Digital City Briefs - 30 Global Cities

IBM and Accelrys’s Digital Push to Accelerate Drug Discovery

California’s Carbon Market to Curb Greenhouse Gases

2012-10-21T20:38:00.000-04:00

California’s new law, known as A. B. 32, is a grand experiment to control climate change. It would become the first state to charge polluting industries for greenhouse gases they emit. It would offer allowances in a carbon trading market, where companies can purchase offset credits from projects that reduce green house gases.

“A portion of these so-called allowances will be allocated to utilities, manufacturers and others; the remainder will be auctioned off. Over time, the number of allowances issued by the state will be reduced, which should force a reduction in emissions.”

Critics fear that it would drive away polluters such as refineries, cement makers and glass factories, while others argue that such offsets will be prone to misuse and produce little environmental benefits.

Reference: Barringer, Felicity, A Grand Experiment to Rein In Climate Change, The New York Times, October 13, 2012

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App Alerts for Doctors

IBM and Accelrys’s Digital Push to Accelerate Drug Discovery

App Alerts for Doctors

2012-10-16T19:54:00.001-04:00

With the help of Apps that utilize GPS and accelerometers, which can track location and movement, doctors are able to monitor their patients. “If their habits and patterns deviate in a way that suggests they’ve become withdrawn, the app alerts a doctor or other caregiver to check in.” It can also pick up on behavior changes that suggest that a patient has stopped taking medication or is in need of a dosage change.

This type of human early warning system could transform medical care. Critics argue, however, that such apps constitute invasion of privacy and could be misused if not monitored carefully.

Reference: Richtel, Matt, Apps Alert the Doctor When Trouble Looms, The New York Times, October 8, 2012

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IBM and Accelrys’s Digital Push to Accelerate Drug Discovery

2012-10-11T05:22:00.000-04:00

How can digital technologies help in speeding up the drug discovery process? IBM and Accelrys have developed a complete image management and analysis system for clinical and preclinical research. The system consists of IBM’s Medical Image Management Solution (MIMS) and Accelrys’s Pipeline Pilot.

“Together, the two industry leaders offer a groundbreaking solution for translational image informatics that redefines how images, data and analysis are delivered, processed and shared throughout the life cycle of a study.”

Reference: IBM and Accelrys: streamlining translational imaging, IBM, 2012

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Consequences of "Bringing Your Own Device" to Work

2012-10-02T19:17:00.000-04:00

BYOD or Bring Your Own Device is becoming a common corporate practice as more and more people acquire personal smartphones and tablets. In a typical scenario, employees gain access to corporate email, calendars and company files, while the company gets access to a lot more.

“The company can see everything on your personal device. What’s more, the company can wipe it all out if you leave or if the device is lost or stolen. It can also remotely turn on the camera to find it.”

Is giving up so much privacy worth getting an access to company emails and calenders?

Reference: Waters, Jennifer, How your boss can take control of your iPad, MarketWarch, September 28, 2012

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Smartphone as a Mobile Radar Detector

2012-10-01T20:29:00.001-04:00

Coyote, a Paris based technology company, is at the forefront of smartphone based driving apps that warn drivers about speed cameras and other traffic conditions. Its apps are used by 1.7 million people in Europe. “The two biggest makers of auto navigation devices, Garmin and TomTom, both bundle speed camera alert services with most of their latest products.”

The French Government persuaded Coyote to not disclose the exact location of mobile speed cameras. Coyote now alerts drivers about “risk zones” only, which can include accidents, traffic jams or speed cameras. Renault, the French automaker will announce during Paris Motor Show in October that all 2012 Renaults will be equipped with Coyote software.

Reference: O’Brien, Kevin J., In Europe, Speed Cameras Meet Their Technological Match, The New York Times, September 30, 2012

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National Weather Service's Digital Alert System

2012-09-14T06:11:00.001-04:00

Application programming interfaces (APIs) are a set of rules about how various systems can interact with one another. They can be used to create engaging mobile content as well as to improve communication with citizens. They help in automating previously manual processes so an agency can save time and resources on routine tasks.

One great example is National Weather Service’s (NWS) severe weather updates sent via email and SMS/text messages. With weather updates and warnings, timing and accuracy are critical. “NWS and other government organizations can get out of the business of sending out communications (and all the operational logistics this entails) and focus instead on their core business mission.”

