EP 18: The Smart Cities Primer
It's okay to admit you're not fully up to speed on "smart cities" or the "Internet of Things." A lot of people aren't. The talk is so ubiquitous that it might feel like a runaway topic that's tough to break into. Or maybe you're from a small town and think smart-cities and IoT are more of a big-city conversation. But it concerns just about everybody, everywhere. So what does it really mean? As initiatives and projects multiply in the focus of smart cities and IoT -- and while the federal government is actively soliciting comment on a new plan to collaborate with local communities toward smart-city enhancements -- this episode explains the who-what-when-where-why to get us all up on the essentials. Because now is the time to know. Show notes: -Draft "Smart Cities and Communities Federal Strategic Plan: Exploring Innovation Together" and Request for Comments https://www.nitrd.gov/news/RFI-SCC-Federal-Strategic-Plan.aspx -NLC report: "Trends in Smart City Development" http://www.nlc.org/article/new-report-on-smart-cities-released-by-national-league-of-cities -News story, "3 Insights from NLC's Smart Cities Report" http://www.statetechmagazine.com/article/2017/02/3-insights-nlc-s-smart-cities-report -News story, "Greensboro to Participate in National 'Smart City' Program in March" http://wunc.org/post/greensboro-participate-national-smart-city-program-march#stream/0 -News story, "Envisioning Smart Cities" https://smartcitiesworld.net/news/news/envisioning-smart-cities-1352?platform=hootsuite -Callback to EP 07, "The Value of 'Digital Mindsets' in Local Government" https://soundcloud.com/municipalequation/ep-07 -Thought piece, "A City is Not a Computer" https://placesjournal.org/article/a-city-is-not-a-computer/
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Transcript
On this episode of being a school equation. A smart city is one that has developed technological infrastructure that enables it to collect, aggregate, and analyze real time data so as to improve the lives of its residents. Technophobia and resisting these changes almost isn't an option any longer, not at least if a city wants to attract new residents and workforce talent and remain competitive in the twenty first century economy.
So what's up with smart cities? And why is it the right time to really try to understand this stuff? That's our focus. My name is Ben Brown, and this is Municipal Equation from the North Carolina League of Municipalities, episode 18.
Motivated by a vision of ubiquitous, smart infrastructure, systems, and services, many cities and communities view advances in networking and information technology as a way to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve quality of life for their residents. They seek to become smart cities and smart communities by embedding new digital technologies into their infrastructure, systems, and services to enhance existing and develop new city community resources. Smart city community solutions are intended to enable new capabilities and opportunities all in the face of limited budgets. The possible applications are numerous. Citizen services, smart grids, intelligent transportation systems, and remote healthcare to name a few. Although information technology promises enormous public benefits, it also introduces new challenges. These challenges range from technical to ethical, legal, and social including cybersecurity, data sharing and analysis, privacy, public health and well-being, workforce and education needs, and cultural and socioeconomic considerations. Addressing these challenges requires new forms of cross sector and cross government collaboration, experimentation, knowledge sharing, and alignment. This strategic plan offers a high level framework to guide and coordinate smart city community related federal initiatives with an emphasis on local government and stakeholder engagement. Coordinating efforts across federal agencies should help accelerate the development of smart city community solutions that maximize the value of investments and optimize benefits to residents.
That was a message from the federal government. Actually, it's part of a summary of the draft version of a plan that the federal government's working on that when complete, will guide how the high government collaborates with cities and towns and other stakeholders on smart city initiatives. Emphasis on local government. And I know, it seems like everywhere you turn these days, say, if you're on Twitter and you're even slightly interested in technology, it's all Smart cities. Smart cities. Smart
city.
Smart cities. Smart city. Smart city. You know, a lot a lot of buzz, obviously, about smart cities and Smart city. Smart city. Smart cities. Smart cities. Smart cities. Smart cities.
