How might we design a People-Powered SmartCity?
What first comes to mind when you think of a SmartCity?
Sensors, surveillance and the internet of things (IoT), perhaps? Maybe big tech looms large, married with innovation and the excitement of progressive public and private sector partnerships? A SmartCity can speak to all these things, not to mention the use of data to improve infrastructure, urban planning and environmental decision-making.
Yet, in the midst of all the shiny things, the PR and promise of more efficient and effective places, how high up did the needs of the people that SmartCity technology serves appear?
What comes first, the people or the technology?
As SmartCity technology has proliferated globally, with every progressive city worth its salt clamouring to lead the way on connected services and citizen engagement, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that the purpose of such technology is to make the lives of the people who live and work in its web, well… better.
Yet, in being driven by industry, using a tech-first approach to woo local authorities with the promise of big-budget savings and international acclaim, it’s only in the last few years that the technology being peddled is starting to be questioned. In Greater Manchester (GM) — where SmartCity technology is being feted in two of its boroughs — we’re starting to look beyond just the tech.
“When I worked at Peterborough City Council I was often ‘sold’ solutions to make traffic flow quicker. But as a city, Peterborough had the second fastest commuting time in the country.”
Richard Godfrey, 2019 (MD of SynCity and Ex AD of Peterborough City Council)
Following its initial foray through the CityVerve partnership, which came to an end in 2018, the city of Manchester is already looking to the future of SmartCity potential. Salford’s SmartCity accelerator, kickstarted in late 2019, is also well underway, with an ambition to foster digital innovation and connect its communities with the places they live and work.
With a history of innovation, the region’s forward-thinking attitude is no surprise. Given Manchester’s position as the fastest-growing tech hub in Europe plus the region-wide digital blueprint to “do things differently”, it begs asking, what opportunities do we have to drive progress, not just in the tech industry, but for GM’s people too?
How are we doing things differently?
In GM, we’re a socially-progressive region as much as we are a technologically ambitious one. The privilege of being the birthplace of the co-operative movement and home to suffragettes rides high alongside our claim to have developed the first modern computer and fostered the mind of the great Alan Turing at our world-renowned academic institutions.
As one of the first devolved regions for health and social care in the U.K.too, the potential for Greater Manchester’s tech scene to be both purposeful and profitable is high.
Yet, as investment for the digital industries — already topping £5 billion in gross value added annually — flows into the region, we’re also living alongside some of the highest levels of poverty in the U.K., and consequently, have worse than average health outcomes than the rest of the country, when it comes to mental health conditions, heart disease and cancer.
“I want Greater Manchester to be a digital city with a difference — one with a bold digital economy which actively encourages businesses to invest and grow, and also one where technology is used to deliver positive change, from connecting young people with opportunities, to tackling social problems such as homelessness. This bold vision places the needs of people firmly at the heart of technological innovation.”
The opportunity that SmartCity technology brings lies in the power of technology to address the challenges of the people it exists to support, so at the GM Responsible Tech Collective, we’re asking how might we put people’s needs and problems at the centre of SmartCity agenda across the region?
Based out of Manchester’s pioneering tech ethics hub The Federation — with a mission to bring the humanity home to tech — our community of digitally-focused businesses and public bodies spent the first half of 2020 scoping out what a SmartCity that considered society as much as technology might look like.
Internet of Things or People in Places?
Working with organisations as diverse as GMCA, the Co-op, BBC and Thoughtworks, the core considerations when it comes to people were mapped out in early 2020. The ethics behind the capture and usage of data, plus access to and the accessibility of the tech used all surfaced, yet, for the collective, more human questions emerged.
Where does ownership of a SmartCity lie, and who benefits from SmartCity technology? Potential values to live by revealed themselves too, of making a SmartCity open to all people who both input and are impacted by its outputs. That and the ambition to facilitate a culture of trust around SmartCities across Greater Manchester was key too.
“Tech companies would make agreements with city councils, promising to address classic issues that cities that are growing have, such as mobility, pollution, waste and so on, by deploying their technological infrastructures. Nobody wants to be the mayor of a non-smart city,” she said. “[But then] city councils realised they had privatised the public space. What we now know is that data has a lot of value.”
