Posts in Cities
Utilities Lost The Connected Home, Can We Win The City?

Like veins that form the network transporting blood through our bodies, roads and electric lines transport energy and resources through cities. As people and companies share the desire to move from point A to point B as cheaply and quickly as possible, city systems evolve to become more efficient, thanks to continuous feedback mechanisms. However, communities still must utilize resources within the constraints of availability.

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Utilities Owning Departments Of Transport Is Not A Crazy Idea

Last week, I shared thoughts about how, having lost the battle for the smart home, utilities can capture the opportunities provided by smart cities and own the signals that customers get about what should matter. I got a few emails asking what that looks like. While this is part of the strategy/futurecasting service we’ll be providing, it makes sense to peel back the curtain a little and give a peek into how we think about these things. This was also spurred by a conversation with a fellow ‘Future Utility’ slack channel buddy of mine, Ken-Ichi Hino.

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Tampa, On The Path To Becoming A Smarter City

As director of marketing for a SaaS platform serving Multifamily and campus communities, I am constantly keeping my eye on big development deals. One area that caught my eye recently is Tampa Bay, Florida. I was somewhat surprised to read an article about the Water Street Tampa project by Strategic Property Partners (SPP), a real estate development joint venture between Cascade Investment, LLC and Jeff Vinik, the current owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning and a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox.

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Chicago, Indianapolis Bet Big on User-Centric Design

Paying a water bill or filing a business license fee in Chicago is getting easier. The city has organized payments under one platform and launched the application on 50 new kiosks to be arranged around the city — in locations as varied as police stations to libraries — with the aim of making certain transactions with Chicago quicker and more seamless. The kiosks are expected to roll out this summer.

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Industrial mobility: How autonomous vehicles can change manufacturing

The popular fascination with self-driving passenger cars has opened a new era of how we envision moving people. Meanwhile, a parallel lane has also opened: automating how we move things. While we have yet to marvel at convoys of driverless and digitally connected eighteen-wheelers, or even set cargo-hoisting drones aflight, they seem nearly visible on the horizon.

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How some cities are attracting 5G investments ahead of others

As communities across the United States wait to learn how high-speed mobile networks will figure in a long-promised infrastructure plan, some cities are already attracting private investment in next-generation 5G networks. They are doing so by finding new ways to collaborate with network and equipment providers, creating a set of “best practices” that other local governments can follow.

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ITIF Announces Launch of Digital Transformation Exchange for State Government Leaders, Highlighting Seven Case Studies

WASHINGTON — To help state and local governments leverage digital technologies, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a leading science and tech policy think tank, along with Government Technologyand Governing magazines and 11 state and local governments, today announced the launch of the government Digital Transformation Exchange (DTE), an online platform powered by ProudCity, for public agencies to share and discuss strategies for using technology to modernize and improve state government operations. The first-in-the-nation partnership will accelerate adoption of new technologies and digital government platforms by empowering collaboration and sharing of standardized best-practices among government agencies.

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How a Non Profit Roundtable Turned into a Smart City Pilot Project

Urban planning, rural planning, transportation planning: all of it is personal. This is something that practicing planners (and policymakers of all kinds) need to understand. The work we do influences where people can live, influences where people can work or go to school, and can transform the entire trajectory of an individual’s lived experience. This makes our work a very heavy responsibility.

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San Antonio develops committee to advance smart city goals

In an interview with Texas Public Radio (TPR), Mayor Nirenberg explained the committee was developed because San Antonio's "smart city" goals lacked a unified policy vision. By forming this dedicated team, the city is now on the path toward efficiently assessing community needs and investing in smart solutions. Though TPR notes the committee still needs to figure out what "smart city" means for San Antonio and its stakeholders, as the term carries a vast number of varied definitions.

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