Connected Urban Development

In a final wrap up from the Partnership for Urban Innovation conference, here are some observations on what we took from the discussions and the key themes that ran throughout the day.

There are six main takeaways from the conference:
1. The nature of urban innovation partnerships is progressing to an inclusive, multi stakeholder network of networks to really scale and accelerate adoption of Smart+Connected urban innovation solutions. During the conference John Chambers handed over the Connected Urban Development program governance to Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group. Steve will bring the program forward under the new name Smart 2020: Cities and Regions initiative.

2. Urban partnerships have clearly moved progressively from what was exclusively a thought leadership discussion, through an operational stage, to the enabling of integrated decision making solutions for multiple communities, from individuals to governments and industries. Conference partners have made huge progress with multiple projects in cities globally.

3. The discussion within this and other urban innovation communities is clearly shifting towards the creation of an integrated urban approach to IT deployment across key program domains. This is very much in line with the urban services platform visions presented by the cities, Cisco and other speakers throughout the conference.

4. A number of speakers and discussions in the breakout sessions highlighted the need for cities to develop organically, beyond any grand master planning. Serendipitous, social, vibrant, inclusive communities can only develop full sustainability over the long term through the participation, innovation and drive from the many actors making up our complex systems of cities.

5. The Smart+Connected Community story has come of age, but there is much work to do to enable social innovation, governance frameworks and robust business models
 
6. Cities from all continents are extremely keen to engage with public-private partnerships in the deployment of innovative projects, based on the principles of economic, social and environmental sustainability. The opportunity for the partners at the conference is to engage on high impact transformational engagements, through a truly global community of cities focused on urban and technology innovation.

Please refer to presentations, briefings papers and video coverage from the conference at:
http://www.connectedurbandevelopment.org/conferences/shanghai_2010.

Also, The Climate Group have provided their thoughts on the conference at ‘Smart Solutions for Smart Cities’:

To underline the points raised here and in the observations from The Climate Group, the Banyan column in The Economist this week looked at ‘Asia’s alarming cities’. The need for holistic urban design, integrating complex urban systems, smart+connected solutions, the economic case for sustainable urbanization were among the topics explored at the conference to address the concerns highlighted in this article. Indeed, the quote from Christine Loh from Civic Exchange a think tank in Hong Kong, reflected her comments last year at our Connected Urban Development conference in Seoul last year.

Following the Partnership for Urban Innovation Conference, The Climate Group has provided its report on the conference and has interviewed two of the key stakeholders in the discussions at the conference, and in taking the findings from the conference forward.

John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems and Josep Roig, Secretary General of Metropolis, the world association of major metropolises expolained their perspectives on public-private partnerships, their interest in the Smart2020: Cities and Regions initiative, why the smart+connected path to technology innovation is proving to be successful today and will take on great significance to the success and sustainability of our urban communities.

We thank all for attending the Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference in Shanghai last week.

It was a busy week and we all benefitted from the diverse, challenging and inventive ideas and discussions throughout the conference. The conference was enhanced the vibrancy, buzz and innovation on display throughout the city of Shanghai, and from every corner of the world at the World Expo. Partners in the conference, such as The Climate Group, hosted separate events to this conference throughout the week, and we are thankful to all that our event was seen as enhancing to those events, and to the urban innovation agenda for all those organisations, individuals and programs that were represented.

The plenary agenda explored the themes of:

• How cities are responding to the Better City, Better Life theme of the World Expo
• The launch and progress of urban transformation partnerships
• Urban innovation in China
• Global cities of the future

 These themes were also explored in more detail in five breakout sessions (chaired by Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group and knowledge partners):

1. Urban Design and Networked Development - co-chaired with Urban Land Institute
2. Smart and Connected Urban Mobility - co-chaired with Metropolis
3. Sustainable Cities: Challenges and Solutions - co-chaired with The Climate Group
4. Economic Growth in Cities - co-chaired with The World Bank
5. Social Life of Cities - co-chaired with The Young Foundation

