Arturo Bris, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
According to a new smart cities index, the real test for smart cities is whether citizens feel the benefits.
Politicians from all parties should be asked tough questions about their support of Toronto’s Sidewalk Labs Quayside project while on the campaign trail. This is an artist’s rendering of the project.
Sidewalk Toronto
If governments can’t get something like Quayside right, that bodes ill for Canada’s digital future. The election gives us a chance to see where the parties stand on vital data governance issues.
Cities need to focus on intelligent, collaborative and community-oriented approaches to smart city planning. This is important when it comes to addressing the roots of urban challenges.
The Northern Territory government is expanding the CCTV surveillance network.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Darwin is one of the aspiring ‘smart cities’ that is adopting Chinese technology that can identify and track individuals. Add changes in Australian law, and we have the makings of a surveillance state.
Smart city planning will need to address data collection and protecting the privacy of minors in public space.
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The history of how Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiaries manage children and data is a troubling one. How will Sidewalk Labs address concerns about minors and privacy in Toronto’s Quayside project?
Sometimes you want to take it slow.
Fabrizio Verrecchia/Unsplash.
Technology and data are being harnessed to increase productivity in cities, but there also need to be ‘slow moments’, when people can pause to enjoy their surroundings.
For utopian cities to succeed, they should offer technological solutions to urban challenges.
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As cities aspire to be smarter, technologies are only part of the answer. No utopia on the horizon but we need hostistic answers more than ever before.
A team of researchers has mapped out smart city technologies across Canada.
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Canadian researchers have mapped smart city technologies throughout the country. The interactive map is intended to inform urban residents of the locations of technologies that may affect privacy.
An artist’s impression of the failed Modderfontein smart city in Johannesburg.
Selfies document women’s struggles and accomplishments, as they step out from their traditional roles in the home, into the male-dominated public realm of the city.
They’re small and well-connected, but how safe are ‘internet of things’ devices?
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As the number of ‘internet of things’ devices expands rapidly, so do security vulnerabilities to homes, businesses, governments and the internet as as whole.
Residents of slums like Kamla Nehru Nagar, a kilometre away from Patna Junction, have yet to share in the promised benefits of smart cities.
Sujeet Kumar
Indians were promised they would be included in planning 100 smart cities and that everyone would benefit. But many of the millions of slum residents have had no say in their homes being destroyed.
A Townsville City Deal was signed two years ago and the city is now one of Queensland’s ten leaders on smart city performance.
Lukas Coch/AAP
How smart are our cities now? In Queensland, a study of all 78 local government areas reveals major gaps between the ten leading the way in becoming smart cities and the rest of the state.
Barcelona is a city where various “smart” aspects contribute to everyday life.
Photo by Tim Easley on Unsplash