Posts in Cities
Smart Cities Connect & US Ignite Application Summit Explore Perennial Challenges, New Solutions

It’s perhaps fitting that the Smart Cities Connect Conference and Expo– held in Austin last week, and collocated with the US Ignite Application Summit – wrapped on the eve of a (very) long 4th of July weekend. Because rethinking the running and management of our cities–with the help of new technology and data tools– is a good way to honor this country’s birthday. If sorting out the key smart cities issues means looking beyond past accomplishments and entering some uncharted waters at the confluence of deep technical, political, and demographic tides, all the more reason to jump in feet first. And jump in we did last week in Austin, with a major conference exploring the use of technology, policy, data, and more to help cities become more efficient, secure, and sustainable–while improving the quality of life of its citizens and visitors.

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With Panasonic's Help, Denver is Building a Smart City Within a City

You can’t really talk about what’s happening in Denver without mentioning what’s happening 5,800 miles away in Fujisawa, the Japanese town Panasonic built on top of its old factory outside Tokyo. Its 600 homes and 400 apartments — all sold out but still filling up — were designed to withstand earthquakes, are all outfitted with solar panels, and are all hooked up to the smart grid. It took over a decade to get Fujisawa up and running, but Panasonic wanted to reproduce it in the U.S. using an already established city.

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Michael R. Bloomberg Announces $200 Million American Cities Initiative To Help U.S. Cities Innovate, Solve Problems, And Work Together In New Ways

MIAMI, June 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In an address at the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Annual Meeting in Miami, Michael R. Bloomberg today announced the American Cities Initiative, a suite of new and expanded investments that will empower cities to generate innovation and advance policy that moves the nation forward. In an era of unprecedented challenges – from rapid technological change to Washington D.C.'s deepening disengagement on urban issues to the climate crisis – cities need new tools that will allow mayors to do what they do best: innovate, solve problems, and work together to move the needle on the issues that matter to citizens and America's future.

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Fragmented but not broken: America's smart cities bind together

Perhaps because they played SimCity-style games in their younger years, many technologists working in government today are excited with the prospect of using "smart city" technology to transform the administrative process from one that is unpredictable, bureaucratic, opaque, slow and clunky into one that responds to the push of a button or the twist of a knob. The purpose of the smart city concept is to transform a busy, complex and unreliable metropolis into something that works precisely the way the people in charge want it to work. 

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Chinese R&D, Innovation, and the Search for Zhōng

Learning Mandarin isn’t easy. Establishing a system of innovation and catalyzing R&D isn’t easy either, especially in a country with over one billion people. This is particularly true with successive generations of poverty, a structure established to punish failure, and an education system that emphasizes memorization over original thinking. Technologically and economically, China has emerged from a model of seclusion to imitation. My time in China revealed a consistent emphasis on and need for that next step, from imitation to innovation.

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The rise of smart cities

With more than 60 per cent of the world's population expected to be urban residents by 2050, the challenge to build more "smart cities" has become urgent. With the advent of digital technology and big data, changes are afoot, be it in public transportation, citizen services or the way businesses are run. To discuss these changes and evaluate the processes under way, one of France's leading newspapers, Le Monde, in partnership with The Straits Times, is organising a conference titled "Smart Cities: Which visions and models for the 21st century?" at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy today. And, in a four-page special, The Straits Times and Le Monde showcase Asian cities that have, in their individual ways, applied smart city solutions to enhance the quality of life.

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