Critically Assembling Data, Processes & Things: Toward and Open Smart City

Cottbus Brandenburg University of Technology
Lecture series on Smart Regions
Critically Assembling Data, Processes & Things:
Toward and Open Smart City
June 5, 2018
Dr. Tracey P. Lauriault
Assistant Professor of Critical Media and Big Data
Communication and Media Studies,
School of Journalism and Communication
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1847-2738

Lecture Content
1. Critical Data Studies
2. Theoretical framework
• Assemblage
• Dynamic Nominalism
• Genealogy
• Social-Shaping
3. Methodology
• Digital ethnography
• Walkthrough
4. Programmable City Case
Studies
• OSi
• Homelessness
• Open Data
5. Open Smart Cities
• Open Smart Cities Project
• Smart City Context in Canada
• Research & Methodology
• Case Studies
• Observations
• Open Smart City Guide
6. Q&A
Dr Tracey P. Lauriault, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University

1. Critical Data Studies

Research and thinking that applies critical social
theory to data to explore the ways in which:
Data are more than the unique arrangement of objective
and politically neutral facts
&
It is understood that data do not exist independently of
ideas, techniques, technologies, systems, people and
contexts regardless of them being presented in that way
1.2 Data – big or small
Tracey P. Lauriault, 2012, Data, Infrastructures and Geographical Imaginations. Ph.D. Thesis,
Carleton University, Ottawa, http://curve.carleton.ca/theses/27431

1.3 Framing Data
1. Technically
2. Ethically
3. Politically & economically
4. Spatial/Temporal
5. Philosophically
6. Technological Citizenship
7. Data Activism
Rob Kitchin, 2014, The Data Revolution, Sage.
Andrew Feenberg, 2011, Agency and Citizenship in a Technological Society, https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/copen5-1.pdf
Tracey P. Lauriault, engaged research

1.4 Critical Data Studies Vision
• Unpack the complex assemblages that produce, circulate,
share/sell and utilise data in diverse ways;
• Chart the diverse work they do and their consequences for
how the world is known, governed and lived-in;
• Survey the wider landscape of data assemblages and how they
interact to form intersecting data products, services and
markets and shape policy and regulation.
Chapter 1, Toward Critical Data Studies: Charting and Unpacking Data Assemblages and Their Work
By Rob Kitchin and Tracey P. Lauriault in Thinking Big Data in Geography New Regimes, New Research
(Eds) Jim Thatcher, Josef Eckert, and Andrew Shears (2018)

2. Theoretical Framework

2.1 Socio-Technological Assemblage
Material Platform
(infrastructure – hardware)
Code Platform
(operating system)
Code/algorithms
(software)
Data(base)
Interface
Reception/Operation
(user/usage)
Systems of thought
Forms of knowledge
Finance
Political economies
Governmentalities - legalities
Organisations and institutions
Subjectivities and communities
Marketplace
System/process
performs a task
Context
frames the system/task
Digital socio-technical assemblage
HCI, Remediation studies
Critical code studies
Software studies
New media studies
Game studies
Critical Social Science
Science Technology Studies
Platform studies
Places
Practices
Flowline/Lifecycle
Surveillance Studies
Critical data studies
Algorithm Studies
Modified by Lauriault from Kitchin, 2014, The Data Revolution, Sage.

2.2 Dynamic Nominalism
Modified from Ian Hacking’s Dynamic Nominalism
Tracey P. Lauriault, 2012, Data, Infrastructures and Geographical Imaginations. Ph.D. Thesis,
Carleton University, Ottawa, http://curve.carleton.ca/theses/27431

20101990 1995 2000 20051985 2015
Data
Liberation
Initiative (DLI)
Geogratis Data
Portal
GeoBase
Canadian
Internet
Public Policy
Clinic
Maps Data and Government
Information Services
(MADGIC) Carleton U
GeoConnections
GeoGratis
Census Data Consortium
Canadian Association of
Research Libraries
(CARL)
Atlas of Canada
Online (1st)
CeoNet Discovery
Portal
Research Data
Network
How'd they Vote
CivicAccess.ca
Campaign for
Open
Government
(FIPA)
Canadian
Association of
Public Data
Users
Datalibre.ca
VisibleGovernment.ca
I Believe in Open Campaign
Change Camps Start
Nanaimo BC
Toronto
Open Data Portals
Edmonton
Mississauga launches open data
Citizen Factory
B.C.'s Climate Change Data Catalogue
Open Parliament
DatadotGC.ca
Ottawa
Ottawa, Prince George, Medicine Hat
Data.gc.ca
Global TV
Hansard in XML
Langley
Let the Data Flow
GovCamp
Fed. Expenses
Montreal Ouvert
Fed.Gov. Travel and
Hospitality
Expenses
London
Hamilton
Windsor
Open Data Hackfest
Aid Agency
Proactive.ca
DataBC
Hacking
Health
14 Cities
Quebec
Ontario
OGP
3 Cities
Alberta
G8
Community Data Program
FCM Quality of Life Reporting
System
Geographic and
Numeric Information
System (GANIS)
Int. Open
Data
Charter
ODX/PSD
CODS
VancouverG4+1
GO Open
Data
Census
E4D
First Nations
Information
Governance
OCAP
2.3 Genealogy
Lauriault (2014) https://vimeo.com/95726187

