by Cristiano Gatti | Sep 12, 2019 | The Urban Media Lab
After the government crisis triggered by Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s popular far-right party The League, Italy has now a new government in office. For the second time in the Italian institutional history, the Belpaese has a Minister for Innovation and Digitalization (the first time it happened it was in 2001). According to data provided by the European Commission Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2019, it seems to be an important achievement because Italy ranks 24th out of the 28 EU Member States in the DESI 2019 ahead only of Poland, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria among State Members.
In line with this situation, Mr Giuseppe Conte
has appointed Paola Pisano as Minister of Technological Innovation and
Digitalization in the Italian Government because of her experience on the
field gained serving as deputy mayor for
innovation at the City of Turin from 2016.
During her experience in Turin, Mrs Pisano has
contributing to the creation and the development of Torino City Lab, an initiative-platform aimed at
creating simplified conditions for companies interested in conducting testing
in real conditions of innovative
solutions for urban living. The project is promoted by the City of Turin
and it involves a vast local partnership
of subjects from public and private
sectors interested in supporting and growing the local innovation ecosystem.
During these years, Torino City Lab have
developed different policies such as AperTo,
the city’s open data portal which shares internal data of different city
offices and EDU.LAB, a space open to confrontation in
the educational field experimenting the didactic experiences brought in an
innovative environment, animated by experts and with the central role of
professors and students.
At the present time, Torino City Lab develops
co-development solutions and testing in the following areas:
- innovative urban services enabled by 5G technologies: city applications of artificial
intelligence and collaborative robotics, Internet of Things, augmented and
virtual reality.
- autonomous mobility services with a focus on autonomous vehicles and drones
for the transportation of people and things.
Turin has been the first Italian city and among
the first in Europe to be connected to a 5G
mobile network: in fact, in 2017 an agreement reached between the City of Turin and TIM marked the start of the experiment,
expected to gradually extend the new mobile ultrabroadband infrastructure to
the entire city by 2020.
Then, re-launching the vocation of the automotive sector, the City of Turin
signed an agreement with the Ministry of
Infrastructures and Transport and others 14 partner to promote a new mobility service in a shared, assisted, safe and ecological view
integrating public mobility and decrease the time each individual citizen
dedicates to driving.
With regards to drones, Ms Pisano stated the importance of developing drones
technologies with the aim of traffic control, infrastructure monitoring and
things mobility. Moreover, Dora Park
was designated to be the testing area for drones operations due to its optimal position,
security conditions and technology infrastructure.
In the next few days, we will see if the issues
developed by Torino City Lab will be in the agenda of the new Italian Minister of Technological Innovation and
Digitalization.
by Cristiano Gatti | May 2, 2019 | The Urban Media Lab
Among different fields of application, blockchain can contribute to improve the food sector substantially. Blockchain technology can help consumers’ health safety (e.g. in the case of E. coli or Salmonella) and financial stability of food companies that suffer from product mislabeling.
According to this vision, food safety is not just a food issue but it is also a supply chain issue. In Europe, where a strict regulation in farming and food processing practices has been implemented, blockchain is surely one of the most promising attempt to increase food safety, not only to fresh product but also into processed food. This issue is particularly true in the United States, where more than 48 million people get sick from foodborne illnesses each year, according to CDC.
It is clear that consumers are looking for ways to prove the authenticity of food more and more. Especially when it comes to food. Since data can be made visible to all participants and in general cannot be altered by a single entity, customers can have confidence that data has not been tampered with along the way. Companies are following this path: for example, food production giant Bühler announced new technologies promising to increase food safety standards and production efficiency: Laatu is a breakthrough technology to reduce microbial contamination in dry goods, and Tubex Pro, a smart, self-optimizing scale system. These solutions are connected to the Bühler Insights IoT platform to ensure a new degree of traceability and transparency along the food value chain.
After product provenance and traceability, blockchain will streamline supply chain operation. Nowadays, it is difficult to achieve an integration of data documentation because a large part of operations is manual. Instead of the gloom caused by a chain of bilateral interactions, there would be multi-party access to data and documentation, allowing for increased efficiency. In Italy, for example, a team lead by Professor Stefano Bistarelli from the University of Perugia is working on Agrichain, a platform that aims to make stakeholders in the agricultural industry better-informed, to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and dockets and reduce supply chain inefficiency to help consumers’ health and to prevent fraud. Another pilot program is the partnership signed by Nestlé, Carrefour and IBM to track instant mashed potatoes. Seeing how effective IBM’s Food Trust blockchain platform is, the partnership aims to help the movement of food shipments across Europe: on the one hand, consumers can track the information related to a national brand, on the other side, companies can reduce food waste optimizing food supply chain.
