May 07, 2018
The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application to everyday life represent an extraordinary opportunity, but also pose significant risks. For cities, this entails a profound evolution in the mode of governance, changes to the means of service delivery, and most notably, a transformation of neighbourhood life. These revolutionary changes can be likened…
May 07, 2018
Earlier in 2017, a video showing a passenger being dragged off a United Airlines flight sparked a massive social media campaign against United. The feedback on social platforms was so negative and so widespread the company lost hundreds of millions of dollars in market valuation in less than a week. But what lessons could this…
May 07, 2018
Many policies worldwide have been adopted recently in an attempt to create a framework that enforces an ethical and responsible development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The concept of inclusion is central to most of them. However, it risks remaining a polite word on paper, unless all sectors embrace its uttermost importance. Bringing everyone on board…
May 07, 2018
When we think about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a smart city context, one of the primary issues that come up are around the privacy of citizens. But there are quite a number of other issues that can arise, especially around the areas of fairness, safety, bias and transparency. In this article I…
May 07, 2018
For techno-optimists, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future of cities; needed to build and operate efficient, networked, modern skyspires that effectively use data to improve urban life – the “smart” transparent cities of tomorrow. But the public policy implications of AI aren’t just a science fiction future: they pose urgent present-day challenges to municipal regulations,…
Apr 23, 2018
New technology has the potential to help reinvigorate and renew the built environment by allowing the meaningful participation of end users and local communities in the development and urbanism process. It’s not uncommon for members of the public to be suspicious of developers and regard anything that they put forward as flawed. So it is…
Apr 23, 2018
A home, for the people who live inside it, is far more than a surface that they own or rent, or the address where they are domiciled. It is a place that is part of their identity, the place where they must feel at home. Yet, in 2018, although we can personalize almost everything –…
Apr 23, 2018
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) Since this quote was written, our cities have expanded – upwards and outwards – beyond what many alive in the mid-twentieth century may have thought possible.…
Apr 23, 2018
Good news for city development: there are more crowdfunding programs participating in various fields of new investments. In China, we have witnessed the development of a considerable amount of homestay hotels in cities as well as in suburbs thanks to crowdfunding mechanisms. I believe there will be more and more crowdfunding and crowdsourcing programs in…
Apr 23, 2018
A metropolis with a population of more than 10 million, Seoul is a city that offers contrasting landscapes that combine traditional and contemporary styles, including its more than 600-year-old historic districts and 25 self-governing boroughs and their busy centers that seem to never sleep. Most of the city’s residential neighborhoods are situated within only 200…
Apr 23, 2018
Through Crowdfund London, City Hall is learning how many small projects, delivered by local people, can have a big social impact; and how city government can catalyze a powerful mix of public, private and local collaboration. London is a city full of small surprises. Its market stalls, pocket parks, street artworks, food festivals, cultural carnivals…
Apr 23, 2018
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Alternative Finance Lab has been working and experimenting with crowdfunding now more than five years, by developing campaigns, workshops, booklets and observing how this new way of financing can help communities to become more resilient and empowered. Due to fiscal constraints governments are facing globally, conventional means of financing…