2.4 Social-shaping qualities of data
Kitchin, 2012, Programmable City, http://progcity.maynoothuniversity.ie/about/

3. Methodology

3.1 Digital Ethnography
• Embedded in organizations
• Semi Structured Interviews
• Cultural acclimatization in the domain
• Meetups
• Lists
• Twitter
• Events
• Hackathons
• Industry conferences
• Advisory Committees
• Government meetings
• Data science
• Etc.

3.2 Walkthrough
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816675438
589702
X.2016.1168471

4. Programmable City
Case Studies

4.1 Programmable City
Translation:
City into code & data
Transduction:
Code & data reshape city
Understanding the
city
(Knowledge)
How are digital data materially &
discursively supported &
processed about cities & their
citizens?
How does software drive public
policy development &
implementation?
Managing
the city
(Governance)
How are discourses & practices of
city governance translated into code?
How is software used to regulate &
govern city life?
Working
in the city
(Production)
How is the geography & political
economy of software production
organised?
How does software alter the form
& nature of work?
Living
in the city
(Social Politics)
How is software discursively
produced & legitimated by vested
interests?
How does software transform the
spatiality & spatial behaviour of
individuals?
Creating the
smart city
Dublin Dashboard
Rob Kitchin, (2012) National University of Ireland, Maynooth

4.2 Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi)
Tracey P. Lauriault, 2018, Chapter 13 Ontologizing the City in Data and the City
(Eds) by Rob Kitchin, Tracey P. Lauriault and Gavin McArdle, Routledge.

4.2.1 Ontologizing the City - From Old School National
Cartographic Based Classification toward a Rules Based
Real-World Object Oriented National Database
Object of Study
• Data assemblage of OSi PRIME2
• Examine how ‘real’ things are
understood in the new object
oriented data model
• Assess if these change how space is
modelled and then acted upon
Time frame
• Jan. 2015-2018
Data Management and Ethics
• ERC
• Maynooth University
• SSHRC Tri-Council
Case Study Outputs
• Case study report
• Data assemblage
• Tracing the production of space
• Genealogy from class to object
• Academic publications
Funding
• Programmable City Project
• P.I. Prof. Rob Kitchin
• NIRSA, Maynooth University
• European Research Council Advanced
Investigator Award
• ERC-2012-AdG-323636-SOFTCITY

4.2.2 Data Collection
Attend OSi & 1Spatial Road shows and public speaking events
• One day coordinated field trip & group interviews at OSi Sligo
(survey data capture unit)
• Examine the Prime & Prime2 flow lines
• Real-time survey and data update of a building
• 1.5 months as an embedded researcher, OSi in Phoenix Park
• One-on-one interviews with key actors (Transcribed audio recordings)
• Group interview
• Document Collection
• Collection of objects across time for Dublin

4.2.3 OSi Socio-Technological Transformation
• Institutionally
• Colonial surveyor
• Military Mapping
Organization
• Civil Service National
Mapping Organization
(NMO)
• State Body NMO
• Becomes the NMO w/in
Tailte Éireann
• Trans-institutional CSO
• Technologically
• Data collection
• Techniques
• Scale
• Geometry
• Skill
• Technologies
• Dissemination
• Linked data across
institutions
• Scope
• Colonial mapping
• National mapping
• Post Colonial mapping
• OSi/OSNI/OSGB
• EU / Inspire / NSDI
• Global / UNGGI

4.2.4 From map sheets to a database
The objective is the provision of a single vision of the geographic ‘truth’ of
the state, one that is standardized to align with OSi’s mission “to create,
maintain and provide the State’s definitive mapping and geospatial
information services to support citizens, business and government”, and its
vision to be “the national provider of trusted, maintained geospatial data
and platforms to ensure the State’s location data is easy to find, share and
use” (OSi 2016).

