In the same way that the Hubble telescope changed 400 years of thinking about the physical universe, today the infusion of intelligence into society’s systems is changing the way the world literally works.
And many of the conversations heard at this week’s Pulse event in Las Vegas are around how real-world infrastructure — from buildings, to water mains, to manholes, to streets — can become information systems with the help of sensors, analytics, cloud and mobile computing and other clever technologies that are at work in everything from the Louvre museum in Paris, to school campuses in Los Angeles, to cities like Rio de Janeiro.
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On April 5, 2010, torrential rains in Rio de Janeiro caused floods and landslides that brought much of the city to a standstill and killed more than 70 residents. Eleven inches of rain beat down in a 24-hour period. In a city of 6.5 million residents with a history of severe tropical rainstorms and flooding, Brazilians demanded to know why the authorities were not better prepared.
Rio’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, vowed that such a disaster would not happen again. He moved decisively to bolster defenses against weather-related disruptions. Today, the city has a new state-of-the-art intelligent operations center, Centro de Operacoes Rio, where managers monitor dozens of data feeds for information concerning weather, traffic, police, medical services on a real-time basis and anticipate looming problems—putting defenses in place to diminish their impact. The system is especially vital for protecting lives in the city’s poor mountainside communities, called favelas, where tens of thousands of people live in areas where there’s a high risk of flooding and slides. (The New York Times profiled the operations center today.)
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Here’s our mini documentary on the Rio project–and its potential for helping to transform cities by making them more responsive to citizens needs.
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The TED Prize is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and “One Wish to Change the World.” The goal is to help the individual turn their idea into inspiring action. This year for the first time ever the prize was awarded not to a person but to an idea: The City 2.0. The TED conference organizers convened about 30 leaders in thinking about cities to come up with a proposal.
And the winner is: www.thecity2.org
It’s a platform and a social network for helping people who want to make their cities work better find each other, collaborate and make good things happen.
During tonight’s event, representatives of businesses stood up and made pledges of help to the social network and to the people who will use it. Among them were Guru Banavar, chief technology officer of IBM’s Smarter Cities organization, who said IBM is helping out with data analysis technology; and Zia Yusuf, CEO of Streetline, who pledged a free pilot of the company’s parking-spot-finding technology to the first city that asks to try it out.
The $100,000 reward will be split among the 10 best ideas that emerge from community groups using the social network.
“We urge you to come together and create things that really matter,” said Chris Anderson, the curator of TED.
With the arrival of the affordable 52-inch, high-def TV, a diehard NFL football fan can’t be blamed if he or she opts to watch the game in the comfort of the home rather than in a stadium. That’s one of the reasons the Miami Dolphins organization is loading up on digital technologies to help transform the fan experience at Sun Life Stadium.
Here’s their vision of the future: The regular fan in the stadium gets many of the advantages of watching at home as well as the experience of attending a live event and soaking up the excitement of the crowd. Using a tablet computer or smartphone, you can view any stat you want, listen to your choice of play by play banter, Tweet with your pals, get snacks delivered, and choose from a variety of camera angles for instant replay.
This complete scenario is still a year or so away, but Tery Howard, the Dolphin’s chief information officer, is rapidly putting into place the digital building blocks that could turn the vision into reality. Her newest acquisition is a piece of software, the IBM Intelligent Operations Center, that makes it possible to integrate a wide variety of information streams and in-stadium service providers into a single info management system. “We’re creating a smarter stadium,” says Howard. “We want to make sure the fans leave with the ‘wow!’ feeling whether the team wins or loses.”
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by Stanley S. Litow, IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President of the IBM International Foundation. Mr. Litow is a former Deputy Chancellor of the New York City Schools.
The City of Chicago has just announced its intention to open five grades nine through 14 schools that will confer both the high school diploma and an associate degree in technology — creating a direct connection from high school to college to careers. Visit the Citizen IBM blog to see what Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has to say about the important roles these Early College STEM Schools will play in the city’s economic development and jobs strategy.
Based on the recommendations of an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge team, Chicago’s new schools will be patterned after New York’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH). As with P-TECH — a partnership among the New York City Public Schools, The City University of New York, and IBM — each new Chicago institution will operate as a public-private partnership among the school system, the community college system, and a corporate sponsor. These collaborations will ensure the creation of rigorous and relevant curricula — including workplace skills — that will prepare students for meaningful careers and/or further study. Graduates will then be first in line for positions with their schools’ corporate partners.
The Smarter Cities team developed Chicago’s Roadmap for Career and Technical Education, which the city will use in conjunction with the STEM Pathways to College and Careers School Guide that was developed after the opening of New York City’s P-TECH. You can download the IBM Playbook from Rahm Emanuel’s blog.
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IBM has been helping cities develop sophisticated monitoring and management systems for several years, but, until now, most of the technology solutions it provided were made to order. That’s not sustainable. A just-announced engagement with Zhenjiang, a a tourist destination in northern China, represents the first publicly-discussed example of a smarter cities solution that is being built on a single sophisticated software platform, called the Intelligent Operations Center.
Editor’s note: Nearly two-thirds of all deaths globally occur due to non-communicable diseases. Better prevention and treatment could save tens of millions of lives and reduce healthcare costs dramatically. IBM and Novartis recently sponsored the NCD Challenge, a global university competition aimed at producing innovative solutions addressing NCDs. The winners are Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; and ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University in Barcelona, Spain. This guest post was written by the leader of the University of California, Berkeley team.
By Emily S. Ewell, Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley
Chronic illness such as asthma, diabetes and cancer need tangible, targeted solutions that maximize impact with the right intervention. Our university’s team in the NCD Challenge chose to narrow in on Type 2 diabetes – a measurable condition and intersection point for countless chronic risk factors. The good news is Type 2 diabetes is nearly 100% preventable by addressing risk factors such as unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. Continue Reading »
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With public-sector budgets under greater pressure and scrutiny than ever, having the ability to fine-tune services and to deliver them where they’re needed most is becoming increasingly important. Social media gives city authorities this opportunity, tapping into public sentiment in real time – albeit only that portion of the public using social media and in a raw form.
Crucially, it’s not just a case of passively watching and listening to what citizens are saying. The social web also makes it possible to reach out in new ways. Social networks mean local government can carry out surveys – and publicise them – at relatively low cost. Insights gained in this way not only represent a significant cash saving; they can also be carried out more rapidly than traditional opinion polls, with no paper processing delays and no risk of data transcription errors. Continue Reading »
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What makes a smarter social media city? At its best, it is:
Engaging
It promotes citizen involvement and builds a new sense of
ownership with scope for collaboration in every aspect of city life.
Transparent
It lifts the bonnet on how the city works – processes are visible,
dialogue is open, feedback is swift.
Nimble
It delivers services in real time with an enhanced ability to adjust
to citizens’ fast-changing needs.
Secure
It respects privacy, protects data and leverages technology to
enhance the physical security of citizens.
