Social Cities of Tomorrow Conference 2012

Cafe Rooie Nelis in Jordaan District in Amsterdam from my flickr photos.

The Mobile City and Virtueel Platform organized a workshop and conference titled Social Cities of Tomorrow. The program took place during the week of February 13-17. It was a great event in every way from organization to the keynote speakers to presentations of different social media projects from throughout the world. Not only that, but it was fun and there were lots of great people doing great work to meet.

This post describes the conference keynote presentations. I describe the Social Cities of Tomorrow Showcase Project Showcase and Social Cities of Tomorrow Workshops on other posts.

Keynote Presentations

Keynote presentations at the conference were given by Martijn de Waal from The Mobile City, one of the conference sponsors, Usman Haque developer among other things of Pachube, Natalie Jeremijenko, an engineer and artist, and Daniel Hill, an interactions designer from SITRA (Finish Innovation Fund). More details on the keynote speakers is available at the Social Cities of Tomorrow Keynote Speakers page.

As with my other blog posts about this conference I apologize for any errors I make below, I was writing as fast as I could but the speakers' ideas were flowing faster ... opinions are, of course, my own. Feel free to add corrections or thoughts in the comments.

Introduction - Martijn de Waal

Martin's presentation was an introduction to the idea of the conference and overall project. I am pretty sure he worked on it closely with Michiel de Lange, his colleague at The Mobile City, who did an excellent job as moderator of the conference.

Starting with the title, it's a take on Ebenezer Howard's book "Garden Cities of Tomorrow" which was designed to address the problems of turn of the century (1900) industrial cities through improved physical design. The idea now is to use new technologies to create communities that can solve today's complex issues.

The goal is to have highly technical cities, but focused not on technology, but on people. People living in cities should feel an ownership, meaning not that they exclude other people, but rather that they feel responsible for improving their cities.

How do we create these cities:

• engage and empower
• publics (groups of people)
• to act on
• community shared issues

These are, of course, key aspects of all community-based planning efforts, but what's important is that new media and technologies are changing how we can perform these activities. Some examples:

• Open data and data analysis tools can be used to bring out new communal issues and to inform the public (e.g. SensibleCity visualizations like TrashTrack);
• Applications designed to help users provide planning input or even develop their own plans (e.g. Biketastic at UCLA, OpenPlans NYC Bike Sharing map, etc.)
• New media allows us to organize people in new ways, e.g. collaborative consumption (e.g. carsharing, airBnB).

Lots more ideas from Martijn's presentation available at Social Cities of Tomorrow Background and his presentation is on line at: placeholder.

Cafe de Pels in Amsterdam from my flickr photos.

Usman Haque

Usman started by reminding us that cities are a place for encountering things you don't understand, and this is a very good thing.

Pachube, the website started by Haque, is an organized list of data feeds from throughout the world. Anyone can add a data feed. The goal is to be a broker for the data from the internet of things. The site serves to promote discovery of data feeds and to begin conversations about what the data means.

The growing number of sensors and feeds means that we are flooded with data, but how does this lead to action?

The first step is to enable people to make sense of the data. Two ideas: (1) we need to have/encourage people to have conversations about the data; and (2) we need to develop applications to make sense of the data.

Haque also described a project where architecture students in Barcelona collected air quality data by wiping kleenex on the sides of buildings and recording the amount of grime they found. Pretty inexact, but quite effective in making the students aware of what they were breathing. Once they saw what was going into their lungs they were ready to take action (they developed a new air circulation plan for their workspace).

The main point is that taking action requires more than technical data, it is a function of culture and politics.


Haque ended by suggesting that perhaps we shouldn't always be trying to simplify things, maybe it's better to demonstrate complexity and develop tools to deal with that complexity by connecting with people and taking action together, shouldn't we embrace complexity?

(My comments: Don't tools to deal with complexity necessarily mean simplifying it? On the other hand, the business of politicians is simplifying issues, and look where they have taken us!)