Polygon
Ireland
Reference
Polygon
Polygon
Polygon
Polygon
Polygon
4.2.5 Ireland in a data model
Ireland becomes a real-
world, feature-based
information, national-
scale spatial data
platform which consisted
of the sum of its
materially defined parts
defined by rules with
topologically accurate,
uniquely identified
objects with spatial
coordinates, attributes
and spatial relations.

A intersects B
A
B
B A
A
B
A is within B A touches B
A crosses B
A is Z+1 over BA = B+C+D+E
A
B
C
D
E
A
B
4.2.6 Topology
In the database objects are described in code as
having geometry, coordinates and attributes.

4.2.7 Skin of the Earth Model

4.2.8 Data Re-Engineering
Cassini, 6”, 1st ed. Circa? Cassini 6”, 1943-44Cassini 25”, 1st ed, Circa?
Cassini25”, 1936
Heuston Station, Prime2 MapGenie Heuston Station, Prime2 SOE
Seamless,
topologically
consistent
blanket of
polygons that
cover the entire
surface of
Ireland w/no
holes or gaps

4.2.9 Socio-technological transformation
The model becomes a core infrastructure upon which new knowledge is
produced. These ‘new’ data can now be linked to near real time data,
sensor feeds and be the framework for smart city technologies. These data
now allow for the modeling of dynamic processes, ebbs and flows of water,
traffic, climate. They become an authoritative, reliable, and trusted state
framework dataset that can be linked to others (I.e. utilities, RTE, museum
collections).

4.2.10 Etymology

4.2.11 Models echoe the past

4.2.12 Genealogy of a model

4.2.13 Genealogy of a data model

4.2.14 Iconic City Things
Prime2 Data
Model
Iconic Object
Way M50 – Red Cow interchange
Water Docklands – Samuel Beckett Bridge / Gasometers
Vegetation Collins Barracks / Esplanade
Building Observatory, GPO, Liberty Hall, Heuston Station, Connelly Station, Collins Barracks, OSI,
Conference Centre, Digital hub Guinness Factory, Ivy trust Guinness – flat complexes, park area
beano, public baths, Hilton Hotel / Rowntree Sweets, Kilmainham jail & museum, Croke Park /
Lansdowne Road
Artificial Bull Wall island
Z-Order Priority Samuel Becket Bridge,
Kings Bridge, Halfpenny Bridge (Way & Structure)
Superimposed Objects -
Structure
Nelsons pillar blow up in 1966/Spire? Stiletto in the Ghetto, Wellington monument – obelisk
Divisions City Walls / Antiquity, The Pale, Guinness Walls
Networks – water, rail,
roads
Liffey & Grand Canal, M50, North & South Circular, Heuston, Connelly, Luas
Grouped Objects M50 road network Names. N & S Circular Road, Rivers & Canals
Sites, Locals Trinity (Site), Temple Bar (Locale)
Boundaries Dublin, EDs in Dublin, Baronies, County, Parish

4.2.15 Models are actors
• Models shape
• how the world is viewed
• the world of work
• tools & techniques
• the structure of an
organization
• how organizations
interconnect with others
• Models augment space
• Models are socially
constructed by people

I would like to express my gratitude to all at
the Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) for
generously sharing their knowledge and time.
This research was funded by a European Research
Council Advanced Investigator award (ERC-2012-AdG-
323636-SOFTCITY.

4.3 Automating Homelessness
Tracey Lauriault, 2018, Automating Homelessness, Conference of
Irish Geographies, The Earth as Our Home, Maynooth University.

4.3.1 Homeless case study scope
Object of Study:
A. Dublin Ireland:
• Pathway Accommodation and Support System
(PASS)
• Dublin Street Count
• Central Statistics Office (CSO) national census
enumeration of the homeless.
B. Boston, MA, USA:
• Homelessness Data Exchange (HDX) Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) Housing
Inventory Count (HIC)
• Boston Health Commission Annual Street/Point-
in-Time (PIT) Count of Homelessness
• US Census Bureau National Survey of Homeless
Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC)
C. Ottawa, ON, Canada:
• National Homelessness Information System
(HIFIS)
• Ottawa Street Count
• Statistics Canada national census enumeration of
the homeless.
• Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)
Municipal Data Collection Tool (MDCT)
indicators on Homelessness
Funding
• Programmable City Project
• P.I. Prof. Rob Kitchin
• NIRSA, Maynooth University
• European Research Council Advanced
Investigator Award
• ERC-2012-AdG-323636-SOFTCITY

