I developed this presentation as a member of the Union Square Redevelopment Civic Advisory Committee (CAC) and its Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee. The presentation was made to fellow CAC members, members of the public, Somerville City Government staff, US2 (the Master Developer) staff, and other group representatives including Union Square Main Streets, Union Square Neighbors, and the Union United Coalition on 7-14-15. The purpose of the talk is to present underlying concepts, benefits, and options related to smart city infrastructure in the context of Union Square Somerville. My intent was to spark discussion and further consideration including the idea of making Union Square an urban innovation lab (to attract employers, improve civic life, and support public and private services and benefits) for the entire city and beyond.

1. USQ CAC
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee:
Smart City infrastructure and ideas
July 14, 2015
Patrick McCormick
paddy@post.harvard.edu
@solutist

2. Smart City infrastructure and ideas agenda
1. Transportation and Infrastructure
2. Smart City benefits
3. Examples of Smart Cities
4. Planning a Smart City
• technologies
• principles
• key questions
2

3. 3
1. TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

4. Transportation and Infrastructure
• 4/13 Union Streetscape Meeting: Parsons Brinckerhoff
on Traffic and Infrastructure in Union Square
• 4/21 People First Design Workshop
• 5/12 CAC: Transportation in Union Square
• 5/20 CAC: Reflections on Somerville by Design Open
House and General Discussion
• 6/9 CAC: cancelled
• 7/14 CAC: Smart City infrastructure and ideas
4

5. • Public right of way
• establish clear governance, responsibilities, points of collaboration
• address, communicate construction impact through project phases
• improve placement and access for future efforts
• maximize ROI through coordination of various improvements and
parties during construction (pipes, cables, conduit, etc.)
• Water and sewer
• modernize and upgrade capacity
• address drainage and storm impact
• add storage, conservation and sustainability features
• Electrical, energy, and connectivity
• modernize and upgrade, move cables underground
• add conservation and sustainability features, micro-grid options
Traditional Infrastructure
5

6. • Public right of way
• establish clear governance, responsibilities, points of collaboration
• address, communicate construction impact through project phases
• improve placement and access for future efforts
• maximize ROI through coordination of various improvements and
parties during construction (pipes, cables, conduit, etc.)
• Water and sewer
• modernize and upgrade capacity
• address drainage and storm impact
• add storage, conservation and sustainability features
• Electrical, energy, and connectivity
• modernize and upgrade, move cables underground
• add conservation and sustainability features, micro-grid options
Traditional Infrastructure
6
EcoDistrict?

7. 7
2. SMART CITY BENEFITS

8. Smart City benefits: the what
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is one shared, open platform for civic co-production
• relies on people, technologies, data
• enabled by open standards, open networks
• requires public purpose, public participation, public data
is not multiple, closed, proprietary networks and
apps
Banksy

9. Smart City benefits: the why
9
• Tapping into the knowledge of citizens
• Opening up decision making, planning processes
• Providing responsive municipal services
• Attracting innovative employers and good jobs
• Improving traffic and crisis management
• Mapping urban flooding and air pollution
• Enabling collaborative smart energy and sustainability
• Informing continuous urban design, embedded analytics
Terms and jargon:
• PII: Personally Identifiable Information - sensitive info
• P2P: Peer to Peer production – collaboration, crowdsourcing
• IoT: Internet of things – device to device communication
• Big Data: high volume, often unstructured, use of pattern recognition

10. Smart City benefits: the how
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• Engaged community contributes to open data and smart services
• Proximity to universities, knowledge economy resources
• Real time monitoring to address water leaks, sewer and drainage issues
• Third party transport apps (MBTA buses) ease multi-modal mobility
• Responsive trash collection and maintenance save time and money
• Street parking availability apps, dynamic pricing, smart parking garages
• Smart lighting improves safety, efficiency, quality of life

