The Connected City: The Future of IoT in Boston

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The Big Idea: What does it mean to be a "smart city" and what are the good, bad, and ugly factors we need to consider?

Overview // The Internet of Things (IoT) has made its way to the home (from Amazon Echo to smart refrigerators) and on to the body (Fitbit to Apple Watch), but what happens when it makes its way to public spaces? What happens when cities become alive with data? More so, what will Boston look like in 2050?

Imagine (Future Scenario) // I received a text alert on my iPhone 12, the pop up screen depicting a health emergency with an elderly woman a quarter mile away. Her Google Home had notified authorities. Of course, I accepted; I signed up to be a Citizen Responder for a reason -- and the tax breaks don't hurt either. The City Connect 4.0 app selected me as the closest Responder who also is certified to perform CPR, all part of my public good credentials. Taking off on a sprint, traffic stopped at each city block to allow me to quickly cross streets without breaking stride (the autonomous car grid knew I was coming, and ya know, I can't even remember the last time there was a traffic accident. For that matter, do kids these days even know what "traffic" is?). There in three minutes flat, the front door opened upon my biometric scan, and I jumped right to action. Emergency vehicles were already on their way. Mrs. Francis was saved by our coordinated actions.

Questions //

• How does the city actually collect data?

• What are applications for this information? (i.e., Smart traffic lights, air quality tracking, accident detection, etc.)

• Are the sensors vulnerable to cyber attacks?

• Can this save the city money? (i.e., Smart power grid)

• Who owns the data?

• How does ubiquitous sensors affect privacy?

• What is the jurisdiction of future cities?

• How is the city thinking about environmental factors (i.e., sea water levels expected to rise 1-2 feet by 2050)

Speakers //

• Nigel Jacob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nsjacob) (@nsjacob (https://twitter.com/nsjacob)): Co-Founder at the Boston's Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM), a civic innovation incubator and R&D Lab within Boston’s City Hall. Nigel has worked at the cutting edge of civic innovation and has won several awards for his work, including Public Official of the year in 2011 by Governing Magazine and being named a Whitehouse Champion of Change.

• Elizabeth Christoforetti (https://www.supernormal.io/bios/elizabeth-christoforetti/) (@ebchristo (https://twitter.com/ebchristo)): Co-Founder of Supernormal, an urban design practice that explores the potential of big data for small urban places. Elizabeth received a Master in Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (where she also currently teaches) and was awarded a Knight Foundation Prototype Grant for her research at the Social Computing Group at the MIT Media Lab.

• Ammar El Seed (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ammarelseed): Co-Founder of BitSence, which aims to glean real-time sensing for streets by monitoring environment and pedestrian activity levels. BitSence was recently accepted into the MIT Global Startup Labs incubator. Ammar recently graduated with a dual Master's degree at MIT's School of Engineering and Sloan School of Management.

• Sean Lorenz (https://about.me/seanlorenz) (@seanlorenz (https://twitter.com/seanlorenz)): Founder of Senter, an IoT cognitive assistant for longer and healthier aging in the home. In a prior life, Dr. Lorenz was the Director of IoT Market Strategy for LogMeIn’s IoT platform, Xively, and was a cofounder of the TechStars robotics startup Neurala. He received his PhD in Cognitive & Neural Systems from Boston University.

Agenda //

6:30-7PM: Chit-chat

7-8PM: Panel Discussion + Q&A

8-8:30PM: Design Fiction Activity

*(Image source: http://i.imgur.com/TgPAwIw.jpg)