Jonathan Lloyd

Exploring

From now until April 19, Seattle residents will have an opportunity to help their city understand how to adopt technology. By taking a 15 -minute survey, residents will guide the city in its decisions on digital inclusion, cable refranchising, website design, public access TV offerings and public outreach.

—Read more at: Digital Communities  (via sunlightcities)

thisbigcity: irishboyinlondon: The London High Street Possibilities Primer Interesting read! Designed to “encourage, inform and inspire” local communities, it showcases some of the interesting projects that are rebooting local London high streets, helping them (and London) become more vibrant and liveable!   The review was commissioned by Design for London and the Outer London Fund from 2011. If someone tells you the High Street is dead, they don’t have enough imagination. 

thisbigcity:

irishboyinlondon:

The London High Street Possibilities Primer

Interesting read! Designed to “encourage, inform and inspire” local communities, it showcases some of the interesting projects that are rebooting local London high streets, helping them (and London) become more vibrant and liveable!   The review was commissioned by Design for London and the Outer London Fund from 2011.

If someone tells you the High Street is dead, they don’t have enough imagination. 

massurban: GOOD: “Vacancy to Vibrancy: How Pop-Ups Invigorated a San Francisco Neighborhood Despite big names moving into the neighborhood, San Francisco’s Mid-Market—and many neighborhoods across the country—is still full of vacant spaces. Millions of square feet are going unused. SquareFoot is putting that space to use, connecting entrepreneurs to underutilized space, and using pop-ups as a vehicle for neighborhood revitalization. Pop-ups can be about more than high concept dining or a fresh Japanese retail concept: Short-term leases give residents a chance to invigorate the neighborhood and initiate new connections, spurring growth from the bottom-up. They give creative entrepreneurs a platform to prototype new ideas, unencumbered by the cost and red tape of long-term leases. Rapid experimentation can shift the assumptions we have about how we use our neighborhood spaces, helping us envision new possibilities while also creating a space for the local community to strengthen bulwarks against displacement by the rising tide of property values.” Photo: Original Image via (cc) flickr user Randolph Gardner  

massurban:

GOOD:

“Vacancy to Vibrancy: How Pop-Ups Invigorated a San Francisco Neighborhood

Despite big names moving into the neighborhood, San Francisco’s Mid-Market—and many neighborhoods across the country—is still full of vacant spaces. Millions of square feet are going unused. SquareFoot is putting that space to use, connecting entrepreneurs to underutilized space, and using pop-ups as a vehicle for neighborhood revitalization.

Pop-ups can be about more than high concept dining or a fresh Japanese retail concept: Short-term leases give residents a chance to invigorate the neighborhood and initiate new connections, spurring growth from the bottom-up. They give creative entrepreneurs a platform to prototype new ideas, unencumbered by the cost and red tape of long-term leases. Rapid experimentation can shift the assumptions we have about how we use our neighborhood spaces, helping us envision new possibilities while also creating a space for the local community to strengthen bulwarks against displacement by the rising tide of property values.”

Photo: Original Image via (cc) flickr user Randolph Gardner

 

(via humanscalecities)

urbnist:

theoriginalchingy:

Pop-Up Retail: Storefront Hooks Up Local Brands With Actual Physical Spaces - “The pop-up spaces trend is blowing up, especially in urban innovation hubs like the Bay Area and New York. One San Francisco-based startup, Storefront, is stepping in to fill what it sees as a void in the pop-up market: retail.

Storefront offers brands that are selling products on Etsy or other web portals an avenue to come offline—to create an experience for their customers.

It connects hot, local, e-commerce brands with brokers and space owners renting empty commercial spaces…”

via Good.

Facilitating pop-up shops. I like that it somewhat formalizes the process and creates a marketplace for renters and owners to meet up.  

(via urbanresolve)

humanscalecities: In 2013, the FT/Citi Ingenuity Awards will recognise urban ingenuity in a wide ranges of areas — from city administration, transport systems, energy and utilities, education and resource management, to housing, health, public safety, social services, mobile technologies and community engagement. To be considered, solutions should:   Have been implemented between 2007 and 2012 Address a serious social, economic, environmental or health-related challenge Improve the quality of urban life Submissions will be accepted online from January 23, 2013 to April 30, 2013. More info

humanscalecities:

In 2013, the FT/Citi Ingenuity Awards will recognise urban ingenuity in a wide ranges of areas — from city administration, transport systems, energy and utilities, education and resource management, to housing, health, public safety, social services, mobile technologies and community engagement. To be considered, solutions should:  

  • Have been implemented between 2007 and 2012
  • Address a serious social, economic, environmental or health-related challenge
  • Improve the quality of urban life

Submissions will be accepted online from January 23, 2013 to April 30, 2013.

