Are Convenience and Sustainability Mutually Exclusive?
The world we live in is increasingly busy. So much so that our occupations can even get in the way of living our lives the way we would like to. Many people are working longer and longer hours and commuting farther and farther. Others are be expected to be available...
Sustainable Urban Transportation: Smart City Driving
When we think about the cities of the future, we likely try to imagine some sort of revolutionary transformation of the way people get around. Whether it is in self-driving vehicles, ultra-efficient public transportation networks—or simply bicycles—may depend on who...
Weekly News Roundup: New Plans and Programs Announced
Washington: President Obama announces Climate Action Plan On Tuesday at Georgetown University President Barack Obama gave a speech outlining his vision for the country’s response to climate change. In his well-crafted call for action, Obama tactfully dismissed...
An Urban World Calls for Urban Agriculture
It is estimated that in the early 1800s, only about 3% of the world’s one billion people lived in cities. Until this time, a vast majority of the human population labored in agriculture on small farms. Today, in a world of more than 7 billion people, over half of the...
Will ICT Save the Planet?
The GeSI SMARTer 2020 Report examines the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) enabled solutions in the power, transportation, agriculture and land use, buildings, manufacturing, and consumer and service sectors to fight climate change. The...
The Transition: The Future of Energy
Experts agree that smart cities of the future will run on clean and renewable energy, and the stabilization of our climate depends on it. The question of ‘why?’ is increasingly being replaced by ‘how?’ Although we have a long way to go, the planning (and...
Open data: how civic hacking can create smarter cities
Governments and hackers, more affectionately referred to as technologists, are increasingly collaborating to find creative and innovative ways to use open data to solve important civic problems. With the help of independent programmers and developers, and by...