Thinking Outside the Box about What it Means to Be a Citizen Centered Smart City

Abstract

"[We have] really finally started to look at why we build things the way we build them, which is very archaic. I mean, the way we built structures and roads is ancient, you know, we're finally questioning do we have to do it this way? Like we're doing it just because that's the way we did it before. But then how we run them. No one has asked that same question. The way that we influence the people within these cities still stems back to feudal and pre feudal systems. I am the magnificent Lord, and I know how you should behave. So do this, or I will punish you." carry someone from A to B to make the right choices? What if we applied that at a civic level? What if we applied that in cities, because for the most part, [directing behavior takes place via] negative reinforcement. Do this, [you get a] fine, do this [you face] incarceration, but there's not a lot of positive design in civic or urban environments. I mean, there's very little, if any, at all. And so that's where I jumped in and really became fascinated in merging these ideas of art, entertainment and video games with this, behavioral activation, incentivizing the lay citizen to make good choices based on things they don't even know we're doing." IoT program for parks and recreation for cities. Their slide deck was very focused on 'this is how much you could save as a city. This is how you could respond faster to vandalism or requisite services. This is how you can monitor if it's being used when it's not supposed to or without permits'. And it was so authoritarian. I mean, it was really genuinely like, you know, you're not using the way we told you to. And it took me about 30 seconds. I just said what if that exact same technology was just reused and reframed and said hey, the park is too busy considering COVID restrictions. You shouldn't go with your family. Here's a park less than half a mile down the street that's completely empty and probably safer for younger children. The exact same technology for a completely different purpose."