From Smart Cities To Intelligent Urban Ecosystems - Today's Strategic Decisions For Tomorrow

Scott E. Blumenreich, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, City of Centennial

Scott E. Blumenreich, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, City of Centennial

Organizations, both public and private continue to struggle with the definition of SMART when it’s followed by the word ‘Cities’. Although a number of high profile companies (and countries) claim the honor of coining the phrase (I’ve even met an individual who claim she was the originator), the truly strategic and tactical leaders I know are hoping it rapidly sunsets into obsolescence and back into the sphere of the Human Capital Management (HCM) world where it means something (e.g. SMART Goals).

In a world of exponential change, how do you justify making your City SMART by purchasing SMART Devices that are untested en-mass in field operations, have a declared but, unknown lifespan and technologically will be obsolete in 6–18 months – then tell your customers (taxpayers and politicians) about the SMART decision you made as traffic gets worse, garbage cans overflow and parking sensors go off-line? Fear not technology leaders, we have a new buzz-phrase making the rounds – the Intelligent Urban Ecosystem (IUE).

"Implementing an Intelligent Urban Ecosystem strategy that’s right-sized for your support capabilities, takes device related cyber and physical security into account along with data privacy and protection concerns, which are paramount to your success"

The reality of the situation is that we’re all still trying to define ‘SMART’. However, if we begin speaking about ‘Intelligence’, it better conveys the concepts that are the outcomes we’re looking for. Building Information Management systems have been providing static data for decades. Motion sensors have been turning room lights on and off for longer; and don’t forget the ole thermostat keeping our temperatures regulated. The difference now is truly in the collection and analysisof data, leading toward predictive analytics. It is this predictive capability that leads to informed, ‘Intelligent’ decisions that allow our human and technological environments to interact in concert to create an ecosystem.

Most of us in the science and technology sectors thrive on invention and innovation. We crave it the way a bee hungers for pollen. Dealing with cutting edge concepts like AI/ML, Deep Learning, AR/VR and Internet of Things (IoT) as a whole, open up a vast array of opportunities to improve our resource utilization, capital investment strategies, sustainability, response time, health and public safety. Collectively, we want at the very least, to understand and pilot these 21st-century creations.

However, in order to do this effectively, we also need to embrace the reality, that as long as government plods behind the private sector, weighed down by lack of funding, antiquated and inefficient procurement policies, lack of staffing and lower wages, the private sector needs to rise to the challenge to invest in the future of technology deployment. The American public sector invested in the

progress of the nation (partially through corporations) after WWII and created a National Laboratory System – giving away inventions and innovations to corporations. This ultimately supported the birth of this country’s technological and industrial dominance for the better portion of 100 years. It’s time to revisit this value statement in context of Intelligent Urban Ecosystems.

At the same time, I would urge everyone to beware of the hype cycles and focus on your intentions, goals, desired outcomes and the potential pitfalls of ubiquitous technology implementations. Develop your own problem statement and use case. Consider all of the strata of that particular technology and focus on the entire life cycle of the implementation – an organization may be brilliant when ideating, robust in deploying, but many fail to take into account the entire maintenance and operations portion of these deployments. Play to your strengths, understand your weaknesses and map it out. Use common sense approaches and implement rigorous metrics to evaluate data-driven results.

Regardless of how simple the front-end technology may be, do you have the resources for instance, to support the data analytics platform that the end-users require for evaluation? Are all of those who will deal with the end-point technology appropriately trained and prepared? If you were to roll out trash can sensors to more efficiently deploy your Sanitation Engineers, consider whether or not they’ve been properly trained and equipped to identify (or better yet replace) problematic sensors in the field. Have you appropriately budgeted for the additional inventory (spares on the shelf)? You’ll need rapid access to these supplies If any of the technology you implement commits you to a higher level or frequency of service – and of course, what’s your plan B (or C) if the tech goes off-line?

Implementing an Intelligent Urban Ecosystem strategy that’s right-sized for your support capabilities, takes device related cyber and physical security into account along with data privacy and protection concerns, which are paramount to your success. As I mentioned earlier, be aware of the hype cycles – what works in an urban downtown setting, may be completely ineffective in a suburban geography of rolling hills. Gauge your investments carefully – there may be new standards or protocols on the horizon that will not be backward compatible with your installation(s) or worse yet, forthcoming advances.

The bottom-line for all of us, is that regardless of which side of the desk that you’re sitting on during this moment inhistory (and your career), we are all engaged in crafting and creating our future. When you build or sell a product, imagine both the good that it will do, as well as the consequences if it fell into the wrong hands, was hijacked or used for purposes of evil. If you’re purchasing, implementing and supporting products and ecosystems, understand the portion of your population that will benefit, as well as the portion that may be displaced or negatively impacted. I think we can all agree that facial recognition technology has both a good and potentially bad side.

So in closing, consider the following as you move forward in your quest to reap the benefits of modernizing our urban and (sub)urban infrastructure – for every step forward we take for convenience, we take two steps backward in relation to our privacy. With this in mind, please go forth and do good and remember to;“Create with Compassion… Disrupt with Discretion”!

Physical Security

inventory

Predictive Analytics

IoT

AI