Digital City Mechanics

Digital City Mechanics June, 2009

Engage and Learn
Only by doing something
Can someone really learn
We’re using social media to help produce on-line content, services and live events
Training workers in tech and health jobs, along the way
A new model for ‘Workforce Development’

Digital City Mechanics is building a Digital City Project
Technology – offer a free dashboard
System Integration – setup bureaus, produce events, manage services
Content – produce compelling multimedia on-line content and services

Digital City project
Focused on developing Tech Jobs that work in conjunction with software infrastructure
Video Help available at all times in dashboard, live operators standing by
Digital bureaus house training, video call center and web site production facilities
Existing NEO on-line sites & content highlighted
Local organizations and businesses supported

Using Tech job skills for Health and Local Foods
Once the trainees are comfortable using computers and our environment
We’ll show them how the tech can be used for:
Health oriented jobs and services
Local Foods projects
Much of the work will be in producing compelling on-line tutorials, knowledge bases.
Content to TEACH others about Health and Local foods

2 entities
Digital City Foundation:
501c3
Solicits funding from government and foundations
Digital City Mechanics:
System integrator
Develops unique I.P. and processes
Builds and runs the system
Coordinates with DCF
Works with BBM (see next slide)

Builds on PeopleAggregator
Broadband Mechanics social networking platform
4 years old, mature, stable
Used by:
U.S. Army ROTC program
Nvidia
Mondadori (Italy)
theTimesofIndia (India)
Bell Canada (Canada)

Distributed Regional alliance
Pilot program = Northern Ohio region
Each city has it’s own bureau(s)
Shared services across all cities
Highlight unique characteristics of each city
Unique populace, history, content of each city

Citizen Dashboards – for all
Integrate
Aggregate
Customize

Dashboards offer an Integrated environment
Live Video Help built in
Social Networking
Blogging
Media gallery
Import friends from Facebook and MySpace
Points system
Tied into the Digital City Content and Services

Dashboard aggregates all the info you’re interested in
RSS, Activity feeds, any accessible data
Updates automatically flow into the dashboard
Aggregate your friends – from different social networks
Aggregate your photos or video – from all around the web
Aggregate your existing web accounts

Dashboard is highly customizable
Design it to suit your needs:
People, Services and Content
Look and Feel, Designs
Colors, background images, etc.
Appropriate usage level – matched to what kind of ‘user’ you are
Choose from pre-built templates to start, and then customize to your fancy

Our secret sauce
A process of getting trainees to utilize social media software
To alleviate their fears, build comfort level
Help them identify which kind of job they’ll excel in, what they’re interested in learning
Train skills which will be relevant for ALL jobs
Make work - fun

Many elements to a Digital City
Internet connects the Digital Cities together
Dashboard is a common interface
Digital City ID system connects other institutions into our world
Our software infrastructure can be used by all

A Day in the life of a Digital City

Digital City Content
Seniors project (video interviews)
History of the Region (via shared timeline)
Lead Poisoning education
Urban farm and greenhouse construction
Polymers construction simulations (and games)
Green Jobs knowledge base (‘how to guides’)

Digital City services
Type2 Diabetes video conf sessions
Medical digitizing historical research
Business Directory promotions with partners
Help build Urban farms
Help produce local live events

Webcams and Location pages
See top 16 webcams, editorially selected
Rotate throughout the day
Click on webcam, go to a location page
Location pages:
Who lives by
Photos, videos
Other webcams
Leave comments,
Reviews, Media, Links
On shared servers

Business and Services directory
Listings of local storefronts, businesses
Independent contractors, professional services
Tied into sponsor’s promotional campaigns
Match local businesses to movie launch contest
Reviews, Ratings, Comments
Tied into Video Help services

Digital City ID system
Connect different ID systems together
Single sign-on with all participating members
Use your same username/password – everywhere!
SAML based federation
Build data portability and interoperability solutions

Software as infrastructure
Dashboard is persistent, throughout the region
Dashboard adapts itself to the city it’s in
An ‘operating system’, that knows it’s context
Features and services available to all
Hardware, Bandwidth, Servers, Access Applications and Services Solutions, Compelling Experiences

Municipal Apps & Services
Webcams, club cams, traffic cams, security cams
Maps, GPS, mobile social networking
Bus and Train schedule
School, Hospital, Fire, Police services
Fresh food market prices
Weather, Tides, Sunset cams
Federal, State, County, Municipality info
Laws, regulations, forms, small biz info
Pay taxes, fines
Vote

Shared Constructs for all to use
Digital City ID system
Jobs
Events
Locations (webcam pages)
Businesses and Services Directory
Timeline of Local History
Points

Open Digital City platform
Any vendor can provide their own compatible ‘Citizen Dashboard’
Many institutions, agencies and corporations will support the Digital ID system
Based upon Open Stack standards
Shared resources, servers and constructs can be used by any software platform
Reusable applications and services provided to empower solutions

Future experiences
We’ll watch TV shows or Movies together

What makes a GREAT Digital City?
When services and content are persistent
There all the time
Available 24/7/365 – wherever you are
As assessable as water, gas and electricity

Connecting humans together
All software is about people
So conceivably wherever you are – is which ‘digital city’ you are in
The physical place connected to a virtual place
Each person is a member of their own ‘distributed architecture’, the own ‘virtual city’
Connecting cyberspace to meatspace in their own context, relevant to THEM

A Digital City is the combination of:
People – the citizens
Access – Wifi, Wimax, Gigabit bandwidth
Cloud services (storage, computing, distribution)
Businesses and Services (local)
Live Web (Twittter, IM, activity streams, video)
Live Events, Recommendations, Opinions
Creativity, Expression, Socializing
Content + Applications
Solutions = relevant for each citizen

Focusing on Solutions
Build Apps and Services on top of Infrastructure
Build Solutions on top of both
Help change people’s lives
Help feed people
Help connect people together

Solutions
Put technology to use
Make it relevant
If they build it – will they come?
You can lead a horse to water, but will he drink?
What’s the point of offering the software if no one uses it!

Learning by Doing
By building great on-line content projects
By putting on live events which connect meatspace to cyberspace
By getting over their fears of technology
We create a new model for workforce training

People
All software is about people
Loosely coupled relationships
User’s identities must be controlled by THEM!

The Open Stack
Open standards for an Open Web

Finding things in common
When everyone is doing it, make it a standard!
Find common constructs and elements
And at LEAST agree on common notions

Open Digital City Standards
Multi-vendor solution
Shared servers and resources
Open schemas and protocols

http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com	83
http://marc.digitalcitymechanics.com	29
http://marc.blogs.it	16
http://www.slideshare.net	5
http://www.peopleaggregator.net	2

Digital City Mechanics

by Marc Canter on Jun 07, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

5 Embeds 135

Statistics

Digital City Mechanics Presentation Transcript