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3. EXAMPLES OF SMART CITIES

12. Smart City examples
12
Helsinki snow removal: residents can track the real-time location
of snow plows as they cleanup the city
Barcelona smart bins: pilot using garbage cans with sensors to
test whether collection can be optimized to save 10% on disposal
Santander sensibility: pilot with over 12,000 sensors collecting
data on everything from parking space availability to air quality
http://api.ning.com/files/8c8n0hXpi4i4hXxySPN5zritD3qOiFxkapJ5XPPVOaGZpd9I7n9tuv2EOflogT60PUjKJ4GY7alUmCjfSwmA2IZpC5yTMoVk/SmartcitiesLAquila.jpg

13. Smart City examples
13
Singapore traffic management: an Intelligent Transport System
includes electronic road pricing and sensors on taxis to help map
traffic conditions and reduce trips by private cars
London smart buildings: Canary Wharf group piloting
technologies including Demand Logic to help businesses reduce
electricity costs by intelligently monitoring usage
http://api.ning.com/files/8c8n0hXpi4i4hXxySPN5zritD3qOiFxkapJ5XPPVOaGZpd9I7n9tuv2EOflogT60PUjKJ4GY7alUmCjfSwmA2IZpC5yTMoVk/SmartcitiesLAquila.jpg

14. Smart City examples: Glasgow
• Active travel with cycling and walking apps and data
• Energy efficiency via renewables mapping, demand side
management, insulation retrofitting, city usage
• Open and linked maps empower public and visualize data
• Intelligent street lighting and social transport
• Research and development - smart bins and bin sensors, road
conditions, city services
• Hacking the future of Glasgow with open data in the hands of
citizens and coders
14
http://futurecity.glasgow.gov.ukhttp://open.glasgow.gov.uk/datastories/

15. Smart City examples: Chicago
Public Health: Chicago partnered with Allstate Insurance to see if
analytics could predict critical health violations in restaurants. Data
included:
• Establishments that had previous critical or serious violations
• Three-day average high temperature
• Risk level of establishment as determined by CDPH
• Location of establishment
• Nearby garbage and sanitation complaints, burglaries
• The type of facility being inspected
• Whether the establishment has a tobacco license or has an incidental alcohol
consumption license
• The length of time the establishment has been operating
• Length of time since last inspection
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http://www.smartchicagocollaborative.org/category/city-of-chicago/

16. 16
4. PLANNING A SMART CITY

17. Smart City planning
Planning for effective Smart City initiatives includes:
1. technologies for connectivity
• coordinate with other infrastructure construction to reduce costs
• identify and utilize existing assets
• develop models to share new investments
2. principles for data sharing
• develop open data policies and systems
• develop identity, privacy and security policies
3. consideration of key questions
• determine how initiatives can address civic objectives
• confirm support and participation from City Government,
residents, businesses, and community organizations
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18. Smart City planning: technologies
Bottom-up Broadband (BuB) initiative created during the Commons for Europe project www.http://bubforeurope.net
• High-speed connectivity
• conduit, poles, buildings, physical assets
• fiber ‘backbone’, link to Internet PoP
• Wireless connectivity
• mesh nodes, ambient access
• Devices
• sensor networks
• meters, cameras
• vehicles, phones
• edge interoperability
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19. Smart City planning: technologies
• Somerville high-speed connectivity
• City of Somerville municipal fiber network – existing network
• City of Somerville Google fiber city proposal – asset inventory
• Union Square fiber options – marginal cost during construction
• Regional collaboration
• MBTA right of way and conduit access
• City of Cambridge Broadband Task Force
• MA municipal fiber initiative: 22 Towns in Massachusetts Are Building
Their Own Gigabit Fiber Network http://motherboard.vice.com/read/22-towns-in-
massachusetts-are-building-their-own-gigabit-fiber-network
• Business collaboration
• US2 and anchor tenants
• MIT Google pilot project
• Google metro fiber program
• Google metro wireless in NYC http://www.wired.com/2015/06/google-next-moonshot-wifi-
hubs-sidewalk-labs/edge interoperability
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20. Smart City planning: principles
• Establish Identity, Privacy, and Security policies
• Develop, publish Somerville Open Data policy
• Align to Government Open Data principles
1. Complete:all public data not subject to privacy, security, privilege limits, is made available
2. Primary: Data is as collected at the source, with highest possible level of granularity, not in
aggregate or modified forms
3. Timely: Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve value
4. Accessible: Data is available to widest range of users for widest range of purposes
5. Machine processable:Data is reasonably structured to allow automatedprocessing
6. Non-discriminatory: Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration
7. Non-proprietary: Data is available in format over which no entity has exclusive control
8. License-free:Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret
regulation (reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed)
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principles of open government data: https://public.resource.org/8_principles.html

