re:publica 17 - Mobility & City

A tale of two cities: comparing “smart city” approaches

Marketing materials about ‘smart cities’ seem to be everywhere, to the point that ‘smart city’ rhetoric is verging on being an invasive species. But behind the scenes, many city government employees are working to use, adapt, or implement digital systems to serve city residents best. This presentation discusses some of the organisational issues and policy challenges that public administrators encountered while deploying “smart” technologies in London, England, and Toronto, Canada. * Vanessa Thomas * Ding Wang Marketing materials and business communications about the ‘smart city’ seem to be everywhere, to the point that ‘smart city’ rhetoric is verging on being an invasive species. But behind the scenes of the snazzy buzzwords and futuristic photos, many city governments are working to adopt, adapt, and implement new and existing digital systems to serve city residents best. In this presentation, we discuss research about public administration of smart city projects in Toronto, Canada, and London, England. We draw on publicly available documentation as well as interviews with key influencers of government strategies—including policy makers, academics, and private sector designers—to dissect how and why city administrators adopted and implemented “smart” technologies in their cities. The presentation describes some of the organisational issues and policy challenges that can occur while deploying “smart” technologies. It highlights some of the complex material, infrastructural, political, social, and environmental challenges that have emerged thus far in London and Toronto’s smart city projects, and challenges some of the simplistic rhetoric about the benefits of “smart” cities and “smart” technologies. The presentation closes with a call for more open discussion of these nuanced issues between and amongst people, public sector employees, academics, and the private sector.

Technology framework for a new Mobility Economy

The electric robot cars are coming! Rapid developments in technology will require a new framework for connected mobility. How can we build it, and what might it enable? Will electric vehicles transform the way society generates and stores energy? Will Blockchain keep our money and our data secure? Will industries be forced to collaborate in the open by tough regulations, or will it be a race to build the biggest walled garden? Jens Stoewhase (Intellicar) moderates a panel of experts from the automotive industry discussing what emerging technologies and trends in mobility could mean for our futures. * Klaus Schaaf * Timo Littke * Jens Stoewhase * Andrea Sroczynski Movement is a fundamental human freedom, and having cheap and convenient ways to move around our towns and cities is something many of us take for granted. But with the rapid developments in electric vehicles and self-driving cars in recent years, and as vehicle manufacturers and public authorities start to deploy smart traffic systems, the movement of people is becoming increasingly bound up with the movement of data and energy. Legislation moves more slowly than technology, and the laws that govern mobility in the coming years will largely be the rules encoded in the frameworks that we create. In this panel, experts from the mobility industry will discuss some of the latest developments in the world of connected mobility and transportation technology, the opportunities they create, and some of the risks associated with them. Smart energy storage, on-demand engine performance upgrades, autonomous driving systems and cybersecurity will all be topics as we discuss how the industry might create frameworks to maximise the advantages of emerging technologies, while preserving our individual freedoms and the freedom to innovate in the mobility space. In particular, we will highlight how the latest developments in open source mobility software could support a new ecosystem for collaborative innovation.

Öffentliche Infrastruktur mit offenen Daten entschlüsseln

Straßen-, Schienen- und andere (Verkehrs-) Infrastrukturen gehören zu den komplexesten und relevantesten Netzwerksystemen. Sie unterliegen ständigen Wandel und müssen stets an neue Anforderungen angepasst werden. Mit Hilfe von offenen Daten, Visualisierungen und Algorithmen lassen sich komplexe Netze sowohl mikro- als auch makroskopisch analysieren. * Jonas Westphal Der Talk zeigt anhand von ausgesuchten internationalen Beispielen aktuelle Trends der Infrastruktur- und Verkehrsforschung auf. Insbesondere werden Methodik und Ergebnisse der einzelnen Projekte verglichen. Dabei stehen Studien mit offenen Sensor- und Geodaten im besonderen Fokus, da sie sich von gängigen, Modell-basierten Projekten durch eine Vielzahl von unterschiedlichen empirischen Daten unterscheiden.

Mutually Assured Construction (en)

Cooperation is difficult, and designing for it is even harder. Even when everybody agrees on an end goal, and everybody agrees on what is needed to achieve that end goal, it does not mean that everyone (or even anyone) will be able to take the first step, which is a most important step. * Usman Haque Does collaboration imply consensus, and if not, how can we design systems that allow for such messiness? How do we structure participation in the context of 'super wicked' problems of the urban environment? And why should we? This talk will propose some tools and strategies for collaboratively designing cities and structuring participation (both online and offline) in a way that doesn't just invite collaboration but requires it, with specific reference to Usman's work on interactive environments, urban spectacles, collaboration platforms and other concrete examples.

Internet of Plants - Digitalisierung für die Luftreinhaltung

Pflanzen können in Zukunft noch besser für die Luftreinhaltung eingesetzt werden - wenn sie gezielt durch Technik dabei unterstützt werden. * Peter Sänger Die Zukunft ist smart und digital - alles ist mit dem Internet verbunden und soll uns damit den Alltag erleichtern und uns effizienter machen. Warum sollte der digitale Wandel nicht auch für die Verbesserung der Umwelt eingesetzt werden? Wir vernetzen lebendige Organismen - Moose - , fördern deren Leistungsfähigkeit und machen den Effekt der Luftreinigung in der Stadt nutzbar. Der CityTree ist unser ersten Produkt für saubere Lösungen, ein Trägermedium für unsere Mooskulturen und IoT-Technolgie. Zusammen sind diese Einzelkomponente um ein Vielfaches effektiver und können uns schon heute dabei helfen, das menschengemachte Problem der viel zu hohen Luftverschmutzung, insbesondere in Städten, zu verringern.