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How smart is “smart cities”? :: “Smart cities” is a sales gimmick for a vision with real benefits

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How do you explain the “smart cities” idea? How do you do it on a first date, as I had to do not long ago?

She asked, “So, what do you write about?” That I wrote about “smart cities” was already on the record. First, you sip your beer. Then you set out to jump over the gimmicky “smart” and into the noble “cities.”

I say “smart cities” because it’s widely recognized. But like many of us, I have to hold my nose when I say it. “Smart” sounds like another cheap dream, another little experiment by people eager to flaunt their tech while they conceal its frailties and hide your personal data’s murky destination.… Read the rest “How smart is “smart cities”? :: “Smart cities” is a sales gimmick for a vision with real benefits”

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Opaque top-down systems vs do-it-yourself

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I make the hour-long drive down to Silicon Valley with the help of Waze even though I know the way there. I use Waze because it rouses me from daydreams in time to take an exit. It’s always alert even if I’m not — and does even more than that. It watches, it records, and it remembers where I go.

That’s fine even though, for all I know, it sends all that data about me to China. I say that that’s the price of smart. I simply like the features. For me, like most of us, the bargain is acceptable.

But it’s another thing when we jump from a smartphone’s surveillance up a level to smart cities.… Read the rest “Opaque top-down systems vs do-it-yourself”

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The one place “citizen data scientist” makes sense

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A new term has hit the wind, “citizen data scientists.” These data workers are the cheaper, good-enough version of the gold standard, the data scientists. Where does it work, if anyplace at all?

In the business world, this windy new term is just another bauble. Business people will drop it soon enough.

Why? For one thing, we already call these guys business analysts, data analysts, self-service analysts, and other terms. But do data workers need a term at all? Hasn’t data become so commonplace by now that people with pretty good data skills go by the most ordinary name of all, which is no name at all?… Read the rest “The one place “citizen data scientist” makes sense”

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