When it comes to "smart city" plans, there might not be a bigger blockbuster than the partnership between Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs, a unit of Google's parent company, Alphabet.
Randy Rieland provides a measured interrogation of the plans for a partnership between Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs to build "the world’s first neighborhood built from the internet up" in the waterfront neighborhood of Quayside.
Rieland organizes the article around six questions posed to Rohit Aggarwala, head of Urban Systems at Sidewalk Labs and Kristina Verner, Waterfront Toronto's vice president of innovation, sustainability and prosperity. The questions are reasonably skeptical, and push for more details. A sample of the questions includes:
- How can Sidewalk ensure that Quayside feels like a real city instead of an over-engineered environment?
- With so much data being gathered on people and places in Quayside, how will privacy be protected?
The article includes links to previous media coverage of the proposal.
Read the full story: Five Questions You Should Have About Google’s Plan to Reinvent Cities Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/five-q
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