Presentation about better metrics and design principles for smart cities. NEXT Conference Hamburg, 19 September 2019. Learn more at https://thewavingcat.com

1.
The Waving Cat: Strategy, Research, Policy & Foresight around Emerging Technologies
www.thewavingcat.com | @thewavingcat Peter Bihr | @peterbihr
What Type of Smart City
Do We Want to Live in?
NEXT
Hamburg, 19 Sep 2019

2. About me
Peter Bihr explores the impact of emerging technologies, and
how to put them to work responsibly and for the public good.
• The Waving Cat GmbH
Founder and Managing director.
Strategy, research, policy, foresight
• ThingsCon e.V.
Co-founder, Chair of the Board.
Advocacy for responsible technology, esp. Internet of Things
• Fellowships
Mozilla 2018/19, Edgeryders 2019

3. Image: Futurefive
Why Smart Cities, why now?
• Literally impacts billions of lives
• It’s early days but moving very quickly
• We’re laying the foundation today for decades of
“connecting cities” & a massive transition

4. A gentle reminder
1. The future is not predetermined.
2. The future is not predictable.
3. Future outcomes can be influenced
by our choices in the present.
Source: Dr Joseph Voros, Swinburne University of Technology
—The 3 “Laws” of Foresight

6. Images: Stephen die Donato, Andrew Welch
Connected
Home
Smart
City
Power dynamics
(used to be private) (there is no opt-out)

7. Let’s talk about
framing

8. Framing matters
Images: Wikipedia, GACHA

9. Two frames for a smart city:
• IBM: “[a city] that makes optimal use of all the interconnected
information available today to better understand and control its
operations and optimize the use of limited resources”
• British Standards Institute (BSI): “the effective integration of
physical, digital and human systems in the built environment to
deliver [a] sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future for its
citizens”
BSI (2014), Smart cities framework – Guide to establishing strategies for smart cities and communities, PAS 181:2014
Cosgrove M & al, (2011), Smart Cities series: introducing the IBM city operations and management solutions. IBM.

10. What do we want to optimize for?
• Efficiency
• City management
• Resource control
• Participation & Opportunity
• Equality & Digital Citizens Rights
• Sustainability & Resilience

12. A Tale of Two Cities
Three

13. City 1: Efficient, centralized control
A centralized control center aims to massively increase
efficiency and prevents crime:
A centralized government database identifies all citizens
by their fingerprints for seamless service delivery when
they use government services, apply for a credit card, or
buy a new SIM card. As long as the fingerprint sensors can
read the fingerprints.
Jaywalkers are captured by facial recognition cameras and
publicly shamed. They are further punished through their
Social Credit Rating, creating pressure to behave better.

14. City 2: Convenient pay-for-play
The regular lines at the subway are enormous.
Luckily, your Amazon Prime membership has expanded
to give you VIP access to the newly privatized public
transport system. You get to skip the line (please swipe
your phone for payment upon entrance).
It’s not cheap, but it’s frictionless.
Image: The beijinger.com

15. City 3: Decentralized, open governance
This smart city prioritizes participation & resilience
over efficiency.
Both governance structures and the deployed
infrastructure is as decentralized and open as possible.

16. Which do you prefer?

17. What to optimize for?
• Participation & Opportunity
• Equality & Digital Citizens Rights
• Sustainability & Resilience
• Decentralized & participatoy
• Open & transparent
• Bottom-up is built in
• Monolithic, centralized control
• Black box algorithms
• Top-down
• Efficiency
• City management
• Resource control

18. Trustable Technology Mark
A Trustmark for the Internet of Things
trustabletech.org is an initiative by ThingsCon e.V.
with support from Mozilla.

19. The trustmark evaluates products for 5
dimensions that we identified as most crucial
for consumers
Dimensions of
trustworthiness
*See A Trustmark for IoT (2017), p. 56
Privacy & Data Practices
How respectful of privacy? Is it designed using state of the art data
practices?
Transparency
Is it obvious to users what the device does and how data might be used?
Security
Is it designed and built using state of the art security practices and
safeguards?
Stability
How robust? How long a lifecycle to expect?
Openness
How open are device and manufacturer? Is open data used or generated?

20. How might these guiding principles translate from
consumer rights to citizen rights in a Smart City?
Privacy & Data Practices
Transparency
Security
Stability
Openness
Privacy & Data Practices
Transparency & Accountability
Security
Resilience
Openness
Consumer Products Smart City

21. Proposing the PAT Framework

22. Participation
Accountability
Trust
The PAT Framework

23. Participation: Anything that allows for, and increases, participation.
Requires transparency, access, informed citizens. Projects to be
understandable, and citizens to be informed.
Accountability: Make sure someone’s truly responsible. A meaningful way
of addressing issues, clear responsibilities on government & private sector
side, “skin in the game”.
Trust: Anything that makes sure citizens can trust the systems, processes,
institutions, products. Everything can be checked by experts (openness),
processes can be adapted (agile), and results can be challenged
(redress). Resilience and safeguards against failure are top prioritites.
The PAT Framework

24. Let’s get this right.
Thank you.
The Waving Cat GmbH
Twitter @thewavingcat
Web thewavingcat.com
Peter Bihr
Twitter @peterbihr
Email peter@thewavingcat.com