On day 2, delegates went on a tour of the World Expo site. At the Cisco pavilion, four showcase sessions provided unique content on the urban innovation projects that Cisco has been advancing with cities globally. The showcase sessions were on:

• Urban Mobility Innovation - particularly the development with the city of Busan
• WorkLife Innovation - a networked and distributed work ecosystem in The Netherlands and South Korea
• Urban Sensing and Mapping - a preview of the next phase in the Urban EcoMap projects in Amsterdam and San Francisco
• Dialogue Cafe - A conversation from London, to Lisbon at the public TP pod at MUDE, and to the Cisco Pavilion at the World Expo, Shanghai

Please return here in the coming days as the conference page will be updated with:

• presentations
• interviews
• photos
• videos
• thought leadership content

 from the partners, speakers and participants who made the conference come together so successfully.

 Thanks again to all those who attended and participated. For those in the wide network represented who couldn’t make the journey this time, and to those engaged in the urban innovation debate, we hope that our forthcoming content sharing will be of use to your work, enable you to view the content discussions throughout the two days, and to enable follow up connections across the urban innovation community.

This fifth snapshot on the Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference themes is on Sustainable Cities: Challenges and Solutions.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) reduction and sustainability strategies energy generation and distribution, transport, water management, infrastructure, green buildings and urban planning, all converge in cities where the bulk of the world’s citizens reside. Thus “sustainable cities” has become a topic of immense worldwide interest.

The need to make cities and communities sustainable has been championed by government and non-governmental organisations and by the companies developing the technology solutions. A complex mix of “players” has emerged, all wanting to participate and to push their particular vision for sustainability.

This has resulted in an eco-system of swirling, connected and disconnected stakeholders, all with different aims and goals, and yet united in a common vision: to achieve “sustainability” in the development and operation of cities.
For all the hype, a gap remains between adoption of the plethora of innovative and truly sustainable technologies that are readily available, and the solutions which are implemented. The danger in not closing this gap is significant. In spite of all the interest on the supply side, the demand for these technologies and services may not grow fast enough for companies continue to invest in solutions, and GHG emissions may not be reduced quickly enough.

So what is stopping the adoption and implementation of these technologies? Some of these technologies are new: We are witnessing the “wow” factor of technology in action such as concentrated solar thermal arrays blazing in the sun which make for attractive videos and still images for TV, magazines and sustainability publications. But some of the technologies exist. However, their adoption may not be straightforward, but will require combining technologies, new ways through advanced networking and communications.

The challenge is that sustainability or climate change are not solely technology challenges, rather this is a deployment challenge. Informational, market, institutional, policy and organisational barriers remain. Market development will require removing these barriers and obstacles to make sure the existing technologies and solutions are capable of full deployment in a widespread manner worldwide.

In this break out session, with a lively ensemble of practitioners, who are actively involved in the business side of sustainability, we will identify the barriers and engage participants in a stimulating discussion within the following framework:

1. What technology is available now - First we set the scene briefly to display the vast array of sustainable solutions available from an ICT technology perspective
2. Who are the players – Secondly, we will examine who are the players and the stakeholders in the eco-system of the development and operation of cities and what are their roles and aims
3. What are the barriers – Thirdly, we will examine the barriers to adoption of the various sustainable technologies that can be applied, by way of case study examinations and where a barrier to adoption was overcome by innovative, and ultimately, practicable and financeable strategies and solutions
4. Where are the examples of barriers being overcome?

The outcome of the session will be to engage in a robust debate on these issues and to raise awareness of an area of the sustainability debate which is often neglected, pointing to examples where barriers have been overcome, as a basis for developing strategies for market transformation.

Please join us on the conference page of the website for updates to the discussions and content for this and all of the other conference breakout sessions, following the conference.

This snapshot on the Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference themes is on Economic Growth in Cities.

Cities account for a growing proportion of a growing world population, but many are significantly less carbon-intensive per unit output than surrounding rural areas. Cities contain geographic concentrations of people, skills, and capital infrastructure making them vulnerable to extreme weather events. However, this same mix of density, diversity and specialization affords cities unique scope for knowledge-sharing and innovation and the ability to trial, replicate and scale new technologies.

