It would have been hard to miss the messaging over the last five years:
Major global tech firms like IBM, Cisco, and Siemens seemingly all
adopted the same "smart cities" mission at the same time. And they
weren't alone. Across the globe, technology companies of all sizes have
taken aim at the
burgeoning smart city market, a nebulous
term that can include anything from complex networks of
government-controlled sensors and cameras to a parking meter that sends
you a text message when you run out of time on the meter. For Anthony Townsend, research director at the Palo Alto-based
Institute for the Future
and an adjunct assistant professor of planning at NYU Wagner, the rise
of the "smart city" concept is both the result of global economic forces
and the culmination of decades of technological progress. But with his
new book
Smart Cities,
Townsend also sounds the alarm that the real "smart" city of the future
can't and shouldn't merely be a reflection of what large technology
companies would like to sell to local governments. Recently we chatted
with Townsend about his research and current work on smart cities.
Read on here.
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