This document discusses smart cities and how digital technologies can be integrated across various city functions and infrastructure to improve living conditions. It provides examples of technologies being used in transportation, utilities, and public services. While technologies aim to make cities safer and more efficient, their development and use also raise issues regarding privacy, surveillance, hacking risks, and the potential exclusion of certain groups. The document encourages thinking critically about how technologies could both empower and disempower citizens.

1. Digital Society:Smart Cities
Dr Kate Holmes

2. What is a smart city?
It is an urban development vision to integrate
multiple information and communication technology
(ICT) and Internet of things (IoT) solutions to
manage a city's assets (Musa, 2016)
A smart city has digital technology embedded across
all city functions (Smart Cities Council, 2017)
Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-and-orange-lights-177625/

3. This can include but is not limited to:
● Schools/Universities
● Shops
● Libraries
● Transportation systems
● Hospitals
● Powerplants
● Water supply networks
● Waste management
● Law enforcement
● Agriculture
The purpose of a smart city is to make the lives of
residents safer and easier
Image:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%A2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1
%8F_%22%D0%A1%D0%9C%D0%90%D0%A0%D0%A2_%D0%A1%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B8_%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B0%
D0%BD%D1%8C%22.jpg

4. Why is there a need to discuss this?
The role of technology in where and how we live:
Environmental and economic impact - reducing
costs and resources
Safer and easier places to live - i.e. using sensors to
record patterns in crime rates and areas and detecting
gun sounds
Our contribution - We should have a say in what
happens to the places that we live
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ipjmike/410780740

5. Activity #1
Using Manchester as an example -
Identify current issues you have encountered
around the city and why are they a problem?
(10 mins)
Examples -
● Pollution
● Transport
● Exchange of goods and services
● Crime
● Safety
Present back to the group for discussion (10 mins)
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Traffic_jam_on_Phu_Nhuan_district.JPG

6. How can technology help us?
How can technology help us to solve our problems?
How have other places utilised technologies to
solve their problems and make their city a better
place to live?
Image: http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Expressing-Individuality-Korea-Paper-Toy-Small-Us-1767984

7. Using magnetic sensors in the road it can tell drivers
where parking spaces are available.
Cities will fix their own potholes using self healing
concrete to patch its own cracks caused by weathering
or earthquakes
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Back_left.JPG
Image:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2072761-self-healing-cities-will-fix-their-own-potholes/

8. Mobikes introduced to Manchester in 2017.
Counter keeps track of how many people have cycled
down Oxford Road, Manchester.
Image: http://www.manchestersfinest.com/shopping-in-manchester/our-guide-to-manchesters-new-mobike/
Image: http://road.cc/content/news/214875-manchester-cycle-counter-clocks-thousands-cyclists

9. Image: http://inhabitat.com/kinetic-energy-floors-convert-sweet-dance-moves-into-power/

10. Addidas marketing campaign
‘The X’ in Victoria Park,
London - 2016 marketing
campaign by addidas to
promote safer running
spaces for women.
Image: https://www.sportindustry.biz/news/adidas-opens-x-pop-workout-space

11. Image: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38174011?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook
Image: http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens
Image: https://www.cnet.com/news/haute-couture-as-lightbox-little-slide-dress-gets-the-picture/
Image: https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/04/04/this-tiny-wearable-knows-what-youve-been-eating-drinking-and-smoking/
Bionic contact lenses
Miniature sensor tech to wear
on tooth
‘The invisible credit card of the
future’ (2016)
‘Celluloid Cinderella’ (2012)

12. Designing cities of the future
Image(s): https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/26/story-cities-future-growing-megacities-waste-floating-smart

13. Image: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/26/story-cities-future-growing-megacities-waste-floating-smart
Image: https://futurism.com/?p=71820&post_type=post (Richard Rummell (1910)

14. Activity #2
Design (write or sketch) your own solutions to the
problems identified by applying new and existing
technologies (15 mins)
These can be:
● As weird and as wonderful as you like
● Using any technologies real or imagined
● No restrictions on cost
● They don’t have to work in practice
● One potential negative impact as a result of
your idea
Present back to the group for discussion (10 mins)
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gags9999/20136687092

15. Issues
Use
Would these technologies exclude people?
Technology empowers some and causes
disempowerment for others
Development
The speed and rate of how new and existing
technologies are being developed
Are our environments adaptable?
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_computers.jpg

16. Issues
Hacking
Are they safe against hacking? What damage could
be done if they were hacked?
Surveillance
Could technology be used to control or be used
against us? What does this mean for our privacy?
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Surveillance_cameras.jpg

17. Summary
So what have we learned?
● Real world examples of smart cities
● Explored current problems within our own
environment
● How (real or imagined) technologies can be
applied to solve these problems
● Difficulties of implementation
● Potential issues it can raise
● Understood that technologies can sometimes
cause further disempowerment to areas of
society
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143789194@N03/28650310590

18. Further reading
BBC News (2016) ‘The Invisible credit card of the future’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38174011?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook [accessed 06/04/17]
Futurism (2017) ‘See what past generations though today’s cities would look like’ https://futurism.com/?p=71820&post_type=post
Guardian (2016) ‘Story of cities #future: what will our growing megacities really look like?’
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/26/story-cities-future-growing-megacities-waste-floating-smart
Guardian (2016) ‘Are smart cities and digital privacy at odds?’
https://www.theguardian.com/julius-baer-partner-zone/2016/sep/02/are-smart-cities-and-digital-privacy-at-odds [accessed 06/04/17]
Guardian (2016) ’The automated city: do we still need humans to run public services?’
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/20/automated-city-robots-run-public-services-councils [accessed 06/04/17]
Guardian (2016) ‘The innovators: the smart systems driving motorists towards smarter cities’
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/03/the-innovators-the-smart-systems-driving-motorists-towards-smarter-cities [accessed 24/03/17]
Guardian (2015) ‘How art is making the data-driven city more liveable’
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/10/art-data-digital-city [accessed 06/04/17]
Inhabitat (2013) ‘Kinetic Energy Floors Convert Sweet Dance Moves into Electricity’ http://inhabitat.com/kinetic-energy-floors-convert-sweet-dance-moves-into-power/
[accessed 24/03/17]
Musa, S. (2016) ‘Smart Cities - A Roadmap for Development’ https://www.academia.edu/21181336/Smart_City_Roadmap [accessed 06/04/17]
New Scientist (2016) ‘Self-healing cities will fix their own potholes’ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2072761-self-healing-cities-will-fix-their-own-potholes/ [accessed
08/04/2018]
Smart Cities Council (2017) http://smartcitiescouncil.com/smart-cities-information-center/definitions-and-overviews [accessed 24/03/17]