And even if you don't follow technology closely, you're probably at least familiar with the term. For some people, entire careers and publications are revolving around the concept of smart cities or the application of smart city elements. And we have a good number of smart cities to cite as examples, including some right here in North Carolina, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Raleigh, even small towns like Benson. But it's also completely normal to not possess a deep knowledge of what smart cities are or what it all means. It's still really common to see conferences and meetings and news articles and videos and podcasts that are entirely focused on educating us on what smart cities actually are, what it means to be a smart city, the fundamentals for the people who aren't familiar. So it's safe to say in the grand scheme that we're still very much in the primordial stage of the smart cities movement. So take this episode as a quick core primer on smart cities. Just to get us all up on where we are, what's happening, what we mean when we talk about smart cities, and sensors, and data, and the Internet of Things or IOT. The basics, with examples. Things that we can do in our hometowns that fall into the smart city category. Because it's not just about big cities. This applies to small towns too. And we could spend hours and hours and hours on this topic and still be in the first few pages of the Smart Cities Handbook, so to speak. So to help us hit the high points and the confines of this podcast, we welcome back someone that we can't seem to get enough of on Municipal Equation, and that's Nicole du Puy of the National League of Cities. You might recall that we had her on to talk about local infrastructure spending, and then we brought her back on to talk about drones and what that technology means for us at home. We'll hear from her this time talking about her recent report for the NLC, and that's on trends in smart city development. So that's coming right up. But why else is this smart cities topic timely right now? Well, for one, that federal draft plan on smart cities. Until the end of this month, being February 2017, they're accepting comments and input to help finalize that plan. It's from an agency called the National Coordination Office for Network and Information Technology Research and Development of the National Science Foundation. The draft plan is called Smart Cities and Communities, Federal Strategic Initiative, Exploring Innovation Together. And I'll have a link to all this stuff in the show notes at soundcloud.com/municipalequation. This isn't the first organized smart city initiative we've seen. Matter of fact, there are groups up and down the alphabet who have been working with municipalities or groups of municipalities
to fund smart city projects all over the world. In the smart city challenge, imagine a city where transportation just works. Gridlock is a thing of the past. Lights turn green as you approach. Traffic flows smoothly as your car talks to other cars to avoid crashes. It even talks to pedestrians and bicyclists.
Your driverless taxi shows Just the other day, news outlets, including public radio station, WUNC, reported that Greensboro, North Carolina got picked by Envision America twenty seventeen for a national smart city program. To find new ways to make technology useful for the city, and to make make city services more efficient. It was the only place in the state picked for it. But successes we see from it could be applied to other cities. And that's just one example. So here's Nicole Dupuis with the National League of Cities. Author of a report that came out last month called Trends in Smart City Development. Can you briefly summarize, if that's at all possible, what we mean when we say smart cities? And I guess while you're at it, could you maybe tell us what the Internet of things is and how that's related? Because that's a word that or a terminology that goes along with that. Sure. A lot of buzzwords.
A smart city is one that has developed technological infrastructure that enables it to collect, aggregate, and analyze real time data so as to improve the lives of its residents. So there are a lot of definitions of smart city kind of floating around and everybody sort of struggles with defining what that really means and defining it in a way that fully expresses the kind of full breadth of all of the things that are smart cities. But, basically, what we're talking about in its most simple form is cities using data to make decisions and collecting that data via a number of new technologies, new technological innovations that we've seen spring up in the last maybe five to ten years. The Internet of things, which can definitely be classified as another kind of fun buzzword that's bubbled up in the last couple of years, kind of encompasses all of these new technologies. Increasingly, every consumer product and piece of infrastructure has the ability to sense its surroundings and and surrounding stimuli and to gather data on consumption and preferences to communicate with other devices and people and to kind of draw out, on computing and storage power of the cloud. So this phenomena has been dubbed the Internet of things, and it's really everything from, say, your Fitbit to the camera that is surveying you as you're walking into a building. So the idea is that it's creating this Internet ecosystem where all of these, technologies can kind of communicate with one another and collect data while they're doing that.
So what are some real examples of smart city technology? You you mentioned a couple of pieces of technology a moment ago, but, real examples of how municipal government is using smart city technology or the Internet of things.
