Infrastructure constantly needs to be updated and kept up with the current standards of a city, however, more importantly a smart city needs to worry about the human character aspect of infrastructure. As Sorkin writes, “the human character of cities begins with face to face interaction”[1]. In other words, different types of human interactions shape the personality and style of a city. Additionally, through coming face to face with so many people, a city is creating a sense of social responsibility and an environment for its inhabitants to live in.
Open source technology aids in the idea of creating a social infrastructure and making it much more accessible, friendly, and representative, due its readily availability to the general public. The public receives real time and up to date services that any one can obtain or edit, thus aiding in human interacting, which is also displayed in the Jiménez reading [2]. An added plus is way in which the city will be represented, due to the fact that a little bit of everyone that contributed will be a part of the outcome, and not just the input or vision of a minority of people.
Similarly to Sorkin and Jiménez, Simone expresses the same ideals of infrastructure by taking a closer look into the structure of Johannesburg. He shows us that people can also serve as infrastructure. When infrastructure in not in place, people make do with their surroundings [3]. With this comes a strong sense of community, and ownership of a city. Simone shows us that it is important to not put too much stress on infrastructure because then cities will become too constricted. This is very important because a strong quality that a smart city needs to maintain is innovation and creativity.
For Portland, Jiménez’s idea of the “right to infrastructure” goes well with the idea of the common good [2]. Every inhabitant of the city has the basic right to claim ownership . The infrastructure should be set up in a way that it gives everyone the opportunity to freely shape his or her life around it. I think that Portland would greatly benefit from open-source data or crowd-sourcing. It allows for open communication and huge amounts of innovation. Crowd-sourcing could go towards some form of more efficient and sustainable public transportation system.
Works cited
[1] Michael Sorkin, “Traffic in Democracy,” in The People and Space Reader, ed. Jen Jack Gieseking, et al (New York: Routledge), 2014, 411-415.
[2] Alberto Cosin Jiménez, “The Right to Infrastructure: a Prototype for Open Source Urbanism,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 32 (2): 342-62, 2014.
[3] Abdul Maliq Simone, “People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg,” in People and Space Reader, ed. Jen Jack Gieseking, et al (New York: Routledge), 2014 (2004), 241-246.