• for: smart cities, doughnut cities, cosmolocal, downscaled planetary boundaries, cross-scale translation of earth system boundaries, TPF, community data, local data, open data, community data ownership, quote, quote - Garth Graham, quote - community owned data
• quote
• paraphrase
  • Innovation in the creation and sustainability of social institutions acts predominantly at the local level.
  • In the Internet of Things, for those capacities to emerge in smart cities, communities need the capacity to own and analyse the data created that models what they are experiencing.
  • Local data needs to be seen as a common, pool resource.
  • Where that occurs, communities will have the capacity to learn or innovate their way forward.
  • So far, smart city systems are being set up to appropriate and commercialize individual and community data.
  • So far, communities are not waking up to the realization that a capacity they need is being stolen from them before they have it.
• author: Garth Graham
  • leader of Telecommunities Canada

I feel like if you're trying to get youth engaged with energy reduction/mindful energy use, you should make it a community thing (especially in social housing??!!). Trusted adults, mentors, and community leaders should be heading these education initiatives, not isolating games, however "empowering" they may be.

This reminds me of various criticisms of smart cities' reliance on data for both operation and evaluation, as there are ways of knowing that data completely overlooks and, perhaps, can never truly see.

See The City is Not a Computer.

Can we pivot our approach to smart city initiatives away from this? Is it possible to sustain a development model that prioritizes the lived experiences and vocalized needs of a community rather than the assessments of project leaders?

What is preferable? I feel like we should start with the well-being of the whole and individuate from there; technosocial urbanism emphasizes applying tech to social issues, but why don't we set the bone before providing a crutch?

I'm hearing crypto whispering on the wind...

... act rather as a magnet for the in-flow and retention of ‘creative classes’ and as gateways for gentrification."

I agree. There needs to be a focus on pursuing smart city initiatives with the help of local talent and in harmony with the existing community rather than bringing in outside actors, who run the risk of trying to effect change without a thorough understanding of the city as it stands.

Yeah, that sentence was written in 2017 and especially pertinent to Americans. 2020 has changed things a fair bit.