This session will access economic research, city leader, technology and urban planning perspectives to explore some key hypotheses: 1) well-planned, compact, connected urbanization can enhance efficiency and incomes relative to rural/sprawling/suburban development or unplanned urban development, 2) sustainable urban development plans improve the effectiveness and competitiveness of cities relative to approaches which overlook sustainability, 3) networked urban infrastructures heighten the gains from urban agglomeration and afford greater opportunities for targeted job-creation projects which provide long-term growth enhancing effects. The agenda will build on analysis of:

• The Economic Case for Sustainable Cities
• The Economics of Network Enabled Growth - a vision of innovative connected cities
• World Bank programs

The session will identify policy and planning frameworks best suited to invoke the ‘spark of good governance’ required to propagate successful and sustainable cities. The session will discuss the best way to develop a collaborative and consistent database of city performance through improved monitoring and comparable inventories of economic, social and environmental outcomes such as greenhouse gas emissions. Such a database can be used to provide a rigorous analytical foundation for urban development policies, based on robust empirical investigation and an assessment of best practice. This can then drive policy recommendations on how local, regional and national frameworks can best be aligned to deliver sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

Please join us on the conference page of the website for updates to the discussions and content, following the conference.

This snapshot on the Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference themes is on Urban Design and Networked Development.
The way people live, work, learn, and play in 21st-century cities is changing. As a result, city designs and developments are becoming increasingly characterized by a people-centric approach toward a networked-built environment differentiated by interaction, collaboration, responsiveness, on-demand uses, and ubiquitous availability of digital technology.
This session will engage participants in a discussion on how people-driven, technologically enhanced city design and development can transform urban life, the experience of “place,” and real estate demand. The session will explore perspectives on citizen experience, new trends in urban design and the impacts on traditional real estate uses, and public-private partnerships and other new operating models.

Panelists will explore:

• How has the citizen experience of the city been enhanced?
• What are trends in new city design to create connection, collaboration and convenience? How is the resulting real estate impacted as cities transition to multipurpose, space on demand programmable entities?
• How are these new cities disrupting traditional real estate uses of space?
• What is the impact on the real estate business models and what are the resulting value propositions?

Please join us on the conference page of the website for updates to the discussions and content, following the conference.

This second snapshot on the Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference themes is on The Social Life of Cities.

The economic and, more recently, the environmental dimension of cities invariably rise to the top of the agenda when it comes to the discussion about urban sustainability. What often gets forgotten, or at least displaced on the agenda of investors, policy makers and city designers and builders is the social life of cities, the way cities work (or fail to work) for the lives that people live in common.  How do we avoid the pattern that’s becoming too common in the US and Europe, and is now happening in China, where some of the most modern parts of cities, and some of the most modern cities themselves, end up with diminished communities, disconnected people and dispiriting surroundings?
In this session, a distinguished group of leading thinkers and practitioners will engage participants in a lively conversation about just three distinct, but related dimensions of the social life of cities:

• The first will examine the social life of work and look at emerging patterns of working fuelled by new social networking tools and platforms, that link work, home and community in new ways
• The second will take some examples of social innovation in the city and learn from a new breed of social entrepreneurs who are finding new ways to combine technology, culture and people to solve difficult problems of isolation, intolerance and inequity.
• And the third dimension will look at the creative life of cities including examples of approaches to creating cultural experiences that engage as well as entertain.

Our conversation will have two objectives. The first is to demonstrate that not only is it important to understand the social life of cities as a key issue in its own right. It is also increasingly important to understand the interrelationship between the social dimension and the other dimensions of urban and community sustainability. 
The second objective is to use the conversation to draw up a short “manifesto” for the social life of cities, a powerful collection of principles and propositions that can influence the way people think about how cities work for people and communities. 
So our aim in this session is engage and to explore but also to create together something practical and timely that reminds us that people and communities are at the heart of the challenge to change the way cities are designed, managed, governed and renewed.
Please join us on the conference page of the website for updates to the discussions and content, following the conference.

In the first of a series of snapshot on the topics we are discussing in Shanghai next week, we’ll outline a few perspectives on key themes from the Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference.

