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How one San Francisco-area city found its own “cool”

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Imagine the moment your boss makes it clear why he hired you, and it’s not the reason he once gave you. You’re three months into your new job as chief innovation officer in a decidedly uncool suburban city near San Francisco. You’d been told the job was all about a new fiber-optic loop. Now, you hear, it’s all about making the place “cool.”

The moment comes at a city council meeting. The mayor bangs his fist on the dais and says to council members and staff, “Look, I just want this city to be cool. Could somebody tell me please how do we get this city to be cool?”… Read the rest “How one San Francisco-area city found its own “cool””

Smart cities sounds magical, but civic tech gets it done

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Louisville, Kentucky’s chief technology manager works with civic-tech innovators every day. That sounds to me like a good way to make a city smart. But that’s only the beginning.

First comes openness, and not just open data. Ed Blayney welcomes the innovators. He stands in stark contrast with the cold eyes and stiff silos some of them face when they come to offer a city helpful, usually free new technology.

It’s not easy for city administrators, says Blayney. “They have their nose down in their day-to-day work and you’re asking them to change the way they do their jobs. It’s not easy changing people’s minds.”… Read the rest “Smart cities sounds magical, but civic tech gets it done”

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”