Teena Maddox wrote an interesting article “Smart Cities: The smart person’s guide” which was summarized beautifully:

• What it is: A smart city uses IoT sensors and technology to connect components across a city to derive data and improve the lives of citizens and visitors.
• What it does: Often, a mobile app is provided to give immediate access to data, communication channels and more, so that people can do everything from avoiding traffic jams, to finding a parking spot, reporting a pothole, or an overflowing dumpster.
• Why it matters: The world is becoming more urbanized, and by 2050, more than 60% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities. Making these cities better places to live is essential to the quality of life by making them more sustainable and efficient with streamlined services.
• Who it affects: It affects everyone on the planet.
• When is this happening: This is going on now.
• Where is this happening: Early adopters of smart city technology were European cities, but U.S. cities have quickly picked up steam and are incorporating technology into municipal infrastructure.
• Who is making it happen: Public and private companies, as well as federal, state and city government, are getting involved in making it easier for municipalities to adopt new technology.
• How to get it: Citizens can form a grassroots campaign to get support and ask government officials to incorporate more technology into their city.

What interests me most is the “How to get it” question and answer. Forming a grassroots campaign and asking the government actually seems to be easier said than done. When Favoriot initiate a campaign called “Better City Better World,” the idea is not about complaining, but to inform the cities that both parties – citizens and municipal authorities can develop a better and smarter cities. Tools such as favorsense is essential to turn the people into “IOT Sensors” because they can sense the invisible problems. Why can’t the cities utilize the people instead of investing sophisticated and expensive technology in the early stage of Smart City development?

If we want to build cities that are citizen-focused, provide them with the right tools. Successful cities are based on trust and two-way collaboration. Decisions are made based on the data that has been derived from the people.