Capital of Innovation and in his acceptance speech, Mayor Kaminis said, “Athens is not a Smart City. We are a wise city”.
It is good to be a Smart City; it is great to be a wise city. As cities look to “put people back at the center of Smart Cities,” they should focus on wise solutions to drive progress and success.