21. Smart City planning: principles
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Tim Berners-Lee’s 5 star framework for open data:
* Data available with open license but not machine readable
** Data available, machine readable in proprietary formats
*** Data available, machine readable in non-proprietary formats
**** Data available using open linked formats
***** Data available, linked with other relevant data
wikipedia

22. How could Smart City infrastructure:
1. improve city services, public safety, and quality of life?
2. attract good jobs and good companies to Union Sq?
3. improve environmental and sustainability outcomes?
4. contribute to social capital and community engagement?
5. make Union Square an urban innovation lab to prototype civic
initiatives for use citywide and beyond?
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Smart City planning: key questions

23. Nesta collaborative economy lessons for government:
1. What assets does the city government own that aren’t being fully
utilised – e.g. car fleets, office space, tools?
2. What collaborative economy services are companies,
entrepreneurs and community groups already offering in the city?
3. Are there any organisations in the city that actively promote the
collaborative economy that the city government could partner
with?
4. Does the city have the necessary requirements to promote a
digitally–enabled collaborative economy – for instance, an IT–
savvy population and a culture of trust and sharing?
5. How will your city ensure that the collaborative economy can
benefit all citizens, not just the digitally connected elite?
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Smart City planning: key questions

24. 24
Smart City planning: key questions
SomerVision goals Smart City linkage
I. Neighborhoods engage public in civic decision making, healthy living and
environment
II. Commercial Corridors,
Squares, & Growth Districts
regional employment center, small scale business support,
opportunities for residents
III. Resources spaces for arts, performance, and exhibition, equipped to
address emergency situations, promote environmental
sustainability
IV. Transportation &
Infrastructure
seamless intermodal connections, reduce congestion,
flexible parking supply/demand, energy self-sufficiency
V. Housing new housing and employment options, programs to prevent
homelessness
How could Smart City infrastructure support SomerVision goals?

25. 25
Smart City planning: key questions
What level of infrastructure improvement is the community, the
City, and developers prepared to commit and contribute to:
1. Minimal infrastructure improvements, some modernization
2. Modernize infrastructure, incorporate some connectivity,
improvements and digital components
3. Modernize infrastructure and incorporate smart city systems, open
data policy, and shared innovation platform
Proposal: make Union Square a Smart City prototype and urban
innovation lab to benefit Union Square, City of Somerville and beyond

26. Smart City planning: reference materials
• NESTA (2015) Rethinking Smart Cities From The Ground Up.
http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/rethinking-smart-cities-ground
• Smart Cities Council (2014). Smart Cities Open Data Guide.
http://smartcitiescouncil.com/
• Future City Glasgow (2015). http://futurecity.glasgow.gov.uk
• Smart Chicago (2015). http://www.smartchicagocollaborative.org/category/city-of-
chicago/
• Chase, Robin (2015). Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the
Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism. PublicAffairs.
• Goldsmith, Stephen (2014). The Responsive City: Engaging Communities
Through Data-Smart Governance. Jossey-Bass.
• Leadbeter, Charles (2009). We Think: Mass Innovation not mass production.
Profile Books.
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Parts of this presentation not under copyright or licensed to others (as indicated) have been
made available under the Creative Commons Licence 3.0
Put simply, this means:
you are free to share, copy and distribute this work
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Under the following conditions
you must attribute the work to the author:
Patrick McCormick (paddy@post.harvard.edu)
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Unless stated otherwise, the information in this presentation is the personal
view of the author and does not represent official policy or position of his employer
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