Reference: Fiorenza, Pat, Learn How You Can Leverage API's at Your Agency, Govloop.com, August 27, 2012

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Data Mining to Identify Potential Donors

2012-09-11T06:08:00.000-04:00

The presidential campaign of Governor Mitt Romney is relying on secretive data-mining and analytics to raise millions of dollars. Mitt Romney’s campaign has hired a Fort Worth, Texas based data analytics firm to identify rich and previously untapped Republican donors across the country. Such analytics are frequently used by businesses to identify store locations and sales leads for new products.

“The project relies upon a sophisticated analysis by powerful computers of thousands of commercially available, expensive databases that are lawfully bought and sold behind the scenes by corporations, including details about credit accounts, families and children, voter registrations, charitable contributions, property tax records and survey responses.”

Reference: Romney Uses Secretive Data-Mining to Identify Donors, August 24, 2012

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Who Benefits from Prepaid Billing for Electricity?

2012-09-09T07:55:00.001-04:00

One of the advantages of having smart meters is that power grids can be programmed to allow prepaid billing and remote disconnections. The electric utilities promote prepaid billing as a plan that does not require a deposit, credit check or cancellation fees. Customers benefit by paying for service in advance based on estimated usage, and by being able to monitor their energy use and remaining credit in real time. “In North America, prepaid meters will expand from 2 million last year to 10 million in 2017” according to one forecast.

However, critics argue that utilities target poor customers to avoid chasing delinquent accounts. “The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates passed a June 2011 resolution that recommends an array of consumer protections, including no shut offs that could jeopardize health or safety, a “reasonable” grace period before disconnections, availability of payment assistance plans and lower rates than traditional service to reflect reduced overhead.”

Reference: Hatch, David, Rise of Prepaid Electricity Brings Scrutiny, Governing, September 5, 2012

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Digital Media Heavy Political Conventions

2012-09-07T19:16:00.001-04:00

The digital technologies related to social media, wireless networks and real-time threat detection have transformed the political conventions. Social media has allowed the organizers to engage much broader audiences. “The GOP has a green room devoted to digital media, encouraging its speakers to post updates to platforms like Twitter and Facebook, take photos, conduct interviews over Skype and more.”

Wireless Networking firms have constructed additional cell towers as well as WiFi hot-spots to allow first hand reporting of unfolding events over smartphones and tablets. Behavior recognition software has been deployed by local police to identify potential threats to security in real-time.

Reference: Knell, Noelle, 3 Ways Tech is Transforming Political Conventions, Government Technology, August 29, 2012

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City of Portland as a Living Laboratory

2012-09-05T21:08:00.001-04:00

IBM and the City of Portland worked together for one year to develop an interactive model to study city’s core systems. “The resulting computer simulation allowed Portland's leaders to see how city systems work together, and in turn identify opportunities to become a smarter city.”

The City of Portland, known for its pioneering efforts in long range urban planning, served as a living laboratory to explore how complex city systems behave over time, and how behavior of a system as a whole can be different from its individual components. The interactive exploratory model was based on 10 years of historical data.

Reference: IBM and City of Portland Collaborate to Build a Smarter City, IBM, August 9, 2011

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A Global City as a Social Business

Wal-Mart’s “Scan and Go” iPhone App

2012-09-03T17:21:00.001-04:00

Wal-Mart is testing a “Scan and Go” app for the iPhone, that would allow shoppers to scan their items and pay at a self-checkout counter. It would potentially trim waiting times and reduce costs for the retailer. Although the test doesn’t involve a mobile payment system, that seems to be the next logical step.

“Pushing more shoppers to scan their own items and make payments without the help of a cashier could save Wal-Mart millions of dollars, Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley has said. The company spends about $12 million in cashier wages every second at its U.S. Walmart stores.”

Reference: Wohl, Jessica, Wal-Mart tests iPhone checkout app, Reuters, September 3, 2012

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A Global City as a Social Business

Is a Smart Meter Safe?

The Future of Manufacturing

2012-09-01T09:34:00.001-04:00

While manufacturing traditionally employed thousands of workers, the tide is turning in favor of automation, robotics and computer based manufacturing.