Haque's website describes many of his extremely interesting projects.

Natalie Jeremijenko

Natalie Jeremijenko had the difficult task of talking with us after lunch, but succeeded in keeping us wide awake as she described many of her projects. I'll just mention a few.

Sign in Amsterdam from my flickr photos.

The goal is using new media to create a better future. Generating, analyzing and acting-on data needs to be opened up. An example from transport, a traffic signal gives power away to the machine, a traffic circle makes everyone use data to make decisions.

(In this example Natalie mentioned that traffic engineers don't like traffic circles, but in fact most of my colleagues do like traffic circles, they are more efficient in many situations!)

No Parks are small parts of the street where plants replace pavement (cars can no longer park there). The goal is to reduce the surface runoff that is a very significant problem for water quality (it's easier to deal with point sources and regulations have reduced point source pollution). She described an effort in NYC that included individuals taking ownership for these little "No Parks" by selling pieces of the plot and using the proceeds to pay for the project. Many cities are doing projects to open up the pavement in this way, but I have not seen any that use this level of social engagement before.

Bike Messager - LEDs on bike wheels connected to a wireless communications. When bikes reach a certain speed the LEDs light-up and display information communicated by roadside senders, for example the number of pedestrian fatalities at the intersection. Good information for everyone and helps make the bikes more visible at night.

Fightpath Toronto, a really wild project where Jeremijenko and Haque set up aerial platforms in front of the Toronto City Hall and let people fly through the open space (connected to cables, although they wore wings). As the people "flew" laser lights were projected that changed based on the sound of the audience. When's the next installation? I'm going!

Elevator Project, Long Island City for Otis Elevators (?). Jeremijenko looked at how by extending the elevator shaft 30-feet above the building roof, the shaft could help provide better air circulation and help power the building. It also gave the opportunity for installing flightpath take-off areas (platforms for installing the cables) which might even be used for goods delivery (why does an organic artisanal bakery need to use diesel belching trucks to deliver its products?).

Other projects she mentioned: floating lights in NY's East River that light when fish swim by (video) (along with healthy food for observers to give the fish), AgBags small gardens made from tevek bags (FedEX envelopes) that hang on the side of buildings (together called farmacy), clear skys mask, one trees project planting 6000 genetically identical trees in pairs throughout the Bay Area to observe different growing patterns, and more ...

Here's a couple sites with information on Natalie environmental health clinic and NYU faculty bio.

Old traffic sign used as a table from my flickr photos.

Daniel Hill

Daniel also had a tough job, it was getting quite late on a Friday afternoon, but his talk was also mile-a-minute speed through a series of ideas and lessons learned.

The main point of Hill's talk was that designers normally only deal with a small portion of what's going on with project implementation. There's a great deal of "dark matter" that isn't normally dealt with by designers which impact what gets done and what doesn't much more than actual designs.

He started with a description of five failed projects he's been involved with and related these examples to the various aspects of dark matter, which incudes all things that make things hard to do including cost, legacy, inertia, scale ... there's no one department to go to for permission to implement these projects. Hill believes we need to redesign the context for decision-making as well as project "content". The context:

• Complexity of problems is out of kilter with decision-making process;
• Interdependent problems;
• No client for many problems (e.g. global climate change);
• Huge gap between people making policy and people operating the services (doing the work);
• More data and further analysis isn't automatically helping;
• Diminishing public faith in capacity (of, e.g. government) to deliver;

But someone created this context (in the 18th Century for 18th Century problems), and so it can be recreated. But how?