More info

citycollaboration: Smart city spending to reach $20 billion by 2020 By Heather Clancy As more and more people flock to urban centers, the idea of smart cities has increasingly captured the mind share of civic leaders and planners around the world. Consider that cities already are responsible for approximately 70 percent of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, according to some estimates, and you can see why city planners are scrambling for some semblance of control. “City leaders face the continuous challenge of meeting rising citizen expectations within tight financial constraints,” according to a smart cities report that Pike Research released in February. “In North America and Europe in particular, the tough economic climate is forcing local governments to become even more innovative in their use of technology to drive down operational costs and in the way services are procured and delivered.” The challenges are only expected to grow: In just 12 years’ time, there will be more than 37 megacities globally that support populations of more than 10 million — 22 of them will be located in Asia, Pike predicts. And by 2050, the number of city dwellers is projected to reach 6.3 billion, compared with approximately 3.6 billion today. Pike defines a smart city as one that has integrated “technology into a strategic approach to sustainability, citizen well-being and economic development.” Five “industries” are integral to that vision: smart energy, smart water, smart transportation, smart buildings and smart government. More: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2013/03/06/growth-smart-cities

citycollaboration:

Smart city spending to reach $20 billion by 2020

By Heather Clancy

As more and more people flock to urban centers, the idea of smart cities has increasingly captured the mind share of civic leaders and planners around the world.
Consider that cities already are responsible for approximately 70 percent of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, according to some estimates, and you can see why city planners are scrambling for some semblance of control.
“City leaders face the continuous challenge of meeting rising citizen expectations within tight financial constraints,” according to a smart cities report that Pike Research released in February. “In North America and Europe in particular, the tough economic climate is forcing local governments to become even more innovative in their use of technology to drive down operational costs and in the way services are procured and delivered.”
The challenges are only expected to grow: In just 12 years’ time, there will be more than 37 megacities globally that support populations of more than 10 million — 22 of them will be located in Asia, Pike predicts. And by 2050, the number of city dwellers is projected to reach 6.3 billion, compared with approximately 3.6 billion today.
Pike defines a smart city as one that has integrated “technology into a strategic approach to sustainability, citizen well-being and economic development.” Five “industries” are integral to that vision: smart energy, smart water, smart transportation, smart buildings and smart government.

More: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2013/03/06/growth-smart-cities

The argument about paywalls — and copyright and the value of content — is the wrong argument. It’s an argument about trying to preserve old, industrial media model in a very different technological reality.

[…]

The discussion we should be having is how better to build valuable relationships of trust with people as people, not masses, and then how to exploit that value to support the work they want us to do. We can’t force them to do what we want anymore. For now, media are voluntary.

—Playing off Amanda Palmer’s fantastic recent TED talk on the art of asking, Jeff Jarvis considers a future of voluntary media (via explore-blog)

(Source: , via explore-blog)

humanscalecities: The lotxlot vacancy map for Philadelphia by @PossibleCity What’s the Big Idea? Possible City is an experiment in engaging the city’s forgotten spaces to bridge a crucial gap in current urban planning practice. Top-down master planning, while cohesive and potentially visionary, is static and often insensitive to the needs of communities and individuals. Bottom-up advocacy planning addresses these issues, but can be fragmented and fall victim to “design by committee”. The Web provides a virtual medium for a sophisticated new approach whereby an organized vision for an entire city can emerge from networks of citizens working to improve their local environments . Vacant properties provide the physical medium, open to transformative new possibilities. Neither top down, nor bottom up, Possible City is a web-based framework for a symbiotic network of continuous experimentation, feedback, and synthesis more in-tune with the city as a complex and evolving entity.

humanscalecities:

The lotxlot vacancy map for Philadelphia by @PossibleCity

What’s the Big Idea?

Possible City is an experiment in engaging the city’s forgotten spaces to bridge a crucial gap in current urban planning practice. Top-down master planning, while cohesive and potentially visionary, is static and often insensitive to the needs of communities and individuals. Bottom-up advocacy planning addresses these issues, but can be fragmented and fall victim to “design by committee”. The Web provides a virtual medium for a sophisticated new approach whereby an organized vision for an entire city can emerge from networks of citizens working to improve their local environments . Vacant properties provide the physical medium, open to transformative new possibilities. Neither top down, nor bottom up, Possible City is a web-based framework for a symbiotic network of continuous experimentation, feedback, and synthesis more in-tune with the city as a complex and evolving entity.