Sure. So we see Wi Fi hotspots at a scale kind of like in New York City with Link NYC. Those can really help transform the way we access information and help alleviate some of the digital divide issues that we're experiencing in communities across the country. Mhmm. We're seeing, kind of advancements in streetlight networks that use embedded sensors to detect gunshots or they flash their lights during an emergency, so they serve many different purposes. Utilities can be managed using, what are called smart meters, which help residents, in many cases, make more sustainable and sometimes cost cost effective choices about their utility use. And the systems also allow cities to collect information, from sources, different sources such as smart water, electric, and gas meters, and make repairs as soon as they're needed, not just when residents get around to calling them in. So it creates a more efficient atmosphere in, utility services and repairs and, provision. And then we'll we'll do a little thought experiment and kinda think further out. We can imagine kind of a future where, maybe security protocols like facial recognition technology could help transform building security in cities, making entrances and building design more fluid as we move away from the need to usher people through one main front door or set of doors. And I would be remiss, obviously, if I didn't mention autonomous vehicles. That's kind of topic du jour. Mhmm. So today, our cities have sensor networks that allow signals to communicate traffic signals to communicate with some vehicles and with each other. And as we move toward the reality of an autonomous vehicle future and move toward greater usage of shared vehicles like TNCs, transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft, we can imagine a sort of sensor ecosystem in which vehicles can can communicate with one another, the signals, and other Internet of things items in their proximity. So, again, it kind of feeds into this this vision for this, Internet ecosystem in the future.
And so who's kind of taking the lead on all of this? What what are some of the smart cities that we're looking up to as examples, and what and what are they doing?
Sure. So I'll I'll mention, some of the things that are happening in in Chicago and in San Francisco. In Chicago, in 2012, mayor Rahm Emanuel signed the city's open data policy, and that created an open data platform and mandated cross functional collaboration all managed by this oversight department, the Department of Innovation and Technology. So that policy, and the administrative structure it created position the city to really partner with a lot of, universities and private sector organizations on sensor projects like their array of things project, which really aims to collect and disseminate real time data that can be used in making smarter municipal decisions. The other example I mentioned is San Francisco where they have been working for years, continually to employ smart city initiatives that make San Francisco safer, more affordable, and, more equitable. They're working specifically to reduce their emissions footprint, and their open data initiative supports smart city projects that kind of, aim to meet their greenhouse gas reduction goals and improve public transportation service. So they're using that technology in a slightly different way, to feed into some of their existing, sustainability goals.
And so these are large cities. Do do you think there's a place for IoT or smart city thinking in small towns or rural communities? And if so, how?
Absolutely. This isn't exclusively a big city issue by any measure. And furthermore, deployment of these systems doesn't have to be this full scale multimillion dollar overhaul. I think that that's something that's somewhat glazed over in in the the overall discussion about smart cities is that it can be iterative. You can't build Rome in a day. And, similarly, small and midsize cities with budget and capacity restraints can't expect a 100% transformation, you know, to, this this full scale smart city overnight. But there are some steps that they can take toward smart city systems deployment that will help them to kinda be more efficient decision makers and service providers. I mentioned smart utility meters and smart lighting as examples earlier. Those are projects that definitely, tend to feel more within reach for midsize and smaller communities. Some more examples are parking apps and kiosks Okay. And even body cameras for public safety officials. I think that that's that's something that's often talked about in a different context, but it so it doesn't get brought into the discussion around smart cities. Body cameras are collecting data. So, these are a few other examples of smart city initiatives that are being readily deployed in midsize and small communities across America. Maybe they're just not necessarily considered part of the kind of full menu of smart city systems, but they absolutely are. And they take small communities one step, further toward that kind of, you know, embracing that smart city of the future model.
So this is something I I want to ask too. You know, technology, especially new technology, may be something government is is a little bit conservative with Mhmm. And for good reason. You know, you've got the upfront expense. You're expected to be dollar wise when it comes to public money. How do you how does that balance out, the the benefits of these new technologies and the improvements to government efficiency
with the expectation that government should also be careful about spending? Because sometimes that's a hard sell. Yeah. You know, that's a good question, and and it's one that definitely rings true for a lot of, at least the lot of the cities that we've spoken to. The investment piece is really, really difficult because, you know, cities are expected, like you said, to be good stewards, good financial stewards for their residents. You know, I think cities have to think about what their goals are, you know, not with not notwithstanding, you know, all of these new smart city systems and and and tools, but what their overall goals are and think about how, a smart city, project or system or deployment of some sort might help them to reach or meet their goals. So, you know, this is really, what what we're talking about here are just tools that help municipalities do their job more effectively. And those tools are not limited to a city of a certain size or city with a certain budget, But what cities do have to do is they have to ask the hard questions about what what's the end game? You know? What is it that they want? What is it that they're trying to accomplish? And then once they've answered that question, I think they can more readily decide, okay. This particular, application or tool or system would help us to fulfill that goal and, therefore, would be a sound investment. So so I I guess what I'm trying to say is that the investment decision, needs to be aligned with the goal, not necessarily the the smart city system or tool.