Naturally, apathy from the people who live in a place was raised as a concern, due to the tech and — to a lesser extent — public sector bubble that SmartCities are often discussed in. People’s understanding of the potential of a SmartCity was raised too, and the barriers that digital and data literacy can have in ensuring equitable access to the tech and its intended outcomes.
As we started to dig deeper — bringing in representatives from civil society to widen the scope beyond the usual tech and local authority lens — we honed in on the parameters we might want to put in place around a SmartCity that prioritises the needs and problems of the people it’s there to support.
Where else are people being engaged in SmartCity efforts?
Bringing people together for The Federation’s Digital City fringe festival, we shared SmartCity research being undertaken by project lead and designer, Rebecca Rae-Evans from Reply. While infrastructure was revealed to be the main focus of SmartCity endeavours globally, evidence of progressive inclusion efforts emerged too,
Using traditional consultation, like Vancouver did creatively through its City Hall approach-combined with fun activities like farmers markets or nature walks-has proved popular. Engaging citizen innovators has been beneficial too, with the creation of Barcelona in Your Pocket — providing direct access to services — demonstrating what’s possible when people are asked what they need.
“Before any smart city initiative is undertaken, the key question which must be asked by city decision makers is “What are we trying to solve?”
There have been instances of data being collected with no clear plan of how this will be used, or if it will be useful. Big data collection also brings with it public privacy concerns, therefore having a clear vision of what outcomes are required is critical. Ensuring public buy-in to any smart city scheme is essential; and as examined in the case studies, many forward-thinking municipalities have consulted with the public from an early stage.”
Beyond engagement, globally, citizens have been recruited as direct participants too. Either as data collectors or through accessing open data, this type of engagement has come to the fore as countries globally look to manage the coronavirus pandemic. Singapore and Seoul are both working with citizens to track and trace COVID-19 infections and help citizens make decisions about where and how to travel as a result.
Ethics too was explored, and while data standards around AI and IOT are proliferating globally, and ISO measurement standards in place for SmartCity technology, what was revealed was little to no emphasis on the design of a SmartCity. That, and beyond facilitating the efficient and effective use of services, how user research might reveal opportunities to solve wider societal issues.
What might a people-powered SmartCity look like?
With evidence emerging of the enhanced impact of participatory SmartCity projects, questions still remain, around the longevity of such initiatives, and more widely, how the funding of SmartCity’s influence the ambition to do so. Yet, with issues (over services) and user research and design (over data and technology) emerging as key opportunities, we had attained some clarity on our next steps.
Bringing a dedicated and expert project team in to represent industry, local authorities and civil society, Manchester City Council alongside Open Data Manchester and local and national SmartCity experts at Kainos and Sigma, worked to shape the parameters of people-powered SmartCity in Greater Manchester, based on the thoughts, insights and experiences of our cross-sector collective.
“When exploring or researching Smart Cities it is difficult to find much in the way of problem-solving solutions, of real-world problems, with backed up evidence of how these problems have been solved. Most of the information is from the tech companies providing the tools to measure the problem and ideas on what the solution may be without really solving anything.”
Richard Godfrey, 2019 (MD of SynCity and Ex AD of Peterborough City Council)
A new approach was agreed, in which we aim to centralise communities and give them choice (instead of just services) while ensuring a culture of civic ownership was embedded in any future endeavours. A clear ambition to advocate for problem-focused technology with an impact-mindset, and encouraging a region-wide commitment to drive social outcomes (over technological wizardy) was front and centre too.
Through engaging civil society leaders — who facilitated by technology had underpinned the local response to lockdown across Greater Manchester in the wake of COVID-19 — and using cross-sector networks to get a holistic perspective on where need might lie, the opportunity to co-create a SmartCity — using design thinking to inform more strategic SmartCity adoption moved was how we decided to proceed.
What Next?
Digital and data literacy, data bias and impact measurement plus the funding and maintenance of the resultant technology were all mapped as potential future projects, but to start, we’re honing in on how might we prioritise people’s needs and problems in informing SmartCity agendas in Greater Manchester.
To get started, we’re bringing together local authorities from around the U.K, plus co-design experts and civil society leaders across youth, health, waste and poverty to explore the challenges and opportunities that emerge, as we look to design a solution that will help SmartCity leaders put the people they serve first.
Funded by the Co-op Foundation and supported by Luminate, we’re undertaking our first exploratory workshop on Monday 8th June 2020.
