The notion of the Smart Citizen is an important contribution to an urgent debate on the future of cities. An industry is growing up around a vision of the ‘Smart City’, predicted to be worth more than $20 billion in annual market value by 2020. But a growing number of voices now argue this vision is flawed and will not deliver the civic or economic benefits it claims.
The central challenge we address here is to flesh out the meaning of citizenship in a Smart City. What new kinds of roles and identities are emerging? What can, and should, be done by individuals and small groups to leverage new technology to address urban and global challenges and opportunities? What does all this mean for governance? Most importantly - and this is the challenge we issued to our contributors - how can we create opportunities to engage every citizen in the development and revitalisation of the Smart City?
Cities around the world are hitting the same impasse. No one has so far found a way to intelligently bring together the big technology platforms offered by global corporations, with local technology projects and the interests of citizens. We believe that a focus on the central place of citizens in smart city design can open up new possibilities for alignment and progress heretofore unseen.
Link: http://futureeverything.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/SmartCitizens.pdf