E-Estonia is the most ambitious project in technological statecraft today, for it includes all members of the government, and alters citizens’ daily lives. The normal services that government is involved with’”legislation, voting, education, justice, health care, banking, taxes, policing, and so on’”have been digitally linked across one platform, wiring up the nation. Nathan Heller writes in New Yorker Magazine about Estonian government’ s achievement to be virtual, borderless, blockchained, and secure.
Watch: Platforms, Apps, Solutions
The working paper “Connected Urban Growth: Public-Private Collaborations for Transforming Urban Mobility” presents a working definition of the term new mobility services, which encompasses a broad set of emerging operating models and technologies that are intended to improve the performance of urban transportation systems. It also presents the first global survey of new mobility services, and identifies emerging trends and opportunities for decision-makers in both the public and private sectors.
The IDC white paper “Accelerating the Digital Transformation of Smart Cities and Smart Communities” presents how cities can take advantage of emerging technologies to: implement a cloud platform for cost containment, security, and flexibility; update work practices and foster a strong workforce; and stay compliant and address privacy, accessibility, and cybersecurity concerns. Moreover, it contains a useful checklist to help your smart city navigate potential challenges.
In this book, Martijn de Waal and Gabriele Ferri report on the methods and approaches used by five leading living labs that attended the Design & The City event organized last year at the Knowledge Mile Amsterdam. Its key question is how can citizens be included as ‘˜actors’ when designing smart city technologies and services and what methods could designers use to conceptualize citizens not simply as ‘˜users’ but as ‘˜full human beings,’ with their personal histories, desires, emotions, and sometimes conflicting interests and complex needs.
Smart cities are an extremely popular concept in recent years. As cities grow and technology advances, cities around the world are adopting smart technologies such as smart traffic lights, street lights, and a multitude of sensors for weather, traffic, water and power, which are making them more efficient and environmentally friendly, and improve quality of life.
URENIO Research published an article that explores the potential contribution of smart city applications to sustainable urban development, and more specifically to environmental sustainability. Through an in-depth investigation of applications hosted on the Intelligent City Software and Solutions repository (ICOS), the paper identifies under-researched and under-exploited fields of smart city applications that could be opportunities to attain the “zero vision’ objectives.
Fisker Automotive, a US company specializing in hybrid and electric vehicles, has teamed up with the Chinese investment company Hakim Unique Group, to produce a self-driving electric shuttle for smart cities.