Many cities around the world face urban mobility issues such as increased road congestion, wasted time due to traffic delays, and increased energy consumption, resulting in more carbon emissions. As cities grow and change rapidly, motor vehicle use increases and traffic flow varies just as quickly, creating, or worsening, severe problems.

Innovative solutions enabling smart new services based on information and communications technology (ICT) can help cities address these issues by providing alternatives in combination with other solutions. Smart and connected urban mobility will encourage city leaders to rethink the notion of space in general, as people find new connections between physical and virtual places.

This session on the 17th June will debate the complexity of the urban mobility challenge and discuss innovative solutions required to achieve smart and connected urban mobility. Selected, prominent speakers will introduce leading, global urban mobility innovations in the area of technology platforms, infrastructure, and applications.

We’ll share content and perspectives resulting from the discussion in this session online in the conference section of the website following next week’s conference.

 The theme of Better City, Better Life brings global urban innovators to Shanghai this month to experience the spectacle, of  the World Expo.

Where better then for the landmark phase in the evolution of the Connected Urban Development program to be announced? The successes of the program, with the seven cities, Cisco and many partners and supporters from MIT, The Climate Group, Clinton Global Initiative and local integration partners, has seen three successful conferences and peer networking forums. Building from the great conferences in San Francisco (2008), Amsterdam (2008) and Seoul (2009), bring us to Shanghai in 2010. Join us online over the next month as we lead into the conference, share the content and follow up online and with those attending following the conference.

As we lead into the rapidly approaching Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference in Shanghai on 17-18 June, join us as we will now kick off a dialogue to provide some further insight into the exciting agenda that is in place for this landmark event in the progression of Connected Urban Development, and the ongoing engagement with a wider community of urban innovators from global cities, companies, institutions and individuals.

We have set up the event to provide leading insights from the Connected Urban Development member cities, Cisco Systems, and The Climate Group as lead conference partners. In addition we have Knowledge Partners joining the debate, with expertise from The World Bank, Urban Land Institute (ULI) , The Young Foundation, Social Innovation eXchange (SIX) . From Cisco the breakout sessions will be co-moderated by all the Lead and Knowledge Partners and will be supported by the Smart+Connected Communities Institute, as part of the company’s focus on engaging this community and others in online debate on the key topics addressed at the conference.

 The objectives for the conference are:

• recognize leading cities for their efforts in addressing sustainable development
• discuss challenges cities are facing and solutions they are developing at the intersection of environmental sustainability, economic development and social inclusion
• continue and expand the global community of collaboration

To summarize the conference here, we will be hosting a two day event which will look at policies, solutions and approaches on day1 and Day2 will provide the opportunity at the Expo to experience leading urban innovaiton showcases:

The Agenda 

Day1 (17th June) - Conference and discussions sessions:

The plenary sessions will include city, business, NGO and academic leaders, including Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers, The Climate Group CEO Steve Howard and Metropolis secretary general Josep Roig. The plenary sessions will focus on how urban innovation, such as those initiatives led by Metropolis, Cisco and The Climate Group, is enabled by multi sector innovation partnerships across the world. The day’s proceeding will also include plenary sessions on urban innovation in China, specialist sessions on key topics in delivering Smart+Connected Communities;

• Urban Design and Networked Development
• Sustainable Cities: Challenges and Solutions
• Smart and Connected Urban Mobility
• Economic Growth in Cities
• The Social Life of Cities

 The final plenary session of the day will explore the innovation dynamics in delivering successful global cities of the future from the angles of urban planning, social innovation, real estate and technology development.

Day2 (18th June) - Expo tour day:

World cities, countries and companies, including Cisco are showcasing their visions, solutions, and approaches to the theme of the Expo. Cisco’s Smart+Connected Life pavilion, and leading cities and expo pavilions  and other leading pavilions will form a hosted tour on day 2 (18th June) for delegates to the conference.

All conference agenda information is being posted to the event website at www.cisco.com/go/pui_2010. Please refer here for the latest information, agenda, breakouts, speaker information and post event content.