Finally, this approach could lead to reveal corruption more easily. Thanks to this higher level of accountability, players that behave opportunistically and unethically are in a more difficult situation. The World Food Programme has already begun experimentation with this use case in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan. Under the Building Blocks pilot project, 10,000 individuals receive food from entitlements recorded on a blockchain-based computing platform. According to World Economic Forum, “blockchain could increase transparency and trust in humanitarian supply chains as well, where financial aid could not reach or was perceived to be unable to reach target beneficiaries”.
by Cristiano Gatti | Feb 5, 2019 | The Urban Media Lab
According to Rakesh Kaul, Partner at PwC, “a smart city is an implementation of an advanced and modern urbanization vision”.
So, smart cities are structured to allow operational efficiencies, maximize
environmental sustainability efforts and deal with citizen services such as:
- citizen identities management and
citizen participation;
- payment system between people and
organization;
- employment;
- health;
- culture;
- transportation;
- environment and space;
- energy and waste;
- land management;
- clean habitat;
- infrastructure.
In this economic, social, technological and
political context, these shifts are
reshaping the world and new challenges arise for countries and particularly
for cities. As governments are seeking to incorporate innovations within their smart
cities, blockchain can offer something
more.
So, blockchain’s role is quickly increasing
because it brings decentralization,
erases intermediaries, brings security
among the systems and interoperability
among users. To be clear, blockchain is a trusted distributed ledger
system across a network of users. It is a system, where the parties cooperate
to ease the transaction process, make it more anonymous and yet more secure.
According to Tom Zilavy,
IBM Blockchain and Cloud solutions,
blockchain can be utilized for smart cities in different ways: first of
all, blockchain can push citizens to smart
choices motivating their behavior: for example, thanks to a smart contract, public authority will
be able to automatically give you a reward
for a conscious good behavior such
as using public transport in your city; then, blockchain could increase effectivity offering the possibility
to have all the information in one database with participants having predefined
permissions to view or change (transact) the information they need (in the case
of a smart trash bin); finally, blockchain can make energetics efficient: for example, citizens
with solar panels on their houses could, thanks to smart contracts,
automatically trade their unused electricity with their neighbours and others
that are connected to the grid. These transactions would be executed
automatically, with the help of smart contracts and therefore effectiveness
would be achieved.
City worldwide are implementing blockchain
projects: Estonia has catapulted itself on the global stage as a
digital nation by proactively supporting blockchain
startups and embracing blockchain in its own operations. In this context, Tallin hosts, for example, e-residency program that allows anyone
to incorporate a digital enterprise in Estonia, without ever having set foot
there; the Estonian Cryptocurrency
Association, a nonprofit in Tallinn, has taken up the charge to help
promote the ecosystem locally and globally. In Singapore, Smart Nation
strategy seeks to transform former fishing villages into living laboratory
of innovation, and that type of proactive thinking is one reason it’s 2018 year’s world leader in blockchain. Singapore GovTech office is exploring a handful of
blockchain use cases, while the Monetary Authority of Singapore has pioneered a
decentralized inter-bank payment and settlements solution. Finally, the city of Austin in Texas is currently piloting a program in
which its 2,000 homeless residents will be given a unique identifier that’s
safely and securely recorded on the blockchain
Blockchain brings a lot of pros but there are a
great number of challenges still open. There is lack of coherent regulation, many players want to centralize blockchain and there is a need to increase performance, interoperability and reduce complexity and cost.
by Cristiano Gatti | Nov 12, 2018 | The Urban Media Lab
In recent years, climate technologies have been deployed on an unprecedented scale around the globe. In particular, renewable energy technologies are grown in importance at the expense of fossil fuel, especially in Europe. In that scenario, the Paris Climate Change Agreement states the importance to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius and spreading the use of climate technologies on a much greater scale. Therefore, addressing the problem where more than 70 per cent of global gas emission are produced, namely the cities, is the priority.
In recent years, all around the world, decision-makers, urban practitioners, social innovators and academics have planned, implemented and assessed several solutions in urban context. With the aim of accounting and empowering cities, and collectivizing urban innovation across the globe, different conferences have been taking place.
In May 2017, UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee organized Bonn Climate Change Conference to reinforce the importance of innovation and inspire countries (especially the developing ones), organizations to enhance their climate efforts. The key factor is to shift from an incremental approach to one that effects transformational change; but it is also crucial that every country and city should have the freedom of choice how to implement this change: one-size-fits-all approach is definitely wrong.
Last March, Cities and Climate Change Science Conference was the first summit organized with the aim of bringing together urban representatives to address climate change. Here, key stakeholder (ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, C40, Cities Alliance, Future Earth, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Cities and Local Governments, UN Environment, UN Habitat, World Climate Research Programme) debated around the importance of specifically address urban level action, the impact and vulnerabilities from urban emissions the transition to low carbon, resilient cities and the creation of an enabling environment for transformative climate action. At the end of the conference, participants have understood that best practices in urban climate change management must adopt similar pathways, such as
- the integration of climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives;
- the linking of disaster and adaptation planning;
- generation of climate action plans in partnership with non-governmental stakeholders;
- attention to the needs of the disadvantaged and most vulnerable;
- the advancement of good governance, partnership networks, and solutions to gaps in financing.
