In a long read for Metropolis Magazine, Alex Marshall describes the implications of the “Smart City” movement, including the risk of turning over massive data collection operations to large corporations.
After reminding us that the instruments of the smart city are just tools, like fire or hammers, Alex Marshall examines the implications of letting big data into our lives.
“Many of the smart-city initiatives—whether lighting in a building, trains in a subway, drivers on streets, or airplanes in the sky—revolve around collecting information about the moving parts of a system in real time, to allow a central operator more control. Again, this raises the question: who will have that control?”
Marshall’s case studies include IBM’s work in Rio de Janeiro, Siemens in New York City, and Cisco in Songdo, South Korea.
FULL STORY: Big Data, Big Questions
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