Street Sense - StreetTalk - Smart Cities need Smarter Citizens! The Smarter City Initiative by IBM City Building has historically been a slow, cumulative process; one that incorporated the efforts of a multitude of citizens.
These citizens had a direct stake in the well being and functioning of their cities. If someone or something faltered, it reflected poorly on the entire system's performance and directly impacted the quality of life in that particular city. This collective nurturing of the built environment gave a sense of pride to city dwellers and created lasting, vibrant communities. Modern day technology has brought us to the threshold of a new era in city planning and building. There is no doubt that our planet's resources are strained by our sheer numbers, as well as our patterns of living, consumption and travel. This, I am afraid is the wrong attitude towards city building. By:SIRI AGRELL From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published Wednesday, Mar. 09, 2011 5:00AM EST Original Article In Stockholm, they needed to reduce rush-hour traffic. Mr. Market Analysis. Glasgow wins 'smart city' government cash.
25 January 2013Last updated at 06:32 ET Continue reading the main story Traffic A more joined up use of CCTV and traffic management will enable authorities to react more quickly to deal with road incidents and traffic congestion.
Crime Better use of CCTV camera technology will feed back to control centres, with the aim of preventing and reducing anti-social behaviour. Footfall Real-time information could allow shoppers to see how busy areas of the city are. Energy Weather conditions and energy levels across the city will be monitored. Transport A smartphone app will allow Glaswegians to get real-time views of traffic levels on roads and up-to-date information on bus and train times. Reporting problems A smartphone app will allow people to report issues like pot holes, graffiti or missing bin collections directly to the council with a GPS location. Glasgow has won a £24m UK government grant intended to make it one of the UK's first smart cities. Glasgow will not be the UK's only smart city. Smart City Directory. In the last 10 years a diverse community of researchers and practitioners have become interested in the concept and practicalities of ‘Smart Cities’.
The following links track some of these. We try and make this as comprehensive as possible. If you want something featured then just let us know!. Companies With Stated Smart Projects or Programmes. Writing the Rules for Smart Cities - Politics. BARCELONA – City Councilor Manel Sanroma likes to take visitors to the oldest part of this Mediterranean port city for a local tradition called the human tower, or castell, where white-shirted Catalans with red waistbands climb atop each other up to 50 feet high. A leader with a clipboard choreographs the participants according to size and weight and optimal supporting position. Music builds to a crescendo to let those at the bottom know the tower has been completed, as a young child stands at the pinnacle with triumphant outstretched arms.
Photo by Albert Gea/Reuters. Agenda: Smart City Expo and World Congress 2012. IBM will again sponsor the Smart City Expo and World Congress at the Gran Via Venue in Barcelona, Spain on 13-15 November 2012.
Smart City Expo and World Congress is a unique three day global conference that supports the movement toward innovative, sustainable cities. The congress brings together city and thought leaders representing innovative initiatives around the world. It is a forum that fosters learning, sharing, networking and inspiration to support the future development of cities, and an enhanced quality of life for citizens. The 2012 program is built around the concept of a 'smart society for innovative and sustainable cities', integrating the following underlying themes: Energy and Water, Environment, Innovation and Technology, Collaborative City and the Smart Society, Economy and Governance, Urban Planning, Mobility and Transportation, Emergency and Security, and Smart GEO.
Wiring a Smart City in the Desert. Is Dubai the world’s smartest city?
Maybe not in the sense that it mortgaged long-term infrastructure with $100 billion in very short-term debt, but “smart” in a way IBM, Cisco and other tech heavyweights would be envious of. One advantage of building a city from scratch is that each of Dubai’s 60,000 modern buildings is equipped with the state-of-the-art in lighting, HVAC, and security systems--all of which can be wired to the Internet.
Last week at the Realcomm 2010 conference in Las Vegas, a Dubai software firm named Pacific Controls revealed it had beaten Cisco to the punch in creating the world’s first “smart city” by connecting 20,000 of those buildings – including the world’s largest mall and largest building – to a cloud-based platform capable of controlling each remotely. ICT companies focused on smart city effort (CISCO CUD) Several ICT companies (e.g.
IBM: Smart Planet, Accenture: Intelligent City Network, CISCO: Connected Urban Development, Ericsson Smart City, etc.) and research institutions (e.g. MIT: Smart City SENSEable lab, Terreform One, etc.) already offer services and solutions’ components that can help to build more livable, sustainable cities by innovative ICT usage. It is not easy to evaluate how much are they applicable and compatible to specific scenarios and constraints, even if in many towns such as Boulder or Amsterdam many ICT companies are working together with utilities, universities and other organization to provide integrated solutions.