smart cities: how smart is too smart?

SMART CITIES:

How smart is too smart?MARISSA GLUCK Director, Huge Ideas, Huge| Co-founder, De Lab

CHRISTINE OUTRAM Senior Inventionist, Deutsch LA | Founder, City Innovation Group

#smartcitydebateJOIN THE CONVERSATION:

SO TELL ME:

What makes a city smart?

Is it this?SENSORS

CONTROL ROOMSAUTOMATIONEFFICIENCY

Or this?URBAN PROTOTYPING

HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGNSOCIAL/CIVIC IMPACT

CROWDFUNDINGCODE FOR AMERICA

IMAGE: GAFFTA.ORG

Or could it even be this?COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

DIGITAL/PHYSICAL FORUMSEDUCATION & OUTREACH

PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING

IMAGE: DREAM HAMAR

Perhaps, it is about all of these things, and how smart phones, sensors, big data and the like, are supporting or hindering our civic ambitions.

“We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.

BUT WE MUST ALSO REMEMBER:

MARSHALL MCLUHAN, PHILOSOPHER, FUTUROLOGIST AND MEDIA PIONEER

WHICH LEAVES US WITH THE QUESTION:

How will these new tools and devices that aim to automate, optimize, include or educate fundamentally change civic life?

And are there any benefits to the dumb city and all its inconveniences?

Let’s Duel

IN THE LEFT CORNER: IN THE RIGHT CORNER:

Cities are broke. Using technologies to automate and optimize our city systems makes good financial sense.

We have entered the “measured era” the more technology we use, the more we can measure and the more we can adapt to our findings and make better decisions.

New technologies connect us to our interests, our surroundings and other people like never before.

We are on the verge of a new architectural language: buildings can build themselves, spaces can speak back, and information can integrated into our surroundings, when and where we need it.

Optimization and efficiency is fine, but what about civil liberties? Do I want to be tracked and recorded?

Not everyone has access to the same tools and devices. When we make decisions based on data, we are missing out on a representative voice.

Where did serendipity go? Should I only be making connections if it is mediated through technology?

A Minority Report world could suck. If technology will be integrated into our surroundings, we must get the user experience design right.

THE DIRECTOR, HUGE IDEAS

MARISSA GLUCK Director, Huge Ideas, Huge+Journalist, Researcher, City LoverFounder of De LaB (Design East of La Brea)Alumna of USC/LSE

THE INVENTIONIST

CHRISTINE OUTRAMSenior Inventionist, Deutsch LA +Creative Technologist, Architect, City LoverFounder of City Innovation GroupAlumna of MIT

Who won?Who’s next?

TELL US:#SMARTCITYDEBATE | @CITYINNOVATION | @MARISSAGLUCK