New report on Citizen-led data governance

Posted at 18 May 2020 in Cities

The rise of the online economy is based on the opportunities to extract value from data that is produced by digital technologies. As opposed to data brokers that gain value buying and selling personal information, this report argues for radically new ideas about how the value of our personal information can be returned back to citizens. Rather than focusing on how making money from data, it focuses on how data can benefit society as a whole, exploring the idea of ‘data commons’. The report is entitled “Common Knowledge: Citizen-led data governance for better cities” and is part of the decode H2020 project.

Cancelation of Sidewalk Toronto Smart City project

Posted at 15 May 2020 in Cities, Intelligent Cities / Smart Cities

Sidewalk Toronto project, developed by Sidewalk Labs, was suspended earlier this month. The company claimed “unprecedented economic uncertainty” caused by the current pandemic.

The project consists of a highly controversial topic, due to privacy concerns. Sidewalk Labs, a Google affiliate, designed a large-scale project towards the transformation of the Waterfront of Toronto into a smart city.

Sharing cities and citizens sharing: Perceptions and practices in Milan

Posted at 12 May 2020 in Business Models, Innovation, Platforms, Apps, Solutions

Sharing has become a global phenomenon; business models, social innovations and technological developments enable an escalated number of uses for a given asset, resulting in reshaped urban dynamics, practices and morphologies.

This paper is exploring diverse aspects of sharing economy as part of the urban fabric, through participatory activities with citizens and stakeholders. It investigates the co-construction of society and technology with respect to the implementation of sharing-based strategies in urban practices.

On the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak and the Smart City Network: Universal Data Sharing Standards Coupled with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Benefit Urban Health Monitoring and Management

Posted at 10 May 2020 in Intelligent / Smart Cities Solutions

The authors of this is paper, inspired by the context of the current pandemic, attempt an exploration on urban resilience. Within the reality of smart cities, they outline the importance of seeking standardization of communication across and among them. One month after detection and during the outbreak, they surveys the virus outbreak from an urban standpoint.

Transforming innovation for decarbonisation? Insights from combining complex systems and social practice perspectives

Posted at 8 May 2020 in Collaborative Innovation, Innovation, Innovation Strategies

The transformation of research and policy approaches to innovation for decarbonisation towards a type of social innovation, is promising to open discussions and interrelate with the present reality. This paper starts by challenging the demand-supply dichotomy. Complex systems and social practice theories represent the compelling frameworks whereby to deal with this transformation.

New Report: Public Space & Public Life during COVID 19

Posted at 6 May 2020 in Cities

What can be said about Covid-19 that hasn’t been said already? Rather than simply talking and writing about the pandemic, Gehl staff wants to share the lived experience of it. With the support of Realdania and the City of Copenhagen, they worked with 60 surveyors in 4 cities in Denmark to observe and understand how streets and public spaces, parks and playgrounds are serving the very unique needs of the communities during this pandemic. The first results are listed in this report, both in terms of snapshots of public life during the “lock-down” as well as highlights of the collected data.

New Book: Collaborative Society

Posted at 5 May 2020 in Collaborative Innovation

This book by Dariusz Jemielniak and Aleksandra Przegalinska examines how networked technology enables the emergence of a new kind of social collaboration in modern societies. It covers the sector of “sharing economy” as well as different models of peer production and collaborative media production and consumption, while also considering hactivism, social movements and citizen science. The authors consider as well existing challenges for the future of collaboration in times of fake news, bots and other challenges.