As Shanghai experiences and debates the topics of urban sustainability, economic growth, social inclusion and livability, we look forward to sharing perspectives on the conference themes throughout the next month….. 

The Smart Cities supplement in The Times in the UK includes contributions from Connected Urban Development projects. The examples of how a connected world can be enhancing to citizens and as part of resource planning is one area that the cities and Cisco are pursuing.

In the ‘digital revolution will create joined-up cities’ article Nicola Villa - global director, Connected Urban Development, at Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group refers to the HealthPresence technology as an example of how the connected world can provide benefits for consumers.  Patients will be able to consult their doctor using ‘telepresence’ technology and remote sensors to receive a more accurate diagnosis and treatment without leaving their home, furthermore we can access local government services online, on demand.

The Personal Travel Assistant (PTA) in Seoul and Amsterdam is another example where travel information from those cities is accessible from any device to enable smart decision making, and highlighting green choice and route information.

The Data Avalanche

In 2010 we see a groundswell of open data initiatives across the world, and in our experience a disparate, un-coordinated and un-standardised approach in various jurisdictions. As we see our physical infrastructure, buildings, devices, spatial sensors and even all objects become connected through RFID and QR code tagging, this presents further challenges as data flows exponentially grow in our connected lives. Furthermore as we become more connected, the expectations of the benefits of this become more pressing. As Nicola highlights “One of the big issues will be how to collect data from a wide range of sources, such as smart grids, buildings and electric vehicles as they become more and more live. How to aggregate those data and overlay them on top of each other, how to develop some predictive capability, how to help consumers make better decisions and bring data into government policymaking - these are the big challenges.”

A further consideration is the cultural shift in public services administrations. Data can be triangulated for specific territories from crowdsourced opt-in data, and proxy sources, such as mobile phone signals, whereas the willingness to share data from public adminstrations and infrastructure providers is asymmetric across different cities and countries. As Nicola refers to from the experiences in Rome, such proxy data sourcing to cross reference to municipal provided transportation data has encountered “real resistance to sharing information.” Of course this takes us into a much wider, and separate discussion for another posting, on trust, privacy and data protection.

 Smart+Connected Communities 

All of these exciting developments towards smart+connected communities have an ambition to be enhancing to our daily lives but also to contribute to the ’smart’ panacea that is being sought by cities, governments, companies and other interested agencies, in the groundswell of activity towards ’smart cities’. This is of course the imperative to deliver sustainability objectives as well as economic growth whilst facing an unprecedented period of urbanisation. Furthermore, a demographic crisis, natural resource demands, and a globalised economy are all making smart+connected communities vital to our local and sustained prosperity. In the ‘Smart thinking needed to keep cities on the road to prosperity’ article in this Smart Cities supplement in The Times Dimitri Zenghelis from Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group and associate fellow at Chatham House states that sustainability “…does not just reduce emissions, but produces growth benefits as well. In the short run, it allows businesses to make efficiency gains. There is a lot of waste at an urban level, as a result of market failures, missing markets or perverse incentives, so this is a quick win.” Zenghelis points out that cities are laboratories for innovation, observing that ‘“the bulk of patents in cleantech originate in urban areas.”

Policy Frameworks

The crucial aspect to the layering of the city and the “smart” justifications for this is the appropriate policy and governance frameworks to enable this. Zenghelis points out that “If we don’t have the right right policy framework to set the right standards and incentives, and provide the security that investors need, then cities will tend to underprovide the sustainable goods and services we need.” Zenghelis believes cities will have little choice but to forge cross sector and organisational partnerships, “Ultimately, cities will have no choice but to move in that direction. We are going to be living in a carbon and resource-constrained world and policy responses and incentives will push cities into dealing with these realities. Those that do this earliest will be in a better position to develop new markets and take advantage of growth opportunities.”

The Partnership Network 

These topics will all be debated at the forthcoming Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference in Shanghai on the 17-18 June 2010. The perspectives from China will be most illuminating in this regard. We’ll continue the debate on this topic here throughout the lead-in and after the conference…..

Shane Mitchell