As an IBMer working on Smarter Cities — and a New Yorker for much of my adult life — I’d like to observe that Adam Greenfield doesn’t know me, my motivations, or those of the thousands of colleagues who are dedicated their lives and careers towards the goal of enabling cities, and urban citizens, to become smarter.
Adam Greenfield makes an important and interesting point at Picnic 2011: the institutions (IBM, Cisco, Siemens, etc) developing “smart cities”, as we know the term, “do not have a sense of urbanism”, ” probably do not love the places they are developing for “, “probably have not thought of the idea of love and the idea of a city, and how these things might relate to one another”: these are the things that “make cities valuable”.
So where do we find ourselves, after a solid decade of smart city rhetoric? What was promised to us, what has been delivered, what were the results, and what remains possible?