I would like to amplify on my colleague’s last blog, as I too participated in The Economist Web debate on Smart Cities. I too voted “no” – Smart Cities are not empty hype, but I wasn’t surprized by the split vote. As Robert Bell stated in the last blog, “Smart Cities are about using a new generation of cheap, powerful sensors, data storage and software to automate cities …. using information and communications technology (ICT) to do more with less.” Cities that have become involved in these tech enhanced programs like are quite happy with their asset management initiatives. But having worked with some of these cities, I cannot say that they would qualify as Intelligent Communities. They could if they go the next steps and build on the platform that has been built for them by the Smart City technology firm. So my position was a little different. I felt that these tech companies are doing these cities a big favor by helping them to get a terrific grounding on the first level of intelligent communities – namely by focusing on what we call getting the infrastructure right. Here is what I said:
To read the original article: Intelligent Community Forum (ICF)
