Smart Society Building Smart Cities

Livability, sustainability and creativity are the most important factors for smart cities. I will discuss in this blog the many factors that will be needed if one wants to design a smart city. Such as considering the needs of the society, importance and compatibility.

Cities as techno-social processes

People now live in a world of very rapid technological advances and do not need large, organized technological activities to access information. Rather, almost everything can be achieved and accomplished through the online use of digital technologies and networks. This includes shopping, traveling, finding a job, and entertainment.

                                                Figure 1：5 Tools for Digital Marketing( from medium app)

People’s lives are intimately linked to smart connections. Residents have access to a wide range of software and online computing, and can utilize a variety of functions resulting from the convergence of the digital and physical realms. In a way, digital life offers more information and a degree of “ubiquity”.

Technologies constructed by society

If we change our perspective and start to see the smart city as an entity. Then based on the relationships and interactions between people, places and movement, this complex vein will have a huge impact.

It is the basis for human activity, communication, and organization. In addition, numerous technologies make smart cities possible. These technologies are in the millions. Moreover, the picture of the city of the future that is often reported in the media is not a smart city.

The “Paris: Invisible City” project by Latour and Helmont exemplifies this.

The main task of the project is to walk around the city. In addition, the flow trajectories of a large number of “invisible” or hidden objects in the photographs taken are studied and examined. With this study, this illustrates the reality of the chaotic infrastructure of large cities. They serve as a warning that these artefacts can visible only beneath the pavements and therefore only accessible to city maintenance personnel. In other words, in the example’s final paragraph, we get a conclusion, namely, that emphasising the city’s extensive network can bring the virtual world to life.

Figure 2 :  screenshot from Paris: Invisible City website

The city and its citizens

Digital places

The following case study illustrates the special effects of reorganising a conventional brick and mortar store in conjunction with an internet store using the example of a “showroom.”

Furthermore, one of the most common examples of digitalization replacing real places is shopping. In fact, the virtualization of retail has led to a significant increase in online shopping and a decrease in traditional storefronts. In either case, is digital e-tailing replacing traditional physical shopping? Yes, but only in a small way. At this point, in short, the issues involved are far more than can be expressed in a simple answer.

Indeed, the recent emergence of the “showroom” phenomenon in the retail sector highlights the importance of integrating offline and online technologies. As a result, this not only includes consumers visiting physical stores to browse products and talk to store associates, but also using smart software to access online price lists at the same time. They will eventually shop online, turning the physical store into a communication space. In this case, physical and digital retail stores coexist.

Figure 3 : Showrooming (Source: Baidu.com)

So in Amazon, the digital retailer is trying to establish itself among community booksellers across the U.S. Though the program, called Amazon Book Source, suggests that online retailers are beginning to recognize the value of offline brick-and-mortar stores. In addition, in either case with “Amazon Sources”, customers don’t have to choose between e-books and their favourite community bookstore – they can have both.

Figure 4 ：Amazon store, Seattle, 2015( Source: Amazon.com)

Summary

In short, human survival depends on smart digital technologies. Therefore, we must recognize and understand every angle of smart city development. Similarly, it is not possible to fully realize people’s needs by relying on networked technologies alone per se. We must therefore recognize that there may be aspects that need to be combined and strive to be all-inclusive in the future.

References

1.Bijker, W. E. & Law, J. (eds.) (1992) Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
2.Bryant Park Corporation (2014) Bryant Park Wireless Network. Available at: www.bryantpark.org/plan-your-visit/wireless.html.
3.Campbell, C. (2013) ‘The peril of “showrooming”’, BBC News, 21 April. Available at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22098575.
4.Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture, vol. 1. Oxford: Blackwell.