4.3.2 Homeless case study outputs
A. 3 site specific city case studies for comparative analysis
• 3 CS reports with accompanying data, information and literature including:
• 3 national homeless shelter intake software systems
• 3 city specific point in time street counts
• 3 national statistical agency censuses which enumerated people who are homeless
• Interview recordings and transcripts from key informants
• Repository of related grey literature
B. Data Assemblages
• Data assemblage for each intake data system, street count and homeless census
• Comparative analysis of these data assemblages
C. Construction of homeless people and homelessness
• Application of the modified Ian Hacking framework to the making up of homeless people and
spaces
• 3 homelessness data classification genealogies
• Comparative analysis of genealogies

4.3.3 Data collection
• Semi-Structured & Transcribed
Interviews with:
• Developers
• Creators
• Policy advisors and analysts
• Users – Agencies
• Dublin
• Grey literature in Boston and Ottawa
• Engaged research
• Participation in Rough Sleeper / Street
Counts / Point in Time Counts
• Ireland CSO Census Working Group on
Homelessness
• Member of the Dublin Regional
Homelessness Initiative
• Attend 2 Calgary Homeless Foundation
Homelessness Research Symposium
• Modified walkthrough
• Downloading & using the software
• Observing users
• Call for Tender
• Specification Manuals
• Training Manuals
• Examining data models
• Screen captures of interfaces
• Grey literature
• Policies, directives, strategies
• Laws, regulation
• Performance indicators, metrics
• Reports
• Community literature
• Funding mechanisms

4.3.4 3 Homelessness Intake Systems
Ottawa, Canada
Homeless Individuals and Families
Information System (HIFIS)
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Pathway Accommodation and
Support System (PASS)
Boston, US, Homelessness
Management Information
Systems (HMIS)

4.3.5 Intake System Objectives
• HIFIS
• Comprehensive and
comparative data collection
• ESDC will grant a licence in
return for non-identifiable
personal information related
to the Service Provider and
its clientele ("Personal
Information").
• PASS
• Provision of 'real-time'
information in terms of
homeless presentation and
bed occupancy
• Dublin local authorities,
Health Service Executive
and all homeless services
• Improve service delivery
• Monitor the delivery of services
• Coordinate services
• Planning and development of
services
• HUD HMIS
Coordinated housing and
services funding for homeless
families and individuals with:
• Outreach,
• Intake and assessment,
• Emergency shelter,
• transitional housing and
• permanent supportive housing.

4.3.6 Intake System Interface

4.3.7 Intake System Governance
• HIFIS
• 1999
• 1st Developed by Canada
Housing Mortgage
Corporation (CHMC)
• 2004? Ongoing dev. by
Homelessness Secretariat,
Employment Social
Development Canada ( ESDC
Fed)
• Community Coordinators
• Deployed in independent
shelters and other service
points
• +/- 500 service points
• Not complete coverage
• PASS
• 2013
• Developed & Coordinated by
Dublin Region Homeless
Executive (DRHE)
• In collab. w/Office of the Data
Protection Commissioner
(ODPC)
• Regional PASS Coordinator
• Deployed in all service points
in Ireland that receive state
funding
• Multiple agencies, including
local authorities and Voluntary
Organizations
• Complete Coverage
• HUD HMIS
• 2004
• US Dept. of Housing & Urban
Development (HUD), w/ the
Dept. of Health and Human
Services (HHS), Dept. of
Veterans Affairs (VA), of the
Data Standards
• Neighborhood Development
Supportive Housing Division,
w/ direction from Continuum
of Care Board the Boston
Continuum of Care Leadership
Council
• Coverage?

4.3.8 Intake System Design
• HIFIS
• In collaboration with service
providers
• National consensus Bldg.
• National User Group
• Joint Application Design
• In house developers
• HIFIS 4 web based
• PASS
• w/Service Providers
• Open Sky
• Cloud based MS BI
Platform
• Cloud based
• Proprietary
• Intake and case management
• HUD HMIS
• Social Solutions’ Efforts to
Outcomes (ETO®) HMIS
• Platform, SaaS
w/TouchPoint CMS
• Cloud based
• Open Path Warehouse
developed by GreenRiver
• Intake Social Solutions Inc.

