Smart Cities

Discussion

Smart Cities as a recipe for cities to lose control over data to corporates

David Meyer:

" "Smart cities were mainly implemented through technology-led logic, very much influenced by big technology providers," agreed Francesca Bria, Barcelona's digital chief. "This meant going with the technological infrastructure first – [installing] sensor networks, data-gathering devices and connectivity, and only then starting to think, 'What are the real problems and needs that we are addressing?' This led to city administrations solving technology's problems, not the citizen needs that you need to address as a key issue in government."

Bria was hired a year ago by the new, leftist administration of mayor Ada Colau, a champion of grassroots politics who has made waves by taking on big US tech platforms such as Uber and Airbnb. Consequently, Bria's mission is very much one of realigning the power balance of the smart city.

"You can end up with a black-box operating system where the city itself loses control of critical information and data that should be used to make better decisions," Bria said. "Another problem with the privatised way is basically the business model is creating dependence on very few providers… We saw [this lock-in] previously in public administrations with Microsoft, for example. Now, in the smart city case, this lock-in would be extended to the entire urban infrastructure of the city. We're talking about transportation, better waste management, even water, energy, distributed green infrastructure. It's a big problem for a public administration, losing control of the management of the infrastructure.

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According to Balestrini, some new city administrations have discovered that their predecessors signed long-running deals with technology providers that left the new councils having to buy their own cities' data from those providers, rather than being able to harvest their own – because the technology was proprietary, only the vendors could access the data.

"It's fascinating when you start to see how much data can be collected in the city and how useful it is, but also how dangerous it is if the data is only in the hands of private companies," said Balestrini. "People are developing more awareness. At the same time, city councils are hiring people that have more skills and can inform them that having this and that data can deliver better services, save money and so on."" (http://www.alphr.com/technology/1006261/how-one-european-smart-city-is-giving-power-back-to-its-citizens)

The alternative in Barcelona: open and interoperabe sensor data

David Meyer:

"So what's the solution? Figuring out the city and citizens' needs, then looking at the appropriate technology and, according to Bria, making sure that the technology is open-source to maximise interoperability. This doesn't just boost competition among suppliers and help cities share knowledge; it also allows the city administration to stitch together the smart city's various infrastructural patches.

"One of the main problems Barcelona had was non-interoperability," she said. "You [had] a sensor network solution for your lighting system and another for your pavement and another for measuring quality of water management. That's three different systems not talking to each other in a standardised way, and where the city couldn't access the critical part, which is the data."

Barcelona's new approach is to "recognise that the citizens are the ones that own the data," Bria said. Along with Amsterdam and a dozen other partners from the worlds of academia, tech and consultancy, the Catalan capital is involved in consortium called Decode that has €5 million worth of funding from the European Commission – and that could end up stimulating genuinely grassroots rivals to Silicon Valley's "sharing economy" platforms." (http://www.alphr.com/technology/1006261/how-one-european-smart-city-is-giving-power-back-to-its-citizens)