Hill believes we need to create a new vocabulary to explain what needs to be done and how to do it, he mentioned eight words, some of his words:

• Design studio approach to problem solving (book:
• Stewardship - staying in touch with projects over time;
• Trojan horse - using a project to change the process, don't just seek exceptions to allow projects to be done, seek to change the laws that prevent others from doing the same;
• Macguffin - plot device named by Hitchcock to signify something that drives the movie but the audience does not care about (think "government secrets" in North by Northwest), here's where the focus on changing the context comes in, we the designers don't care enough about the context (regulations, government processes) that impact our ability to do things;
• Dark Matter - the 83% of the universe that no one has ever seen, but must be there, in our case the institutions in a city, many things produce a culture but you don't see them;
• Decision-making Platforms - I started to lose the 8 words about here, but the point here is closely related to dark matter, decisions matter ... social media is great for organizing, but hasn't been so helpful yet helping identify and lead-to what comes next (e.g. Occupy movements);

Speed bump sign in Amsterdam from my flickr photos.

Government 2.0 is not Government 1.0 with a web 2.0 front end, there needs to be more.

Hill mentioned Ravintolapäivä (the link takes you to  site called restaurantday.com). It's a day held in Helsinki where anyone can open a restaurant and serve food to the public. It's totally illegal, but the government was powerless to stop it. Now it happens twice a year, organized on Facebook. The next one is May 19, 2012. This was an example of how the "Nordic Model" (of providing the same for everyone) could be meshed with the "Anglo Model" (wide variation and diversity) to provide the high overall quality of the Nordic model with the creativity and innovation in the Anglo model.

A possible project is for the city to create an place where people who want to start restaurants can learn the skills needed to do so successfully, hopefully without squashing out the creativity these people bring to the project. Turning this from an intervention to a systematic approach for supporting creativity and innovation.

Five thoughts to end the presentation (because he used to work at Monocle and they always have lists like this):

1. The world is mutable - although policy makers often don't think things can change: they can.
2. Prototype in the political world, the cost of assessing the risk of doing something new is often higher than the cost of just trying it and failing.
3. Hinge policy to delivery;
4. Design for scaling up;
5. Dark matter matters.

For more on Dan Hill see his blog city of sound, well worth a read.

The keynote speakers at the panel discussion: left to right: Jeremijenko, Haque and Hill, source: Virtueel Platform.

't Arendsnest in Amsterdam from my flickr photos.

Panel Discussion

The three keynote speakers took the stage to take a few questions from the audience. Some of the discussion:

Everyone agreed that dealing with the dark matter was a fundamental part of getting projects done. Jeremijenko reported that there was no precedent for her AgBags project, so she had to print things on the bags so they would be considered "signs" and could therefore fall under the city's regulatory structure. Seven agencies needed to give approval for her fish lights project, and unfortunately, none of them really helped implement the project, they just gave approvals.

Someone made the point that designers are lucky in the sense that they usually have a client who gives them instructions (design a building for me) so lots of the dark matter is dealt with by someone else (the lawyers), but it's really these things outside the traditional "client-designer relationship" that really need changing ... in that sense design-think is dead.

Technology enables, it does not drive change. There's a tactical benefit to new technology: often institutions don't have a standard way of dealing with it, so there's an opportunity to really change things.

Artists have a great capacity to fail in public, no one trusts them to do anything ...

... and with that we adjourned to drinks and conversations.

Again, sorry for errors and misunderstandings, the speakers were fantastic and it was hard to keep up with the good ideas. Add corrections to the comments.

Beer and Pizza in Amsterdam

Partial list of the Dutch draft beer available at 't Arendsnest

Beer and pizza are two of my favorite things. After a full day attending the Social Cities of Tomorrow conference in Amsterdam, I took a leisurely walk back to my hotel through the Jordaan district of the city.

IPA type beer at 't Arendsnest

I was lucky to find the 't Arendsnest beer bar which serves "Dutch beer only!" from seemingly most of the beer brewers in The Netherlands (although I did not notice any Heineken there?). They have 30 or so beers on tap and over 100 in bottles including a selection of Dutch abbey beers. I didn't realize that The Netherlands also had abby breweries (they are not all in Belgium).

