Headline July 03, 2014

''' SHOUTING : FIRE '-FIRE-' -FIRE - 

WHILE IN HELL ! '''

IN A LIFE LONG observation of the developing world; and, despite, the hubbub in their parliaments,  -and their veiled threats at each other, and at the rest of the world:

" No great idea, has ever radiated success."  This has always intrigued me.

This, just so obviously, sends  -precisely the wrong message to those seeking a future, dignity, and humanity. Getting out of this mind-set, psyche, is but an ode to life and living. 

For the sake of  its suffering, unfortunate  masses, this  hard won clarity, if ever obtained and honoured,  should never ever be lost.

And now the post:

But if bottom-up approaches have their problems, so too do those that come from the top. Many cities lack the necessary resources for the more ambitious dreams of city planners.

Those cities which do dot have the cash often do not spend it. With little experience in making these purchases they can be cautious about the big bets. And however worthy it is-

 An initiative that benefits many departments but it is to paid for by only one will often fall by the wayside, says Lean Doody of  Arup, a consultancy

Political culture matters too. Barcelona favours strong independent leadership.

Amsterdam,  with a topographically appropriate preference for flat hierarchies, has eschewed a dedicated department and master plan, preferring projects to filter up.

There is more than one way to be a smart city just as there was more than one way to get electrified.

Late-19th-century Chicago was lit up by entrepreneurs. In Berlin political and business groups came together to build a centralised power grid.

London muddles along in a mess of fragmented authorities and vested interests: in 1993 it had  65  electrical utilities  using   49    different standards  for their supply.

London eventually caught up, and obstacles to implementing intelligent systems for cities will probably fall away over time, too. The importance of political culture, though, will remain.

Even leaving aside the requirements of police forces, one of the things any system improving the efficiency of a city has to keep tabs on its citizens.

Wireless networks already allow cities to track the flow of people and other communications in real time.

In the Chinese city of Chongqing,  in Dubai and elsewhere  CCTV  cameras keep a watchful eye on practically every street corner. Every car that enters central London is logged by the  congestion-charging  system.

Policymakers and academics have begun to think about how to mitigate the risks this poses.

Nick Leon,  head of service design at the Royal College of Art, argues that developers of smart-city  services should,  like architects,  be accredited.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a former IBM executive now at the Centre for Urban Science and progress in New York, suggests that cities learn from health care or the keepers of national archives about rules and norms for privacy.

Saskia Sassen,  a sociologist at Columbia University, takes a more radical line:

She wants cities to open their  ~software kimonos¬    :  ''All our computerised systems should become   transparent.  The city should become literally a publicly shared domain.''

Political choices of this sort will influence technological choices.

Many of the people setting actually setting up information systems for cities see their job as providing a platform   -something like a computer operating system   -think Windows   or a shared web-service  -think Facebook:

For which other people can write application and services.

Some operating systems, such as iOS, which runs Apples phones and tablets, are  ''walled gardens''  that constrain what  app-makers  can offer.

Its rival Android,  developed by  Google  is more open to developers.

Some platforms offer almost everything a user needs without any addition; most of what most people want to do on Facebook can be done with no extra apps.

Others are bare-bone affairs that need third party bells and whistles.

The Honour and Serving of the Post continues. Thank you for reading and sharing. 

With respectful dedication to the Leaders of the developing world. Let's have the honour of having Your Excellencies in !WOW!

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Viral and Virtual @ !WOW! '''

Good night and God bless!

SAM Daily Times - The Voice of the Voiceless