And, you know, where government maybe used to be an innovator in the past, you know, it it's it's more of the space of the private sector now. Right? In terms of invention and the evolution of technology, do you think that it'll continue to unfold that way, or or do you think government will begin to innovate and help shape what these smart technologies look like in the future?
Yes. So the discussion around smart cities technology has largely, as you said, been led by industry. And as local governments begin to embrace these new systems and these new technologies, what we hope is that they can take more of a role in leading that discussion and leading that ongoing development of that technology. I mean, this is far from over. It's it's a it's a ongoing conversation. It's an on it's a living and breathing process, right, as as we develop more technology and technology improves. And if you think about it, no one really knows better what local governments need and what might augment their service provision than local governments themselves. So as cities transition from being kind of the sales target to being the consumers and users of these products and systems, what we hope for is that they'll have a chance to be true stakeholders and influence the way this technology develops, for their youth for their use in their cities. And and I think it's safe to say at this point, the the lines are really blurring between, the public sector and industry or public and private, especially in instances in which tech is involved.
And, I gotta ask, you know, when it comes to you mentioned sensors, data collection, autonomous technology, like autonomous vehicles. The word security comes up. You know, one might be a nervousness on part of the citizenry that they're being surveilled, which is a really sensitive topic, of course, and on the other hand, that someone might hack in and manipulate this technology somehow. So what what are you hearing as the conversation in in in those two different senses of security? What's happening with that?
Security is a huge consideration that we don't take lightly. Cities have a responsibility to protect their residents from harm, and that includes any cyberattacks or privacy invasions that may take place with the collection of all of this data. And I think you're right. This is one of the things that's commonly overlooked in this discussion, the tight coupling or linkage of big data collection with, cybersecurity. So if cities are ready to invest in smart city infrastructure, we would advocate that they had also better be ready to invest in the systems and the architecture necessary to protect and secure any data that they've collected. And as cities collect more and more of that data and hacking and ransomware become more prevalent threats, this is more important than ever. So, essentially, what we're what we're saying is that cities need to be prepared to to do what it whatever it is they need to do to protect their citizens.
So, you know, connectivity is a part of our daily lives, probably more so than we even realize. When do you think we're gonna hit a point where the smart city mentality is something that no sizable city at least can ignore? And do you think that time is already now?
I believe that time has come. We we find ourselves in the midst of this technological revolution where in a lot of cases, technophobia and resisting these changes almost isn't an option any longer, not at least if the city wants to attract new residents and workforce talent and remain competitive in the twenty first century economy and also offer citizens safety and efficient services. So, you know, while we we recognize that this doesn't you know, that this can be an iterative process and we're not expecting cities to just kind of transform themselves overnight, there has to be an openness to to kind of the way that the world is changing.
And so your new report, is is is thorough, but it's really relatable, in terms of being, digestible by a wide audience. Could you give us a quick rundown of what the report is, what it seeks to do, and what it recommends?
Well, yeah, we saw this kind of need for, you know, creating a city stake in this conversation. And in the report, we make three major recommendations surrounding smart cities. And, really, these are aimed at, cities that are either in the midst of trying to deploy, systems in a smart city's capacity or they're considering it. Right? So cities should consider the outcomes that they wanna achieve. As I mentioned, data is not an end in itself. It's only a means to achieving a goal. So the most successful smart city initiatives will be those with clear objectives where city leaders are committed to solving problems with technology. The second recommendation is that cities should look for ways to partner with universities and nonprofits in the private sector on this. Nobody expects that that city should be able to pay for and execute this all on their own. Partnerships are really key to finding and implementing implementing the innovative solutions that will, meet the unique needs of each city. And they also offer some other really beneficial means such as additional funding, additional expertise, and so those those can't be overlooked. So some of the most successful cities that we've seen deploy smart city systems, have, been the ones that have been willing to partner with other organizations to do it. Mhmm. And then finally, cities should continue to look for best practices and frameworks for smart city development. As I mentioned, this conversation is one that's far from over, and every day, technology is changing, improving. New technology is coming to the surface. So advancements are happening rapidly, and city leaders have to continually seek best practices and resources both from other cities and entities and from partners within their community and from partners within the tech community as well.