I tasted two pilsner type beers and an India Pale Ale, all three were draft. All three were really good, very hoppy and clean tasting. They have a beer sampler for 7.50 Euros for three 12cl tastes, but I ordered normal size 25cl glasses and wound up paying 10 Euros with tip. Both bar tenders were fluent in English and happy to guide me to the right beers. They have some 'bar food' and many of the locals shared cheese plates, but the food did not seem to be the main point here! They also have tastings and things so it would be worth checking he website to learn if something interesting is going on when you visit.

After my beer I remembered walking by what looked like a great pizza place the day before: it had a wood burning oven, only served pizza and advertised "Italian slow food". So I decided to try and find it again. I retraced my steps, found the right canal (Prinsengracht), turned down the Elandsgracht (Jordaan Park), left on 1ste Looiersdwarsstraat walked to number 4 and Pazzi was open with room at the bench they have for people who want to eat their pizza in the shop.

Blackboard menu at Pazzi Italian slow food Amsterdam

I ordered a Margarita, the pizza I use to compare pizzerias, and sat down to wait. About 3 minutes later I was served a great pizza: crisp thin crust, tart sauce, good amount of buffalo milk mozzarella cheese. By this time I was sharing the bench with a couple women who were splitting a quatro formaggio (served here with rucola) and two guys on my right who had both ordered Piccante pizzas. Apparently the Piccante pizzas were not spicy enough for the guys and they asked me to pass the hot pepper olive oil (that's when I asked them what kind of pizza they had since it was not entirely clear by looking).

Piccante pizza at Pazzi Italian slow food Amsterdam

I finished my Margarita and decided to order one of the Piccante pizzas too. After all, when's the next time I will be in Amsterdam. As the guys were leaving they gave me back the hot pepper oil, but told me to be sure to taste the pizza first because it might be spicy enough for me without the oil. The Piccante pizza was also great. It had smoked mozzarella cheese, lots of hot pepper (no need for the hot pepper oil) and herbs. Really fine. (I brought half the pizza home.)

So, a fabulous gourmet evening for me in Amsterdam! All my photos from 't Arendsnest and Pazzi on Flickr. My Amsterdam photos on Flickr.

Cities aren't smart

Cities aren't smart, people are.

I think this is a simple point, but important to remember amidst all the Smart City hype.

Smart cities are cities where people produce and use information to make cities more livable, economically successful, socially equitable, sustainable and fun.

And, who are these people producing and using information?

This is key: they are both the traditional city leaders and everyone else.

Today, city administrations have unprecedented access to data that enables them to both improve city services and make them more efficient. An often overlooked source of this data are city residents and visitors. Many cities do not use modern IT tools to collect, analyze and use input from the public. This is a shame because people could provide very high quality information for improving the way cities operate.

In some cases city administrations are not interested in public opinion, but in many cases good IT tools to help the public communicate information to cities and for cities to automatically analyze this information have not been developed. Often cities cannot even imagine that public involvement could be done more efficiently using new media and information technology tools.

What are these tools? One important set of tools are educational media since city planning and administration are complicated. Cities can get better information and ideas if the public knows something about how the city works before providing input. (This is the main idea behind my GreenCityStreets project: teach people about public transport with the BusMeister game and provide a social network for them to submit ideas to the city government.)

Another set of tools are programs to analyze and organize the data that comes in to cities through new media channels. This means designing the public input channels so that the information can be easily summarized and described. These tools could also help improve the existing public input process (e.g. public transport complaint telephone operators). The growing use of on-line 311 systems in the USA is a good example.

No doubt there are great challenges ahead as city governments involve the public more fully in the city planning and administrative process, but change is coming. New mobile communications and information technologies are making it just a question of time. Truly smart cities will embrace this change and develop the tools needed to fully engage the public in making their cities better.

What do you think?

Rose Kennedy Greenway Boston

I lived in Boston's North End while attending Northeastern University in 1983. Everyday I walked under the Central Artery, a huge freeway built through the center of the city that separated the North End from the downtown. While I was there the decision was made to place the freeway underground. Much has been written about all the problems with the "Big Dig" project, but it seems to me this is a lot nicer then my daily walk about 30-years ago. Time flies!



