Rick Robinson, “Why Smart Cities still aren’t working for us after 20 years. And how we can fix them”

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“The goal of a Smart City is to invest in technology in order to create economic, social and environmental improvements. That is an economic and political challenge, not a technology trend; and it is an imperative challenge because of the nature and extent of the risks we face as a society today.”

The futuristic “Emerald City” in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz“. The “wizard” who controls the city is a fraud who uses theatrical technology to disguise his lack of real power

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“There should be an urgent political debate concerning how city leaders and local authorities enact policies and other measures to steer investments in the most powerful tool we have ever created, digital technology, to address those threats”.

Rick Robinson,  current chairman of the Birmingham Smart City Alliance, has been recently asked to provide some evidence on Smart Cities and Infrastructures to the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development.

You can follow his interesting work on his blog, The Urban Technologist, regularly updated.

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