Smart government, smart cities and open government news and analysis of note, identified by the FreeBalance Strategy & Innovation Group.
END OF THE NATION STATES? Jamie Bartlett of Demos analyzed the growing impact of cities in world governance in Aeon. Bartlett provided evidence that the concept of the nation-state is coming to an end, enabled by technology, suggesting the rise of the city state. As reported in a FreeBalance blog entry, Josep Ramon Ferrer from Doxa asserted that the 21st Century is the Century of Cities at an Inter-American Development Bank presentation. Meanwhile, Joshua A.T. Fairfield, of Washington and Lee University, in The Conversation, suggested that manufacturer control of the Internet of Things is returning humanity to a state of feudalism. Fairfield asserted that “in this 21st-century version, companies are using intellectual property law – intended to protect ideas – to control physical objects consumers think they own.”
CITIES CYBERSECURITY LEADERSHIP: State and local governments in the United States are spending more on Internet of Things cybersecurity than the federal government, reported Lloyd McCoy Jr. in CSO in May. McCoy described how IoT has matured faster “at the state and local level than it is in the federal government or even private industry.”
PRIVACY VS. SECURITY? The implications of smart public security surveillance on privacy was pondered by Chris Mellor in The Register. “The smart city movement could see the countryside become the place where people can be private and anonymous, and cities the places where citizens progressively lose their privacy,” according to Mellor.
REVEALING BURIED RIVERS IN THE SMART CITY: The latest trend in smartcities is “daylighting” according John McKenna in the WEF blog. Cities “are breaking open culverts to reveal the hidden rivers that have always been at their heart.”
SMART “FUTURE OF WORK”: Smart governments and smart businesses need to better understand the human impact of emerging technologies. A discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival reported by McKinsey provided much food for the thought about the social consequences of increasing adoption of artificial intelligence. This has significant public policy implications. Dr. Saamdu Chetri described the development of the Gross National Happiness government performance structure on an Uplift podcast. This view of looking at the impact of economic growth to citizens is gaining attention, and is consistent with some of the latest research about employee effectiveness. A white paper from Dave Whiteside at Plasticity described how employee wellness leads to improved performance. Eric Garton in the Harvard Business Review articulated the case of investing in people to create a productivity virtuous circle.
