Smart Cities Experiment for Results
Last November I had the honor of being invited to speak at the Smart Cities Expo and World Congress in Barcelona. Over the last decade the congress has become an invaluable forum for interconnecting economic, workforce, resiliency, mobility challenges/opportunities under on a single organizing principal of digital innovation. It's not a passive conference either, its founder and former CIO for Ajuntament de Barcelona, Pilar Conesa and her team set a very high bar for participation. Inspiration generated at the event comes from the demonstration of value by the programs enacted by cities, ad not in the discussions of “what ifs.” Experimentation is encouraged, but there's clearly an expectation for results. Luckily, through hard work and a "never waste an opportunity" philosophy, Philly had some results to share and I was happy to share with an international audience.
On day one of the congress I knew what my panel topics were, but not exactly the line of questioning nor what my fellow panelists would be sharing. Sometimes this go with the flow approach works out amazingly well - kind of like improve on stage - its about adapting and building upon one another’s contributions, than rather playing it solo. Well I lucked out when when Diego Fernández, secretary for Innovation and Digital Transformation for Buenos Aires stood up to speak and the word “blockchain” appeared on the screen behind him. At that moment I rethought my remarks and decided to build upon Diego’s lead. (Doc, my former mentor and drama coach at Ferris Statue U would have been proud!)
Our panel conversation exemplified the ethos of the smart cities world congress —there is a link between urban reality and technological revolutions. Either cities will be shaped by these revolutions or they can take an active role in adapting, adopting and regulating to achieve a host of societal benefits. The essence of our back and forth re: blockchain use in city government is covered in an article by Sarah Wray at CitiesToday.
I don’t want to overstate the potential for transformation by blockchain, et.al. There are more than enough crypto enthusiasts on Twitter who do that. What I am confident about is that by getting in early, government becomes a member of the web 3 and crypto community of thought and practice, just like anyone else. Local and federal gov agencies need to seize this moment for testing and evaluation as to provide feedback to the startups in this nascent space. In my conversations since Barcelona with founders working on self sovereign identity (SSI) and digital ID, one thing is clear to me — they want to improve their tech through pilot projects with city governments. Disintermediating government isn’t the goal, improving its value to citizens is.
Now is the time for collaboration to test value propositions. Governments need to be able to assert what’s of value vs. what’s a distraction, with evidence not rhetoric, and to drive Web 3 too, while the industry is young and eager to demonstrate results.
