![Defining city resources
The people of a city constitute and rely on multiple layers of resources:
[1] material resources (often but not always infrastructures: buildings, roads,
sidewalks, parks);
[2] social and cultural resources (often function as infrastructure in economic terms:
neighborhoods, social organizations, education and professional training, histories
and ideologies including social trust, acceptance of legal and political orders);
[3] political resources (formal voting and related accountability systems, links
between government organizations);
and
[4] systems of information resources, including systems for producing , curating,
distributing, and accessing information that cross and link [1] – [3].
Rules and social norms for managing all of these resources in communal and
collective settings = governance. General governance questions include:
Who participates and how? What are the guidelines and guardrails? What are the
outcomes and metrics? Where is governance strong, fair, resilient? Where is it
weak? 6
CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/2023-cmu-smartcitieslunchandlearn-230920112509-ea2c0a27/85/2023-CMU-Smart-Cities-lunch-and-learn-pdf-6-320.jpg)
![Examples of Pittsburgh smart city systems, both old and new:
Data collection and integration for decision making:
The Allegheny Family Screening Tool (AFST) (funded by philanthropy)
Open data:
The Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (funded by philanthropy)
Data collection for government decision making:
RoadBotics, SurTrac [Rapid Flow → Miovision] (roads, traffic; spinouts of Carnegie
Mellon)
Public/private partnerships:
Green Building Alliance as bridge between green building codes and private
developers
Make city welcoming to tech firms to build an innovation economy:
City of Pittsburgh welcomes autonomous vehicle firms (Argo, Aurora, Waymo)
testing vehicles on public streets; city partners with developers to build Hazelwood
Green on reclaimed steel mill site for off-street testing 9
CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/2023-cmu-smartcitieslunchandlearn-230920112509-ea2c0a27/85/2023-CMU-Smart-Cities-lunch-and-learn-pdf-9-320.jpg)
2023 - CMU - Smart Cities lunch and learn.pdf
- 1. Governing Smart Cities as Knowledge Commons (Cambridge UP 2023) 19 September 2023 Book editors: CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute Brett Frischmann Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Michael Madison University of Pittsburgh School of Law Madelyn Sanfilippo University of Illinois School of Information Sciences 1
- 2. The GKC framework is a research tool for understanding the character of knowledge commons governance – managing of knowledge resources – in case-specific context. The goal(s): To see systems as knowledge commons means seeing them differently in terms of regulatory opportunities and limitations. Here: the case is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Why use smart city tech? Who are the actors? What are the resources? What are the rules? What are the outcomes? 2 CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute
- 3. knowledge-commons.net Established 2011 PIs: Frischmann (Villanova), Madison (Pittsburgh), Sanfilippo (Illinois), Strandburg (NYU) Includes OA case studies, books, guides to understanding and using the GKC framework. The Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) framework, building on but modifying Ostrom’s IAD framework. Knowledge, information, and data pose governance challenges that differ in systematic ways from natural resources (land, water, agricultural products). CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute “GKC” is shorthand for “Governing Knowledge Commons,” a research tool for understanding the character of knowledge commons governance – managing shared knowledge resources – in case-specific community / collective context)(s). Here: the case is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA 3
- 4. Oxford UP 2014 Frischmann, Madison, Strandburg eds. Cambridge UP 2017 Strandburg, Frischmann, Madison eds. Cambridge UP 2021 Frischmann, Sanfilippo, Strandburg eds. Cambridge UP 2021 Decker and Kuchar eds. CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute GKC collections to date (more in progress: on misinformation, environmental policy, EdTech, corporations) 4
- 5. Chapter list: 1. “Smart Cities and Knowledge Commons” by Michael Madison, Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo, and Brett Frischmann 2. “The Challenge for Cities of Governing Spatial Data Privacy” by Jan Whittington and Feiyang Sun 3. “Open Governments, Open Data: Moving Toward a Digital Commons Framework” by Angie Raymond and Inna Kouper 4. “Community Land Trusts as a Knowledge Commons: Challenges and Opportunities” by Natalie Choi and Dan Wu 5. “Smart Tech Deployment and Governance in Philadelphia” by Brett Frischmann and Marsha Tonkovich 6. “The Kind of Solution a Smart City Is: Knowledge Commons and Postindustrial Pittsburgh” by Michael Madison 7. “Technofuturism in Play: Privacy, Surveillance, and Innovation at Walt Disney World” by Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo and Yan Shvartzshnaider 8. “Can a Smart City Exist as Commons? The Case of Automated Governance in Sidewalk Toronto” by Anna Artyushina 9. “From Thurii to Quayside: Creating Inclusive Blended Spaces in Digital Communities” by Richard Whitt 10. “A Proposal for Principled Decision-Making: Beyond Design Principles” by Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo and Brett Frischmann CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute 5
