Example and theory and cloud computing in the city

http://iftf.me/public/SR-1352_Rockefeller_Map_reader.pdf

Over the next decade, cities will continue to grow larger and more rapidly. At the same time, new technologies will unlock massive streams of data about cities and their residents. As these forces collide, they will turn every city into a unique civic laboratory—a place where technology is adapted in novel ways to meet local needs. This ten-year forecast map, The Future of Cities, Information, and Inclusion, charts the important intersections between urbanization and digitalization that will shape this global urban experiment, and the key tensions that will arise.

The explosive growth of cities is an economic opportunity with the potential to lift billions out of poverty. Yet the speed of change and lack of pro-poor foresight has led to a swarm of urban problems—poor housing conditions, inadequate education and health care, and racial and ethnic inequalities. The coming decade holds an opportunity to harness information to improve government services, alleviate poverty and inequality, and empower the poor. Key uncertainties are coming into view:

What economic opportunities will urban information provide to excluded groups?
What new exclusions might arise from new kinds of data about the city and its citizens?
How will communities leverage urban information to improve service delivery, transparency, and citizen engagement?

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http://www.situatedtechnologies.net/files/ST1-Urban_Computing.pdf

Since the late 1980s, computer scientists and engineers have been researching ways of embedding computational intelligence into the built environment. Looking beyond the model of personal computing, which placed the computer in the foreground of our attention, “ubiquitous” computing takes into account the social dimension of human environments and allows computers themselves to vanish into the background. No longer solely virtual, human interaction with and through computers becomes socially integrated and spatially contingent, as everyday objects and spaces are linked through networked computing. Recent research has focused on how “situational” parameters inform the design of a wide range of mobile, embedded, wearable, networked, distributed, and location-aware devices. Incorporating an awareness of cultural context, accrued social meanings, and the temporality of spatial experience, Situated Technologies privilege the local, contextspecific, and spatially contingent dimensions of their use.