In San Francisco I worked with several groups arguing to remove the Embarcadero Freeway after the 1989 Earthquake. It was a huge battle, but when the freeway finally came down I think everyone was convinced that it was the right decision. Today it's hard to imagine the freeway ever existed.



Later, as Executive Director of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, I suggested studying placing some of San Francisco's very heavily travelled arterials underground (e.g. Oak/Fell in the Western Addition and 19th Street in the Sunset). The idea was to remove the traffic from the street and give the space back for pedestrians, transit and limited auto access. The underground roads would be funded by congestion-based tolls. The idea - even studying it - was heavily opposed by many in the environmental community, and nothing came of it.

I still like the idea of placing cars underground and making the drivers pay for the privilege. It always makes me mad that public transport is forced underground in most cities. It may be faster there, but access by passengers is complicated, it's way more expensive than surface based transit (leading free marketers to say public transport is too expensive!) and public transport passengers (people doing something good for the environment!) are forced to sit in dark tunnels, while car drivers enjoy the sunshine.

More photos of the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston on my Flickr account.

Boston Public Garden

In September I visited Boston to talk with people in the city and at MIT about GreenCityStreets. Lots of interesting discussion and ideas to follow up on in 2012. I had some time to go down memory lane, and walked through the Public Garden on a beautiful fall day.

When the weather was good I used to walk home from Northeastern through the Public Garden to my apartment in the North End. It was a great way to unwind from my Masters Thesis research. My route took me through the Fenway, people watching on Newbury Street in the Back Bay, then through the Public Garden, crossing the street into The Commons, then past the Park Street MBTA station, through Government Center, by Haymarket, then under the Central Artery to Salem Street.

The Public Garden was always a highlight in early spring and summer. Green lawns with lots of flowers, generally the Swan Boats were stowed away for the night, and a cool breeze. All my Boston Public Garden photos on Flickr.

PICNIC 2011 in Amsterdam

In September I travelled to Amsterdam for the PICNIC 2011 Festival. The event is like a big fair and this year it was held at the old shipbuilding area called NDSM Wharf, a ten-minute ferry ride from Amsterdam's Central Railway Station. A variety of different structures including temporary buildings, old containers, tents, an old ferry boat, were used for the sessions and presentations.

PICNIC was a great opportunity to meet people thinking about the intersection between design, city planning, internet, history, art ... lots of energy and very creative ideas. Among my favorite presentations were those by Adam Greenfield, Ben Hammersley, and Charles Landry (links are to videos of the presentations).



On Friday I attended a session sponsored by the European Creative Business Network. We split up into teams and developed ideas for venture capital funding. Our team of four developed the concept for an on-line game that would be played via mobile devices ... and we won the first prize: 5,000 Euro to develop the idea in more detail! We're working on it.

The photo below is of us taking the ferry back to Central Station after dinner one night, note that it's a roll-on/roll-off ferry for bicycles and mopeds ... extremely convenient and easy to use.

I'm already looking forward to PICNIC 2012! All my PICNIC 2011 Festival photos (many of which are of the Amsterdam Harbour) on flickr.

New York City Transit Museum

I always try to find time to visit the NY City Transit museum when I visit New York. One of the things I love are the historic advertisements that are in the old subway cars parked in the museum. This is a particularly fun one I think. The accompanying text says "Bet you do better in a hat!" and states that "84 out of 100 women prefer men who wear hats."

While at the museum I bought the book Helvetica and the New York Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story by Paul Shaw. I finished reading it before Christmas and it's really interesting - you'll never look at a NYC Subway sign the same way again! (Here's a link to a similar article he wrote on the internet - Paul Shaw, The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the NY City Subway).



And, one final photo of a mosaic from the Cortlandt Street IRT Subway Station (also in the Transit Museum collection). All my photos of the NYC Transit Museum on Flickr.