- 6. Defining city resources The people of a city constitute and rely on multiple layers of resources: [1] material resources (often but not always infrastructures: buildings, roads, sidewalks, parks); [2] social and cultural resources (often function as infrastructure in economic terms: neighborhoods, social organizations, education and professional training, histories and ideologies including social trust, acceptance of legal and political orders); [3] political resources (formal voting and related accountability systems, links between government organizations); and [4] systems of information resources, including systems for producing , curating, distributing, and accessing information that cross and link [1] – [3]. Rules and social norms for managing all of these resources in communal and collective settings = governance. General governance questions include: Who participates and how? What are the guidelines and guardrails? What are the outcomes and metrics? Where is governance strong, fair, resilient? Where is it weak? 6 CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute
- 7. Political resources Social and cultural resources Material resources Knowledge, information, data generation, flow, and storage WITHIN LAYERS AND ACROSS LAYERS 7 Visualizing shared resources in the city CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute
- 8. Defining smart city problems in terms of managing shared resources Governance in the smart city relies on existing knowledge sharing and creates new knowledge sharing. Investigating governance systematically across cases is supported by the Knowledge Commons Framework (GKC) (see knowledge-commons.net). Sharing? In the city, sharing information and knowledge of many sorts (“commons”) is fundamental to ensuring that governments can provide for health, security, prosperity, and equity for the community; that people can live their lives, have and enjoy jobs, families, recreation and entertainment; and that they can plan for the future; resolve conflicts, etc. Structured sharing solves first-order social dilemmas. Key social dilemmas to which knowledge sharing is a response: how does city govern itself as a community (community directed activity) vs how do individuals govern themselves (self-directed activities)? Examples: building codes, public health, safe streets. The “smart city” in the 21st c is an update to earlier efforts by governments and private actors to collect and share data. Sharing creates second-order social dilemmas. The smart city in practice creates new social dilemmas: bias in favor of corporate interests; possibility of unnecessary surveillance of residents; disruption of community and social trust relationships; reinforcement of harmful elite or technocratic governance; fragility baked into dependence on private actors. 8 CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute
- 9. Examples of Pittsburgh smart city systems, both old and new: Data collection and integration for decision making: The Allegheny Family Screening Tool (AFST) (funded by philanthropy) Open data: The Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (funded by philanthropy) Data collection for government decision making: RoadBotics, SurTrac [Rapid Flow → Miovision] (roads, traffic; spinouts of Carnegie Mellon) Public/private partnerships: Green Building Alliance as bridge between green building codes and private developers Make city welcoming to tech firms to build an innovation economy: City of Pittsburgh welcomes autonomous vehicle firms (Argo, Aurora, Waymo) testing vehicles on public streets; city partners with developers to build Hazelwood Green on reclaimed steel mill site for off-street testing 9 CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute
- 10. Questions for further research, based on the Pittsburgh case study: ▪ What social problems were facing Pittsburgh, give or take 10 years go? ▪ How did Pittsburgh believe that those problems could be solved by smart tech, including data gathering and sharing? How was Pittsburgh right, and how was Pittsburgh wrong? ▪ What governance problems were created by Pittsburgh’s data gathering and sharing? ▪ What’s changing? How should Pittsburgh governance do better, going forward, consider smart tech as a KC challenge (as well as) (rather than as) a classic public administration challenge? A civil liberties (individual rights/privacy) challenge? A resilience/sustainability challenge? A growth/renewal challenge? Consider: ▪ Sector based perspectives: ▪ Public sector actors (City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Port Authority of Allegheny County) ▪ Higher ed (university) actors (CMU, Pitt) ▪ Private sector actors (tech companies, other Pittsburgh companies) ▪ Philanthropic actors (major Pittsburgh foundations) ▪ Community actors (community orgs, neighborhood leaders, others) ▪ Functional perspectives: ▪ Procurement ▪ Tech assessment ▪ Cross-silo collaborations 10 CMU Metro21: Smart Cities Institute