How to Evolve into a Smart City Without Leaving Anyone Behind

I had the pleasure of recently attending the Smart City Connect conference in Kansas City. For one, talk about a hidden gem. I had no idea what I would expect when I was landing…just having images like this flash in my head. (Yes, we’re all subject to stereotypes and biases.)

Secondly, I was taken back by the juxtaposition of the culture and history of the city. I opted to stay in a small bed and breakfast. A big reason why I love travel is for the chance to hear stories from others and to learn more about the place I’ve managed to land myself into. Hello World.

Straight away, I was blown by the history due to the railways…Kansas City was the hub for the United States and to my surprise, jazz and art was bleeding from different sections of the city.

I had a moving conversation with another guest about what the future meant for the city and how we could better preserve the personality while also building a city where life could be lived again. Where the diverse culture could be elevated in line with the technology.

And there you had it. Munching on toast, I could feel the weight of loss settling in our conversation. So how should our cities evolve?

1. We should grieve together
2. We should celebrate together
3. We should build together

How do we deal with loss?

We don’t talk about it enough.

We love to shine the bright lights and the potential of the future. But it’s much harder to deal with the true grief that is felt by communities. And it’s totally valid that they feel that way.

As someone who has recently lost a dear family member, shouldn’t we be treating this aspect with a little more care? As much as you might want to be denial about it, the truth is that we have to still go through the process and that can be a little painful.

I’ve found success in tackling loss by sitting in the uncomfortable conversations and allowing for the array of emotions to be set free by asking these questions:

How does it feel to have new installations in your city?

Have you felt an improvement?

What is your history to your community?

Tell me about how you and your family found yourself here?

What do you love about where you live?

What would you change?

It’s utterly fascinating to hear the stories of all those who make up the community and it’s important to check the vital signs. How is everyone feeling?

From there, the next follow up is talking about celebration.

How do we celebrate?

From hearing about memorial day parades and extreme weather stories (the blizzard of 2013), there are so many memories made together in a community.

In Austin, we have everything from “Blues on the Green” (a low-key music series) to “Hot Sauce Festival” (You guessed it. A festival where you eat hot sauce and attempt to survive.) These community memories are key and they should be celebrated.

When thinking about how our future cities are going to be, it’s important to understand where we have come from and also focus on what we’ve achieved together.

I love the idea of technology playing a role in the celebration and enhancing our connectivity to one another. More than that, it can play a role with keeping the memory alive and being the glue for the community rather than a divider.

How do we build?

As a civic hacker, I’m always repeating myself about the power of civic hackathons to bring communities together in a way that allows us to play, debate, and build our future together.

We need more and more communal spaces to be with folks who think like us and certainly those that don’t. We need to break down the barriers and stereotypes which have been implanted through various mediums.

We don’t have to be what one group wants. We also don’t have to all agree. But I’ve found that everyone can find compromise. We do it all the time…and the situations where we find ourselves bending are often for love. Love for others, our family, for a cause, for a friend in need, or for our ambitions.

ATX Hack for Change Planning Committee

We can share ideas, capitalize on our joint potential, and actually, drive things forward. We can incorporate everyone into the conversations around the future of a community and how technology can improve their lives.

Technology is a tool and it’s certainly not perfect, but we have to give credit to those who have driven the bar higher for what we all can achieve. I’m always amazed at what gets built at these hackathon events and we should strive to build more spaces like them.

Here is a fun quote, I will leave you with:

“Aren’t smart cities going to just be cities like your smart phones are just phones…smart cities are all about potential.” — Herb Sih

Thank you to Mozilla and U.S. Ignite for making my attendance possible this year and for the opportunity to hear from other community leaders in this movement across the U.S. — Here we go together!