1.
a planet of civic laboratories
bottom-up
innovation
for the smart city
Anthony Townsend
Research Director
INSTITUTE FOR THE FUTURE
SmartCity Expo and World Congress
Barcelona
29 November 2011

2.
What is a smart city?
Let’s look back in time…

3.
1855 city of the telegraph

4.
“calm and tranquil, almost motionless man
of the earlier generations that preceded us”
vs.
“active, daring, entrepreneurial man… who
in a few brief instants travels vast
distances…
the man who in just minutes transmits and
circulates his news, his instructions, his
commands right around the globe.”

5.
1855 four utilities

6.
2011 “the network is the fourth utility”
Wim Elfrink
Chief Globalization Officer
Cisco Systems (2011)

7.
1890 urban analytics 1.0

8.
“smart” technology unlocked urban growth
6,000,000
5,000,000
4,000,000
3,000,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
0
1890 1900 1910 1920
New York Chicago

9.
global urban population
1900 13%
1950 29%
2008 50%
2100 90%

10.
double the world’s urban
population in 100 years

11.
completely urbanize the planet

12.
2008
urbanization and ubiquity
collide again

13.
2008
more than 50% urban
5 billion people connected
more mobile broadband than fixed
more things online than people

14.
a symbiosis

15.
“in the lifetimes of our children, the
urbanization project will be competed.
We will have built the system of cities that
their descendants will live with forever”
-Paul Romer, economist

16.
so we get one chance
to urbanize properly

17.
ubiquity is a driver of
urbanization
also a toolkit
to address its challenges

18.
2011 New Songdo City

19.
behind the scenes innovations
re-inventing existing systems
efficiency, control, convenience

20.
there’s another vision
entrepreneurs + citizen hackers
sociability, transparency, fun

21.
environmental monitoring
la montre Verte / City Pulse

22.
crisis management
Ushahidi

23.
citizen sentiment dynamics
Pulse of the Nation

24.
city governments
fuel the fire with
open data

25.
we all believe…
we are building technologies
that make cities better

26.
 “better” 

27.
fast-emerging conflicts over…
what should be measured
how it is measured
how it is used to analyze and control
who owns it
who has access
where it goes later

28.
a battle for the smart city?

29.
in my city!

30.
the battle for the motorized city

31.
“Cities have the capability of
providing something for everybody
only because and only when they
are created by everybody.”
-Jane Jacobs

32.
a planet of civic laboratories??
good technology design is just like good city design
every city must address its own unique problems
every city has to adapt, repurpose,
create its own solutions
every city is a laboratory for smart

33.
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Center for Urban Science and Progress
“Using cities as living laboratories
will be essential to this research enterprise.”

34.
avoiding the battle:
aligning smart city stakeholders
industry startups government

35.
a planet of civic laboratories
bottom-up
innovation
for the smart city
Anthony Townsend
Research Director
INSTITUTE FOR THE FUTURE
SmartCity Expo and World Congress
Barcelona
29 November 2011