Puzzled by smart cities? This edition puts the pieces together

Hummingbirds, Frankenstein’s monster, a boiling frog, and now a jigsaw puzzle.

We do love our visual metaphors here at Transform.

In the case of the jigsaw puzzle, it only has six pieces. But they’re big ones. Collectively the size of a city, in fact. And, if the planners get it right, one image should dominate the smart urban horizon.

Yours.

Our guest writers and experts in this edition of Transform agree that smart cities are about connected infrastructure, data-driven decision-making, sustainability, innovative transport solutions, and enhanced public services.

But the biggest piece in the puzzle is the citizen. Or, as one of our cover guests put it: "A future centered on people."

Emily Binet Royall is the Smart City Administrator for San Antonio, Texas, in the USA. She insists that critical sixth piece – the positive engagement of residents – cannot be left out of the digital jigsaw box.

"We regard the public as active collaborators and creators, not merely consumers, of technology," she writes, adding that decision-making barriers to citizens have to be broken down.

Fellow cover guest and countryman Dr. Anthony Townsend, the Urbanist in Residence at Cornell Tech, agrees. Townsend notes that the jigsaw puzzles of different cities are missing different pieces .

"From digital literacy to basic street-wise cybersecurity, there are often gaps – missing pieces of the digital puzzle," he says. "They create huge vulnerabilities for society."

Townsend  says that basic broadband access is now fundamental to life, and that tackling the pockets of poor access must be a priority. But the digital entrepreneur dubbed "the world’s first smart city tsar," Dr. Jacqui Taylor. warns that "putting tech in it" is not the answer in itself.

Tech, she tells me, must be the enabler and not the outcome, with smart cities "demand-led" by the public, not "supply-led" by authorities and technology providers.

"You then create a stakeholder ecosystem… As you start to negotiate that new social contract, it really does open up opportunities: smart cities are really our future hubs of business," she says.

Also in this edition:

• Rafael Greca is the Mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, voted the most intelligent city in the world at the Barcelona Expo awards last year. He says innovation is only valid when it becomes a social process: "Technology and innovation are applied in every way possible to make people’s lives easier."

• Dr István Ujhelyi, MEP and Vice Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism, points to the essential circle of successful smart city life: "optimal and sustainable operation (and) the promotion of economic growth."

• Yo-Sik Kang is President of the Seoul Digital Foundation, the "digital control tower" of the South Korean capital. "We are transitioning from the era of digital transformation to an era of digital deepening," he says, with "immense promise for enhancing citizens' quality of life."

• Koh Hong-Eng, Huawei’s Global Chief Public Services Industry Scientist, says the company is playing its part to help create the cognitive cities of the future: "These will be people-centered ecosystems that can sense, think, and evolve, with a view toward making life better and more sustainable for the people who live in them."

There are real challenges to overcome, with contributors variously pointing to privacy rights , data protection, good governance, and constant technological adaptability. But they all share Dr. Jacqui Taylor’s optimism .

"When people ask me have we got a bright future, she jokes, I say to them: 'Get your sunglasses on…'"