4.3.9 Intake System Policy & Regulation
• HIFIS
• PIPEDA
• Data Provision Agreements
• Homelessness Partnering
Strategy (HPS)
• National Homeless
Information System (NHIS)
• PASS
• Data Protection Acts 1988 &
2003 and fulfils the role of
certified Data Controller.
• Health Act, 1953
• Childcare Act, 1991,
• Housing Act 1988
• Housing (Miscellaneous
Provisions) Act 2009
• HUD HMIS
• Housing First
• US Dept. of HUD awards
Homeless Assistance
Program funding through
Continuum of Care (CoC)

4.3.10 Intake System Data Output & Reporting
• HIFIS • PASS
• HUD HMIS

4.3.11 Data Model Open Path Warehouse Boston

Data Person
• Data Double (Virilio, 2000)
• Digital doppelgänger (Robinson, 2008)
• Data Ghost (Sports analytics)
• Data Trails / Traces / Shadows /
Footprints
• Data (statistical) Person (Dunne &
Dunne, 2014)
• Dataveillance (Clarke, 1988)

I would like to express my gratitude to Dublin City
Council, the ESDC Homelessness Secretariat and all
the people interviewed as part of this study.
The research for this study was funded by a European
Research Council Advanced Investigator award ERC-
2012-AdG-323636-SOFTCITY.

4.4 Open Data
Lauriault, T. P. , 2014, A genealogy of data assemblages: tracing the geospatial open access and
open data movements in Canada, the Data-based Living – Peopling and Placing Big Data
Session, Association of American Geographers (AAG) Tampa, FL.

Research
Data
Canada
Archiving, Management and
Preservation of Geospatial Data
National Consultation on Access to
Scientific Data Final Report
(NCASRD)
20101990 1995 2000 2005
National Data Archive
Consultation
(SSHRC)
Stewardship of Research Data in Canada: A Gap Analysis
The dissemination of government geographic
data in Canada: guide to best practices
Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
Toward a National Digital Information Strategy:
Mapping the Current Situation in Canada (LAC)
Canadian Digital
Information
Strategy (CDIS)
(LAC)
IPY
1985
Open Data
Consultations
Mapping the
Data Landscape:
Report of the
2011 Canadian
Research Data
Summit
Digital Economy Consultation,
Industry Canada
Community Data Roundtable
Privacy (Geo)
Sensitive Data (Geo)
Resolution of
Canada’s Access to Information
and
Privacy
Commissioners
Geomatics Accord Signed
Canadian Geospatial Data Policy
Liberating the Data Proposal
VGI Primer
Cloud (Geo)
OD Advisory
Panel
OGP
G8
• Policies
• Reports
• Proposals
• Recommendations
• Consultation
2008
2015
Int. Open Data
Charter
4.4.1 Open Data Context

20101990 1995 2000 20051985 2015
Data
Liberation
Initiative (DLI)
Geogratis Data
Portal
GeoBase
Canadian
Internet
Public Policy
Clinic
Maps Data and Government
Information Services
(MADGIC) Carleton U
GeoConnections
GeoGratis
Census Data Consortium
Canadian Association of
Research Libraries
(CARL)
Atlas of Canada
Online (1st)
CeoNet Discovery
Portal
Research Data
Network
How'd they Vote
CivicAccess.ca
Campaign for
Open
Government
(FIPA)
Canadian
Association of
Public Data
Users
Datalibre.ca
VisibleGovernment.ca
I Believe in Open Campaign
Change Camps Start
Nanaimo BC
Toronto
Open Data Portals
Edmonton
Mississauga launches open data
Citizen Factory
B.C.'s Climate Change Data Catalogue
Open Parliament
DatadotGC.ca
Ottawa
Ottawa, Prince George, Medicine Hat
Data.gc.ca
Global TV
Hansard in XML
Langley
Let the Data Flow
GovCamp
Fed. Expenses
Montreal Ouvert
Fed.Gov. Travel and
Hospitality
Expenses
London
Hamilton
Windsor
Open Data Hackfest
Aid Agency
Proactive.ca
DataBC
Hacking
Health
14 Cities
Quebec
Ontario
OGP
3 Cities
Alberta
G8
Community Data Program
FCM Quality of Life Reporting
System
Geographic and
Numeric Information
System (GANIS)
Int. Open
Data
Charter
ODX/PSD
CODS
VancouverG4+1
GO Open
Data
Census
E4D
First Nations
Information
Governance
OCAP
4.4.2 Open Data Materialities

4.4.3 Data as political platforms

4.4.4 Data Communities of Practice
Research/scientific
Data
GovData
GeoData
Physical
Sciences
AdminData
Public Sector Data
NGOs
Access to Data Open Data
Social
Sciences
2005
Operations Data
Infrastructural Data
Sensor Data
Social Media Data
AI/Machine Learning Data
Smart Open Data?
2015
Private Sector
IOT
- Smart Cities
- Precision Agriculture
- Autonomous Cars
SM Platforms
Algorithms
P2P – Sharing Economy
Predictive Policing
Surveillance
Digital Labour
Drones
5GPublic/Private Sector Data?
Crowdsourcing
Citizen Science
Civic Teck
OCAP
Local and
Traditional
Knowledge

