The false promise of Smart Cities

Ok, now that I have your attention, let me clarify. Shooting from the hip here.

Far too many vested interests are attempting subterfuge and plain 'snake oil' approaches to capitalize on the smart city moniker. And, far too many times in the IT industry we've had anyone and everyone using their control/access or knowledge for dubious capital or personal benefit. So much so, we have a term for it : the Gartner Hype Cycle.

When it comes to Smart Cities and government Digital Transformation, the maleficence of such misrepresentation is further compounded due to the far reaching impacts on social life, public services/utilities and government decision-making. To see examples of what the potential outcomes can be, one need not look further than the colossal failures of the past such as: "Study: 68 percent of IT projects fail" (https://www.zdnet.com/article/study-68-percent-of-it-projects-fail/) and more recently to: "almost 75% of all IoT projects fail" (https://diginomica.com/2017/09/13/10-reasons-iot-project-will-fail/).

The fallout from such experiences is disillusionment with the industry in general and large technology solutions in particular. More concerning, however, is the natural resistance of 'traditional' industries and (governmental and non-governmental) roles to affect change that technology promises: change that is sorely needed in urban environments that are increasingly coming under stress:

"More than one half of the world population lives now in urban areas, and virtually all countries of the world are becoming increasingly urbanized. This is a global phenomenon that has nonetheless very different expressions across regions and development levels: richer countries and those of Latin America and the Caribbean have already a large proportion of their population residing in urban areas, whereas Africa and Asia, still mostly rural, will urbanize faster than other regions over the coming decades. These trends are changing the landscape of human settlement, with significant implications for living conditions, the environment and development in different parts of the world"

You can read more here: "UN: World Urbanization Prospects" (https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf)

Technology can surely offer solutions to achieve sustainable approaches to economic, environmental and living challenges. Sustainability is intrinsically wedded to technology.

BUT no single industry vertical holds the answers and to think so is foolish and an approach that is prone to failure (IT vendors/solution providers and telcos come to mind).

In the same breath, expansive (and oft expensive) deployments are also not necessary where easier/cost effective solutions exist. A simple approach being forgoing large sensor/IoT deployments (and we all know of the hype surrounding IoT currently). An early example of this being: "MáLAGA CITYSENSE, CITIZEN AS A SENSOR"(https://www.fiware.org/2014/11/19/malaga-citysense-citizen-as-a-sensor/).

Due to the infancy of Smart Cities and Digitalization as a whole, these are all conversations, not conventional wisdom. Ideas that need discussion at all levels. Where the problem or new outcome matters more than a "solution needing a problem". These hyped up solutions including, but not limited to: AI, Big Data, IoT, Digitalization, Smart City, Safe City, Smart Environment, Industry 4.0, Smart District, Blockchain.

I will attempt to follow up with further thoughts on the ideas I've touched on above. Lets avoid the pitfall of technology as the end and not the means. Lets talk. Lets solve.