Rob Kitchin’s article discusses what makes smart cities, and
in particular how these cities are connected to ‘everyware’. This connection is
by devices ‘built into the fabric of urban environments’ (for example wi-fi,
broadband, transport infrastructure etc). ‘Connecting up, integrating and
analysing the information produced by these various forms of everyware, it is argued,
provides a more cohesive and smart understanding of the city that enhances efficiency
and sustainability and provides rich seams of data that can be used to better
depict, model and predict urban processes and stimulate the likely outcomes of
future further development.’ This connection allows cities and its people to
become more knowledgeable and controllable
Big data and cities is the next topic Kitchin discusses,
explaining how big data is the collection of large datasets such as national
censuses, government records and surveys. The sources of big data are divided into
three categories; directed, automated and volunteered. These forms of data are
large, detailed and varied. Big data is must be:
- Huge in volume
- High in velocity
- Diverse in variety
- Exhaustive in scope
- Fine-grained in resolution
- Relational in nature
- Flexible
Real-time analytics is a common method for governments to
manage how a city functions. This is most common with transportation and the
movement of people. This can be measured via surveillance cameras, logging transport
usage and even air pollution. There have also been attempts to centralise this
information for an open data analytic like in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Communicating
this information to the community has been done through ‘city dashboards’ where
people can access real-time information about weather, transport, stock market
etc. This type of analytics can be extremely helpful for tourists, service
workers, firemen, policemen and rescue teams. Concerns about the real-time city
include:
- Politics of big urban data
- Technocratic governance and city development
- The corporation of city governance and technological lock-in
- Buggy, brittle and hackable cities
- The panoptic city
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