4.4.5 Institutional Disconnect

5. Open Smart Cities
Lauriault, T. P. , Bloom, R. Landry, J.-N. 2018, Open Smart Cities Project https://www.opennorth.ca/open-smart-cities-guide

5.1 Open Smart Cities in Canada Project
Funded by: GeoConnections
Lead by: OpenNorth
Project core team:
• Rachel Bloom & Jean-Noe Landry, Open
North
• Dr. Tracey P. Lauriault, Carleton University
• David Fewer, LL.M., Canadian Internet
Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)
• Dr. Mark Fox, University of Toronto
• Research Assistants Carleton University
• Carly Livingstone
• Stephen Letts
Project collaborators:
• Expert Smart City representatives
from the cities of:
1. Edmonton
2. Guelph
3. Montréal
4. Ottawa
• Collaborators include experts from
the provinces of:
1. Ontario
2. British Columbia
T. P. Lauriault, R. Bloom & J.-N. Landry, 2018, Open Smart Cities in Canada Project, https://www.opennorth.ca/open-smart-cities-guide

5.2 Project Outputs
1. Executive summary of a smart city environmental scan
(E-Scan) and 5 Canadian case studies.
• This report identifies international shapers of smart cities and
their components and describes current smart city practices
across Canada.
2. Assessment of Canadian smart city practices
• In depth city profiles were developed as a result of interviews
with smart city representatives from the cities of Edmonton,
Guelph, Montreal, and Ottawa..
3. Review of selected open smart city best practices in 4
international cities (Chicago, Dublin, Helsinki, and New
York)
• The literature review focuses on approaches to open and
geospatial data standardization in a smart city context. These
cities were chosen for their innovative geospatial and open data
policies and practices.
4. Inter-jurisdictional case study
• To situate open smart city policies and data management
practices in Canada’s inter-jurisdictional context, interviews
with officials from the Province of Ontario and consulted with
officials at the Province of British Columbia.
5. Open Smart Cities FAQ
• In collaboration with the Open Smart Cities in Canada core
team, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic
(CIPPIC) has created a FAQ to answer common legal and
regulatory questions about smart city technologies.
6. Open Smart Cities Guide V1.0
• This final phase of the project provides a definition for an Open
Smart City. This output intends to guide Canadian municipalities
toward co-creating Open Smart Cities with their stakeholders and
residents. Results will be disseminated broadly and were presented
during the project’s third webinar on April 17. Watch the
presentation here.
https://www.opennorth.ca/projects

5.2 Context in Canada

5.2.1 Smart City Challenge
• Launched November 2017, 225
Submissions, 130 Eligible, 20 shortlisted
• Municipalities, regional governments, &
Indigenous communities
• Community not-for-profit, private sector
company, or expert
• $300 million Smart Cities Challenge in
2017 Budget
59

5.2.2 Canada Smart City Challenge
http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/sc-vi/map-applications.php
https://impact.canada.ca/en/challenges/smart-cities/results

5.2.3 Sidewalk Toronto the PPP Smart City
https://sidewalktoronto.ca/

5.3 Open Smart Cities
Research Methodology

5.3.1 Data collection & Methodology
• E-Scan of 4 cities + 1 Province
1. Edmonton
2. Guelph
3. Ottawa
4. Montreal
5. Ontario Smart Grid
• Development of semi-structured
interview instrument
• City officials generously
participated in 90 min phone
interviews
• Interviews were recorded &
transcribed
• City officials responded to
follow-up questions & validated
reports
The following was collected:
• visions and strategies
• reasons for deploying smart city
initiatives
• beneficiaries
• governance models
• deployment strategies
• citizen engagement
• “openness” and open data
• access to smart city data
• smart city business models
• procurement
• challenges & benefits.

5.3.2 Smart City Actors
• Vendors
• Think tanks
• Consulting firms
• Alliances and associations
• Standards organizations
• Civil society
• Academic
• Procurement
• Guides, Playbooks, Practices
• Indicators
• Cities

5.4 4 Canadian Cities, 1 Province,
International Best Practices

5.4.5 Reference Statistics
Guelph

5.4.1 Edmonton - Smart City Initiative
The smart city is “about
creating and nurturing a
resilient, livable, and
workable city through
the use of technology,
data and social
innovation”

5.4.2 Guelph - Initiative
“The vision of a modern City is one that
offers services to customers when and where
they want them. A Smart City is one that
uses technology to achieve this goal, using
technology at every appropriate opportunity
to streamline processes and simplify access
to city services. This is a city that has all the
information it needs, available and
accessible, to support effective decision-
making”

5.4.3 Ottawa - Initiative
Connected City
• Create a city where all residents and busi-nesses
are connected in an efficient, affordable, and
ubiquitous way.
Smart Economy
• Stimulate economic growth by supporting
knowledge-based business expansion and
attraction, local entre-preneurs, and smart talent
development.
Innovative Government
• Develop new and innovative ways to impact the
lives of residents and businesses through the
creative use of new service delivery models,
technology solutions, and partnerships.

