ABOUT Digi.City®

Digi.City® supports the co-creation of smart(er) cities and more connected communities by including the perspectives of a wide range of stakeholders, including citizens and residents. To enable our mission, we share information, showcase best practices, amplify voices, and convene leaders across sectors.

Check out our work: Articles | Videos | Events | Resources

Our Ethos

Our modern era affords us with the technical capacity to create a data-rich picture of what is happening in our communities. This ability comes with a responsibility to ethically implement these technologies guided by policies and programs that reflect a community’s stated interests.

AI accelerates our ability to understand and analyze data while offering new opportunities to create digital tools. We must ensure that these actions are grounded in ethical practices that engage under-represented audiences while prioritizing transparency, legibility, equity, and justice.

Data-collecting devices are ubiquitous - in our lives, in our homes, and our public spaces. We must ensure that people are informed and educated about what data is being collected and how that information is managed, shared, monetized, and used to make decisions on behalf of the public good.

The issues we face in our urban areas are complex, interrelated, and dynamic. We have the capacity to integrate technology to build better cities that offer an improved quality of life for all residents. Creating this reality means insisting on a cross-sector approach that welcomes perspectives from government, industry, entrepreneurs, academics, advocates, and artists. We must go beyond antiquated, hierarchical systems that inhibit creativity. We gain so much more by exploring new ways to work together.

Our History

Dr. Chelsea McCullough initially created Digi.City® in 2016 to share the learnings and experiences from her Eisenhower Fellowship on smart cities in the U.S. and China. The platform has evolved over time and today serves to share information, develop tools and convene community and technology leaders around the world who are committed to the ethical design and deployment of smart city technology for the social good.

This conversation is happening globally and so we engage with cities in the U.S. and around the world to discover solutions, challenges, and partners. Digi.City® exists to support connection and collaboration. Smart city leaders freely share their approaches, creating rich opportunities to learn from and help each other. The diversity of political systems, points of view, city size, and available resources provides limitless innovation and inspiration. 

Digi.City® is open and available to all and we look forward to your participation.