Intelligent Communities Defining “Smart Cities” and “Intelligent Communities” Data and technology are increasingly central to public sector solutions, a domain of market activity often referred to as “smart cities.” While there are numerous definitions for the term smart cities, many involve an inherent bias toward large, urban contexts, and an emphasis on the commercial aspects of technology. Growing interest in technology-based solutions among smaller communities signals the need to transition to a broader and more inclusive term such as “intelligent communities.” Through an administrative lens, municipalities represent practical services that matter in our everyday lives: water and wastewater, garbage collection, transit, roads, and public health. But the concept of a municipality deserves broadening to understand how to reduce market friction and maximize utility and value. Municipalities include communities and local neighbourhoods. They include sports and recreation centres, parks, barbecues, and friends and families. Often, communities exist outside typical municipal corporate structures and include residents not just citizens. Furthermore, they include Indigenous representation defined by geographic boundaries but that also transcend geography. Over decades, communities have developed sophisticated approaches and social norms for protecting Indigenous data sovereignty. The economic and social patterns within municipalities and communities are not simplifying over time but rather becoming layered and more complex. Some aspects of commercial strategy influence policy decisions at all levels of government, however, the current paradigm is being challenged by communities and residents, confusing commercial markets. Accordingly, Canadian firms face a number of new questions: How do public sector markets work? How do public markets and commercial innovation collide in clean technology and environmental domains? What does a “city as platform” mean, what is data governance, and how do these systems influence product development cycles in the new green economy? The global speed of commercial innovation is bumping up against the glacial nature of “community time” and the natural capacity limits of local governments and communities. Smart cities approaches can no longer be purely commercial solutions based on large urban markets.
Thinking Green: Building a Sustainable Digital Economy for Canada
www.ictc-ctic.ca
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