For example, a Dutch factory uses 128 robot arms to do the work of hundreds of workers. “One robot arm endlessly forms three perfect bends in two connector wires and slips them into holes almost too small for the eye to see. The arms work so fast that they must be enclosed in glass cages to prevent the people supervising them from being injured. And they do it all without a coffee break — three shifts a day, 365 days a year.”

Clearly, such developments have profound implications on the future of work and the future of human society itself. The classic definition of technology is “to do more with less”, which in itself suggests fewer people for the same task. At the extreme level, some futurists are predicting “singularity”, when machines become more intelligent than human beings and basically take over the world.

Reference: Markoff, John, Skilled Work, Without the Worker, The New York Times, August 18, 2012

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A Global City as a Social Business

Is a Smart Meter Safe?

Sustainable Air Conditioning?

2012-08-08T20:55:00.001-04:00

The White House issued an Executive Order to give citizens mobile access to government web sites, raw data as well as satellite data. The Digital Strategy outlined in the Executive Order, asks GSA to create a Digital Services Innovation Center. The core data initiative involves APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to present raw government data to the public. The private sector will be able to leverage this data to build profitable products worth billions of dollars as they did with the weather and GPS data.

“Ultimately, this Strategy will ensure that agencies use emerging technologies to serve the public as effectively as possible. As a Government, and as a trusted provider of services, we must never forget who our customers are -- the American people.”

Reference: Building a 21st Century Digital Government, A White House Executive Order, May 23, 2012

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Restoring Utility Grids with Drones and iPads

Google Launches 1 G Internet and TV Service in Kansas City

Songdo: A Prototypical Smart City

2012-08-06T18:57:00.000-04:00

Songdo is a smart city being built on a muddy man-made island in the Yellow Sea in Korea. It will not be finished until 2015, but its anticipated completion is already stirring supporters as well as critics. “New Songdo is the most ambitious instant city since Brasília 50 years ago. Brasília, of course, was an instant disaster: grandiose, monstrously over-scale, and immediately encircled by slums.”

It is intended to be an experimental digital city of tomorrow, which will be equipped with computer sensors and chips talking to one another everywhere. The development team for the city is planning to roll out 20 more cities across China and India using Songdo as a model.

“A flurry of white papers has been issued by the likes of HP, Autodesk, Oracle, and Cisco on topics including "Digital Cities," "City 2.0," "Intelligent Urbanization," and even a "Central Nervous System for the Earth." However, an industry expert envisions three possible outcomes: 1, no one will live in these cities, 2, there will be some interest initially but people will give up eventually and 3, people will inhabit them but in completely unimagined ways.

Reference: Lindsay, Greg, Cisco's Big Bet on New Songdo: Creating Cities From Scratch, The Fast Company

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Restoring Utility Grids with Drones and iPads

Google Launches 1 G Internet and TV Service in Kansas City

A Brief History of Digital Cities initiatives

Restoring Utility Grids with Drones and iPads

2012-07-31T20:24:00.001-04:00

After a major storm, utility companies struggle to restore power. Their efforts are usually hampered by inaccurate information about hot spots that need repairs. The situation is worsened by road blockages due to fallen trees and structural collapses along the way.

The Electric Power Research Institute has developed a solution, which would rely on drones for site specific information and iPads for logistics. “The technology has helped the military find the enemy around a corner or over the next hill. Applying it to a broken distribution system is “a no-brainer,” said Matthew Olearczyk, a senior program manager at the Electric Power Research Institute.”

Reference: Wald, Matthew L., In Blackouts, Drones and iPads May Come to Rescue, The New York Times, July 27, 2012

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Google Launches 1 G Internet and TV Service in Kansas City

A Brief History of Digital Cities initiatives

Google Launches 1 G Internet and TV Service in Kansas City

2012-07-28T07:17:00.001-04:00

Google is leading the Internet wave by launching its 1 Gb-per-second fiber service in Kansas City. “Google Fiber promises to be 100 times faster than the average American broadband speed. To put this into perspective, using Google Fiber is sort of like driving from New York City to San Francisco in under a half hour.”

Google is expected to roll out its fiber service in additional cities.

Reference: Pinola, Melanie, Google's Lightning-fast Fiber Network Now Live in Kansas City, PC World, July 26, 2012

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