“Ubiquitous computing, mobile devices, and big data come together to give rise to a new urban paradigm being celebrated by many technology corporations and municipalities alike: the smart city.”
The smart city agenda is only now starting to slowly move beyond the technology and data hype and come to terms with issues of housing affordability, digital inclusion, social justice.
With society’s current limited perspective that centres around humans, we risk to forget how we are entangled with and connected to other living beings, the environment, and the wider ecosystem that keeps us alive. Can we reconceptualise the smart city as a place where people and place meet to make a net positive contribution to the world?” (Marcus Foth – Connected Urbanism and Cohabitation in the Smart City)
As governments and big tech companies are going to spends tons of money on amazing technology like IOT, AR, VR, AI, etc. to power up cities in order to make it an artificial organism that crunch data and take actions, it’s easy to forget or to keep humans outside of the pictures. In this scenario, it would be easy to quickly resort to human-centered designas a way to put people’s need back at the center as opposed to the servant technology.
But when it comes to city there’s so much more to take into account than the relationship between people and technology as cities exists on a wider and more complex scale and a broader ecosystem has to be taken into account.
For the first time, Service Design Drinks Milan will host a visiting professor from the other side of the world: Marcus Foth, professor of Urban Informatics at Queensland University of Technology of Brisbane will present his speech about Connected Urbanism and Cohabitation in the Smart City, supported by Stefano Maffei, full professor from School of Design of Politecnico di Milano and director of Polifactory.
The event will be held in English. Space is limited so to make sure to have a seat please arrive according to time.
Please register here.