So is there anything else I didn't ask about with regard to smart cities, Internet of things, technology, the intersection with local government, how it's being adapted? We we've covered a lot of areas.
I think that as cities are considering how they, you know, make these large investments and and how systems deployed today might work with those that develop in the future, they they they need to think about interoperability. There are some standards in development, though not fully developed and fully implemented. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is part of the US Department of Commerce, is working currently on a framework for smart city development that is really is, designed to address two concerns, including interoperability and the portability of, smart city systems across cities.
So at a close, the smart cities movement is less about a piece or pieces of technology, and more about adapting to the present technological possibilities to make public service better. Then you have all the threads you can pull on from there, like improve quality of life. And I wanna get back to what William Eggers of Deloitte said in episode seven. His bottom line was about the private market's advancements with technology, like apps, in a way that makes the consumer experience quicker and easier and more fulfilling, and how that's created a new expectation from the public in terms of customer service. And it's on government now. So Edgar said the digital mindset, at least, needs to be in place in city hall so public service can not only keep pace, but know how to make services internally and externally more efficient. And before we go, I wanna play some audio that I recorded at the North Carolina Digital Government Summit back in the 2016. You're gonna hear two voices here. The first is Jim Alberk, and the second is Adam Martin. They both work in technology with the city government of Raleigh. What they say here is a pretty appropriate way to end this episode. The city,
our capital city. And one of the things that's most interesting, from my perspective is just the population growth that's happening in the city. So that population growth puts a lot of pressure on governments to be offering services in new and interesting ways and leverage data and technology in new and interesting ways to offer at least the same services, if not offer better services. So a lot of, the Internet of Things is around instrumenting our city, and one of the things that we can potentially instrument is our assets. So we have street lights. We have, buildings. We have vehicles. We have roads, etcetera. And we're consistently on a on a monthly, yearly basis swapping out some of those assets. And so those are always opportunities to instrument them with sensors, and things that might start collecting and reporting data. And at this point in time, a lot of the vendors that are out in the foyer and other vendors are now delivering assets kinda baked in with with sensors already. So a lot of the sensors that are being delivered and deployed in our cities are already instrumented whether we have a capability to deal with that data or not. And so as a, you know, as a city, we're trying to figure out is there opportunities to leverage the data that's already being collected. So again, right, so when we think about some of our assets, we have Wi Fi radios, we have street lights, we have, cameras, parking meters, etcetera. And those are collecting data, you know, around transactions and events, temperature, air quality, all sorts of things, location, etcetera. Government isn't always, doesn't have an aptitude to embrace emerging technologies. We're very lucky in the city of Raleigh that we have a culture that we've kinda fostered from a technology perspective that technology perspective, that the city has some appetite to potentially start to build some capacity for some of these emerging technologies.
What the hype cycle kind of talks about a little bit is, you know, in the early days of a of a platform, a new technology, or a new concept, as government, there's actually that's an opportunity for us to, leverage the hype and leverage the excitement about from partners and things to learn about what's coming down the pipe. Because if we wait till the, you know, plateau productivity or even further to start, planning and executing how we're gonna work with big data or or actually leverage the Internet of Things to our advantage as a city, we may be too late because the the the rate of change is is increasing. So just wanted to to highlight that. Just because we're at the early stage or the highest level doesn't mean it's the we should just wait and see and all and only be hands off. But but but actually, experimenting with partners is is an opportunity for us to do.
Thanks for listening. You might have some feedback. Please send it along to me. I'm at bbrown@nclm.org. I'm also on Twitter at muni equation. That's at m u n I equation. And I'll have a ton of relevant links, including the National League of Cities report on smart cities, and the federal draft plan at soundcloud.com/municipalequation, where you can find all past episodes. And I'm also gonna link to a recent critical theory paper that I didn't get into here called A City is Not a Computer. It's just something to think about as we continue to talk about the intersection of cities, the public, and technology. If you enjoyed this or any other episode of the podcast, please help out by leaving a friendly review on iTunes or by telling your friends and colleagues about municipal equation. We're made possible by the North Carolina League of Municipalities online at nclm.0rg. Thanks again for listening. We'll talk to you soon. This is Ben Brown.