Last September, City Climate Leadership Awards by the C40 City Climate Leadership Group (C40) and Siemens have awarded cities in different categories such as urban transportation; carbon measurement & planning; energy efficient built environment; air quality; green energy; adaptation & resilience; sustainable communities; waste management; intelligent city infrastructure; finance & economic development. In terms of climate change, it is important to remember the city of Copenhagen has planned ambitious targets and has detailed strategies to achieve a significant reduction in building emissions (75% of the total) with the aim of becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral capital city by 2025, following the example of another Danish city, Sønderborg. Here, from 2007, local politicians have worked directly with residents to become completely zero-carbon by 2029 thanks to the adoption of onshore and offshore wind farms, residential solar PVs, and the use of biogas for industry and transport.
In conclusion, conferences such as ones described before, help in establishing partnerships and in identifying business opportunities, and promoting awareness and critical reflection among inhabitants of different cities. In this respect, we are keen to see the impact of Smart City Expo World Congress 2018 that is taking place in Barcelona in these days. According to the official website, five main topics will be addressed: Digital Transformation, Urban Environment, Mobility, Governance & Finance, and Inclusive & Sharing Cities. The conference is focused on working towards creating efficient, inclusive and sustainable cities, especially thanks to the Towards Zero Waste project that aims to use fewer materials, reuse and recycling of products, and produce no food waste.
by Cristiano Gatti | Sep 27, 2018 | The Urban Media Lab
Nowadays, more and more urban experts are questioning the utopian future of smart, intelligent and data-driven cities. As reported by The New York Times editorial board, issues like the role of technology in everyday life, the influence of tech companies and the correct direction of public policy on this matter are certainly still open.
There are many approaches to consider when debating on how democratic a smart city can be. According to Bianca Wylier, senior fellow of the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), there are five approaches that can address smart city challenges starting from the Sidewalk Toronto experience:
- Open Procurement and Contracting
- Intensive Public Education and Consultation
- Civic Data Governance as a Government Responsibility
- Smart Cities as a Political issue, not a Technology Issue
- Agile Policy-making Process
First of all, the first approach says that it is necessary to speak to residents early and often about what they want and need. Secondly, public authorities may not proceed without public buy-in or may make a secretive deal with corporations involved in the project.
The first approach teaches us that many of these projects will be built and operated by the private sector for governments. As Mark Wilson, former chair of the board of Waterfront Toronto and current Waterfront Toronto digital strategy advisory panel member says, the democratic control of the processes can only be achieved with an educated public.
The second approach suggests that governments need to spend resources for awareness building around data and technology. It is necessary that people understand data and how it can be used. In Toronto, for example, urban innovators have decided to focus on urban issues such as mobility and housing. In Brazil, public authorities conducted an intensive public process to create the Brazilian Internet Bill of Rights, and Taiwan created expansive ways to consult on technology issues both online and in person.
The third one is about data management. In that sector, it is vital to understand that different type of data and context require different type of conservations around how the data might be used by government, how it might be commercialized, and how it might be made open, shared, or kept closed. There are a lot differences between personally identifiable information, aggregate and anonymized human behavioral data or environmental and geospatial data or infrastructural data. In this field, the European GDPR has been built to give individuals more power to define how their data is used.
Moving on to the fourth approach, it is clear that the smart city model has not been always a successful paradigm. Just think of the Songdo International Business District in South Korea, the Epcot Center in Florida and Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. New approaches to technology management are needed to deal with the problem that smart cities are not only a technology issue but a political issue. For example, it is more and more important to use participatory models that engage residents in decision-making and data stewardship. Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona, has instituted a set of policies to guarantee not only open technology systems as a procurement requirement, but also resident control of data and technology-driven civic participation. Francesca Bria, the chief technology officer for the city of Barcelona explains that the core issue is reaching a New Deal on data, based on a rights-based, people-centric framework.
Finally, the fifth approach, based on an agile policy-making process, explains that existing legislation is unsuitable in that situation because legal frameworks that govern data and technology were created prior to internet broadcasting, so it is crucial to update laws to protect privacy and security. But it is also important that changes happen incrementally to avoid bad legislation. So, agile policy creation is something all governments will need to start getting comfortable with.
For example, digital master plans to direct technology policy can support a city’s general strategic planning efforts. Software code (very different from traditional physical infrastructure) can be replicated and shared around the world and developing a model of ownership and licensing (something like Creative Commons licenses) would enable the sharing of technology under flexible terms. Last but not least, it is important to mention creating data standards to support shared digital infrastructure and interoperability and co-city protocols.
Coming back to the NYT article mentioned before, it is time for a new paradigm in internet and data management if we want to help technologists and policymakers to strive for secure elections, to reimagine our business models, to defend citizens and to protect us from extremists around the world.
