Smart City Innovations (In regards to Infrastructure)
- Free Wifi Hot spots
- Smart devices/sensors spread throughout the city that acquire real time data, alerts and information processing
- App and online applications that tracking information such as: energy, parking meters, amount of parking spaces available
- Within 2 miles of a home there should be access to public transportation
- Public maps that are accessible online and in print
After reading portions from Adam Greenfield’s book and our field trip to Portland, I feel as if I learned a great deal about the city that I did not know before. Portland has so much potential and I agree with Greenfield on many aspects of the evolution into smart cities. Firstly, as a society we need to think beyond the norm. If we continue to structure a smart city with the current definition of what “smart” means, Portland will not become “smart”. We need to be looking to the future and try to be one step ahead of the evolution of technology. Looking at a smart city in a standardized way also helps to promote the connotation of the city, in the case Portland, becoming stagnated, and unoriginal and lacking character. However, in building a smart city creativity and digital intelligence advancement go hand in hand.
As someone who has not been to many places in Portland (excluding a select few restaurants), it was awesome to learn so much about Portland’s history and how the city became what it is today. Being that it is only about 3 miles long, I felt like I quickly gained a sense of the vibe of Portland. As the city continues to improve, it still manages to keep a very laid back, small New England feel, which I think is very important. The infrastructure I am proposing to add to the city of Portland should not disrupt its current happenings. Rather, it should exist in a way that it begins to become a major presence but in an intrusive way.
Smart devices, which would be placed throughout the city of Portland, would be a “smart” investment. This system would be made up of sensors that send back real time results of data, alerts, and information that city workers could instantly receive. Additionally, the presence of these devices would greatly improve efficiency and help intelligently run the community. Participants that are involved in bettering the city would now have the opportunity to minimize or maximize certain factors in that city that used to not be in their control. This form of Information Technology, would be become the foundation for the running of society.
Greenfield, Adam. 2013. Selections from Against the Smart City. 1.3 edition. Do projects.
I’m a big fan of sensors. As you mentioned in this post, keeping the unaltered New England and Maine feel of the city is important to tourism and the “feel” of the city. Sensors are a great way to weave in technology around existing structures with very minor changes. Also, as I mentioned in my response to Karl’s post #2, “sensors for that data collection are a minimal expense. The real cost of anything data-driven will be the analysis at the end…” You jogged a thought/connection to class, however: what if we made the analysis of the data a competition open to everyone? Instead of paying a consultant to analyze it, start a high school data analysis program or open it up to the world like the NYC data sets.
I really agree with the points you made about the smart city’s lack of adaptability in the future. This point made by Greenfield was one that I found especially convincing and notable as well. I think the best way for Portland to more than simply utilize the most advanced technology of today is to consider how it can easily adjust to and use the technology of the future. Thus, the emphasis you placed on Portland developing its information technology through smart devices and sensors does seem like a flexible way for the city to begin to incorporate smart technology. However, my one concern now would be of the need for humans to analyze the data to avoid overspecifying the city and the associated cost with this data analysis (as Max points out above).
On a different note, your final two innovations seem really practical and very much achievable. The city of Portland should definitely consider creating their own map of the city separate from the highly advertised one we got on our tour of the city. It also just seems like a Lefebvre simple “right to the city” for a person to have public transportation that stops within two miles of their home. This would likely involve revamping the disorderly Portland metro area bus system that really does need to be improved.
I definitely think the idea of smart sensors could be greatly beneficial to Portland as a city. While you mention using sensors to help Portland be one step ahead of others in order to adapt as a smart city in the future, I believe that because of the size of Portland, it might be difficult to use sensors to innovate ahead of other cities. I think that Portland can look to other cities to see how they use things like sensors and smart meters to track different kinds of energy usage, but because Portland is so small compared to other cities, I doubt it can act as the innovator for other larger cities. Smart sensors could be beneficial in helping Portland figure out its seasonal issues, especially if the city of Portland learned about its energy usage relating to winter weather. I also agree with what Max spoke about in his comment about the actual analysis of the sensor data – allowing residents of Portland to access the data and analyze it would be a great way to get more people involved in improving Portland’s infrastructure.
Smart devices is definitely a great idea. It would definitely be helpful if you could establish a more concrete definition of what you intend “smart” to mean at the beginning of your post, that is contrary than the “current definition.” Also, I am not quite sure what specific kinds of “smart devices” you are referring to in your concluding paragraph, where these devices would be installed, what specific metrics data they would collect, and how would your envisioned system collectively operate. Overall, a great topic to dig deeper into.
Smart sensors are always exciting but, like James said, I was not sure what direction you wanted to go with them. Pushing the boundaries of “smartness” here could help a lot. I know you are considering other projects here. Whichever you choose, dig into the details of they work, to who benefit and detriment, and at what cost, because you and the city will flourish best in them.