Author Archives: Jim Merricks White

Lecture: The Real-Time City? Big Data and Smart Urbanism

Principal Investigator on the Programmable City project, Professor Rob Kitchin, will deliver a lecture titled ‘The Real-Time City? Big Data and Smart Urbanism’ Friday February 28 in Oxford, as a part of the OII Bellwether Lectures.

Abstract

‘Smart cities’ is a term that has gained traction in academia, business and government to describe cities that, on the one hand, are increasingly composed of and monitored by pervasive and ubiquitous computing and, on the other, whose economy and governance is being driven by innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, enacted by smart people. This paper focuses on the former and, drawing on a number of examples, details how cities are being instrumented with digital devices and infrastructure that produce ‘big data’. Such data, smart city advocates argue enables real-time analysis of city life, new modes of urban governance, and provides the raw material for envisioning and enacting more efficient, sustainable, competitive, productive, open and transparent cities. The final section of the paper provides a critical reflection on the implications of big data and smart urbanism, examining five emerging concerns: the politics of big urban data, technocratic governance and city development, corporatisation of city governance and technological lock-ins, buggy, brittle and hackable cities, and the panoptic city.

Details

  • Friday 28 February 2014 17:00 – 18:30
  • Lecture Theatre, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU
  • Please email your name and affiliation to events@oii.ox.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)1865 287210.

Cross-posted from the Oxford Internet Institute.

Podcast: Aphra Kerr at Coding Play / Crafting Code

Talk presented by Aphra Kerr (Sociology, NUI Maynooth) at the second Programmable City Seminar.

Coding Play / Crafting Code in the City
Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 16:00 – 18:00

Aphra Kerr is senior Lecturer and researcher in social studies of technology and media. She also teaches courses on games and play, and culture and everyday life. She has extensive research experience on the production, use and regulation of digital media, especially digital games, SNS (social networking sites) and animation, as well as the changing nature of broadcasting in the digital age. Her current research projects include ‘Cultural Production in the Digital Age’ (NSF funded network) and she is currently writing ‘Global games and transnational work’ (book under contract). For the past ten years she has been involved in running gamedevelopers.ie, a community voluntary website for the games industry in Ireland.

Podcast: Andrea Magnorsky at Coding Play / Crafting Code

Talk presented by Andrea Magnorsky (Organiser and Co-founder of GameCraft and BatCat Games) at the second Programmable City Seminar.

Coding Play / Crafting Code in the City
Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 16:00 – 18:00

Andrea Magnorsky is Senior software developer with many years of experience building a variety of products, including CRM, eCommerce, Financial, and Video Games. She is an advocate of test-driven development, and object-oriented design principles, as well as a part time lecturer on Games Programming. She is organisor and Co-founder of GameCraft Foundation which organises weekend game jams both in Ireland and internationally and co-founder of BatCat Games. BatCat Games are currently working on Honorbound, a 2D, side-scrolling beat ‘em up game focused on combat in a feudal Japanese setting. Their first game P-3 Biotic is a space shooter available on PC from GetIrishGames.ie.

Podcast: Experiences as a producer, consumer and observer of open data

Talk presented by Dr Peter Mooney (Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded Research Fellow at the Department of Computer Science, NUIM) at the first Programmable City Seminar.

Open data and evidence informed decision making
Wednesday, November 13, 16:00-18:00

Speakers discuss making data accessible to the public and the challenges they face in their multiple roles as citizens, public servants and researchers.

Topics include: Citizen science, civic engagement, open data portals, Apps, hackathons, & crowdsourcing vs authoritative processes

Podcast: Open Government Data: The Fingal Story

Talk presented by Dominic Byrne (Head of Information Technology with Fingal County Council) at the first Programmable City Seminar.

Open data and evidence informed decision making
Wednesday, November 13, 16:00-18:00

Speakers discuss making data accessible to the public and the challenges they face in their multiple roles as citizens, public servants and researchers.

Topics include: Citizen science, civic engagement, open data portals, Apps, hackathons, & crowdsourcing vs authoritative processes

Podcast: An Open Data Story

Talk presented by Dr Tracey P. Lauriault (Programmable City Project, NUIM) at the first Programmable City Seminar.

Open data and evidence informed decision making
Wednesday, November 13, 16:00-18:00

Speakers discuss making data accessible to the public and the challenges they face in their multiple roles as citizens, public servants and researchers.

Topics include: Citizen science, civic engagement, open data portals, Apps, hackathons, & crowdsourcing vs authoritative processes