5.4.4 Montréal – Ville Intelligente, Strategy
& Action Plan
“A smart and digital city means
better services for citizens, a
universally higher standard of
living and harnessing of our
metropolis’s resources to ensure
its development is in line with
the population’s needs”
Vice Chair of the Executive Committee,
responsible for the smart city, Harout
Chitilian

5.4.4 Ontario Smart Grid
The Electricity Act, 1998242 defines a Smart Grid as follows:
• (1.3) For the purposes of this Act, the smart grid means the
advanced information exchange systems and equipment that
when utilized together improve the flexibility, security,
reliability, efficiency and safety of the integrated power
system and distribution systems, particularly for the
purposes of
• (a) enabling the increased use of renewable energy sources and technology,
including generation facilities connected to the distribution system;
• (b) expanding opportunities to provide demand response, price information
and load control to electricity customers;
• (c) accommodating the use of emerging, innovative and energy saving
technologies and system control applications; or
• (d) supporting other objectives that may be prescribed by regulation. 2009, c.
12, Sched. B, s. 1 (5).

5.4.6 International Best Practices
• Chicago
• Helsinky
• New York
• Barcelona
• Dublin
Open smart cities include:
• Rights (GDPR & right to repair)
• Are in the public interest
• Ethics (Quebec, NyC, Helsinki,
Chicago)
• Environmental considerations
• Critical and meaningful public
engagement & dialogue not just
consultation
• Ecosystems approach (ASDI and
Dublin Report)

5.5 Observations

Digital
Strategies
Open
Data
Open
Science
Open
Platform
Open Source
Open
Government
5.5.1 Smart Cities - Openness
YesNo MaybeUnlikely
Smart Cities/
Precision Ag/
IoT
Likely

Mapping
openness onto
the smart city
requires the
Integration of
digital
practices Alllevelsofgovernment
5.5.2 Smart Cities – Openness

5.5.3 What did we learn
• Smart cities are new & emerging & citizens do not generally know what
is coming, may not be the drivers
• Need to identify issues to be resolved with technology instead of
technology looking for issues
• More data does not mean better governance
• Very few overarching socio-technical and ethical considerations
• Requirement for technological citizenship
• Is this an innovation bias or is it a smart city that is best for the City, the
environment and its residents?

5.5.4 Smart City Challenges
• Data governance – residency, privacy, etc.
• Security & privacy vulnerabilities (hacking)
• E-waste – cost, short shelf life
• Mission creep - potential
• Surveillance / dataveillance potential
• Ownership / procurement
• Repair – DRM
• Device lock in
• Archiving - the lack thereof
• Reuse – unintended purposes
• Sustainability, maintenance & management
• Interoperability
• Standards – emerging

5.6 Open Smart City Guide V 1.0

5.6.1 What is a city?

A city is
• a complex and dynamic socio-biological system
• territorially bound
• a human settlement
• governed by public city officials who manage
• the grey, blue and green environment
• within their jurisdictional responsibility

5.6.2. What is a smart city?

A smart city is
• technologically instrumented & networked w/ systems that are
interlinked & integrated, where vast troves of big urban data are
being generated by sensors & administrative processes used to
manage & control urban life in real-time (Kitchin, 2018).
• where administrators and elected officials invest in smart city
technologies & data analytical systems to inform how to
innovatively, economically, efficiently & objectively run &
manage the city.
• The focus is most often to quantify & manage infrastructure,
mobility, business & online government services.
• a form of technological solutionism.

5.6.3 What is an open smart city?

Definition of the Open Smart City V 1.0
An Open Smart City is where residents, civil society, academics,
and the private sector collaborate with public officials to
mobilize data and technologies when warranted in an ethical,
accountable and transparent way to govern the city as a fair,
viable and liveable commons and balance economic
development, social progress and environmental responsibility.

5 Open Smart City Themes
1. Governance
2. Engagement
3. Data & Technology
4. Data Governance
5. Effective and values based smart cities

Theme 1. Governance in an Open Smart City
is ethical, accountable, and transparent.
These principles apply to the governance of
social and technical platforms which include
data, algorithms, skills, infrastructure, and
knowledge.

87T. P. Lauriault, R. Bloom & J.-N. Landry, 2018, Open Smart Cities in Canada Project, https://www.opennorth.ca/open-smart-cities-guide

Theme 1. Resources arranged as follows:
• Ethical Governance
• Governance Structures and Participation
• Cooperative and Multi-jurisdictional Governance
• Accountable Governance
• Transparent Governance
• Cooperative Governance

Theme 2. An Open Smart City is participatory,
collaborative, and responsive. It is a city where
government, civil society, the private sector,
the media, academia and residents
meaningfully participate in the governance of
the city and have shared rights and
responsibilities. This entails a culture of trust
and critical thinking and fair, just, inclusive,
and informed approaches.

• Participatory
• Collaborative
• Responsive
• Trust
• Critical Thinking
• Fair & Just
• Inclusive & Informed

Theme 3. An Open Smart City uses data and
technologies that are fit for purpose, can be repaired
and queried, their source code are open, adhere to
open standards, are interoperable, durable, secure,
and where possible locally procured and scalable.
Data and technology are used and acquired in such a
way as to reduce harm and bias, increase
sustainability and enhance flexibility. An Open Smart
City may defer when warranted to automated
decision making and therefore designs these systems
to be legible, responsive, adaptive and accountable.
T. P. Lauriault, R. Bloom & J.-N. Landry, Open Smart Cities in Canada Project

• Fit for Purpose
• Repaired and Queried
• Open Source
• Open Standards
• Cybersecurity and Data Security
• Reduction of Harm and Bias
• Local Procurement
• Balancing Sustainability

Theme 4. In an Open Smart City, data
management is the norm and custody and
control over data generated by smart
technologies is held and exercised in the public
interest. Data governance includes sovereignty,
residency, open by default, security, individual
and social privacy, and grants people authority
over their personal data.

• Data Management
• Custody of Data
• Residency
• Open by Default
• Security
• Privacy
• Personal Data Management
T. P. Lauriault, R. Bloom & J.-N. Landry, Open Smart

Theme 5. In an Open Smart City, it is
recognized that data and technology are not
always the solution to many of the systemic
issues cities face, nor are there always quick
fixes. These problems require innovative,
sometimes long term, social, organizational,
economic, and political processes and
solutions.

Complex urban social issues need more than
technology for resolution:

Final Remarks
• The Open Smart City Guide V1.0 is a Living Document that will
be updated on a regular basis and we are counting on you for
your help.
• http://www.opennorth.ca/open-smart-cities-guide
• Please send feedback, ideas, critiques etc. to
• info@opennorth.ca

Abstract
Critically Assembling Data, Processes and Things in the City: Toward and Open Smart City
This lecture will critically focus on smart cities from a data based socio-technological assemblage approach. It is a
theoretical and methodological framework that allows for an empirical examination of how smart cities are socially and
technically constructed, and to study them as discursive regimes and as a large technological infrastructural systems.
The lecture will refer to the research outcomes of the ERC funded Programmable City Project led by Rob Kitchin at
Maynooth University and will feature examples of empirical research conducted in Dublin and other Irish cities.
In addition, the lecture will discuss the research outcomes of the Canadian Open Smart Cities project funded by the
Government of Canada GeoConnections Program. Examples will be drawn from five case studies namely about the cities
of Edmonton, Guelph, Ottawa and Montreal, and the Ontario Smart Grid as well as number of international best
practices. The recent Infrastructure Canada Canadian Smart City Challenge and the controversial Sidewalk Lab
Waterfront Toronto project will also be discussed.
It will be argued that no two smart cities are alike although the technological solutionist and networked urbanist
approaches dominate and it is suggested that these kind of smart cities may not live up to the promise of being better
places to live.
In this lecture, the ideals of an Open Smart City are offered instead and in this kind of city residents, civil society,
academics, and the private sector collaborate with public officials to mobilize data and technologies when warranted in
an ethical, accountable and transparent way in order to govern the city as a fair, viable and livable commons that
balances economic development, social progress and environmental responsibility. Although an Open Smart City does not
yet exist, it will be argued that it is possible.

Acknowledgements
The research referred to in this lecture was funded by two
organizations:
Programmable City
Led by Prof. Rob Kitchin and funded by the European
Research Council Advanced Investigator award ERC-2012-AdG-
323636-SOFTCITY.
Open Smart City
Conducted in collaboration with Open North, and funded by the
GeoConnections Program, Natural Resources Canada
I would like to thank all those who participated in interviews.

Critically Assembling Data, Processes & Things: Toward and Open Smart City

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