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The Tech Building Blocks of City 2.0

Posted by Soulskill on from the more-realistic-than-flying-cars dept.

CWmike writes "Sci-Fi writers call it Utopia, the glorious City of the Future. But short of downtown atriums being guarded by invisible walls and flying cars, City 2.0 is not as far off as you may think, writes John Brandon. Ubiquitous wireless networks are already available in Baltimore and Minneapolis, Thomson Reuters has sustainable data centers that sell power back to the local utility, the smart energy grid is well on its way, and city-provided social networks are common. While the concept of City 2.0 is monumental, these key technology advancements are already helping pave the road to the next-generation city. The next steps toward the city of tomorrow are all about integrating these services cohesively, making them widely available across the entire metropolis and managing the services more efficiently. 'The reality is that the city of the future will likely have many aspects of a contained and managed ecosystem,' says analyst Rob Enderle."

70 comments

  1. You know what they say? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait for City 3.1.

    1. Re:You know what they say? by 4D6963 · · Score: 1

      I'll wait for City 17

      Sincerely,

      A Concerned Citizen

      --
      You just got troll'd!
  2. Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by segedunum · · Score: 1

    Yes, a well connected city like they're describing is possible but it means open standards people can actually implement and the complete ditching of proprietary stuff, certainly in all core infrastructure. Without that, bugger all will work and it will fail completely. I can't see it happening any time soon.

    1. Re:Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by plover · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Of course it can be done with proprietary gear. That's what the proxy or bridge patterns are for: commonize the interfaces so that Fred's Electric Controllers and Barney's Electric Controllers both have a common ElectricController interface.

      Retail did that 15 years ago with the Unified POS device standards. Every barcode scanner out there has a different interface: different commands to turn it on and off, different electrical requirements, etc., but every scanner ultimately does the same task - it reads a barcode. So 15 years ago the retail industry said "we're sick of this" and developed a de facto standard that became UPOS. All a vendor has to do is wrap their device driver in a little proxy layer so it meets the common UPOS interface standard, and any cash register can use it (yes, UPOS today is limited to Windows and Java implementations.)

      It doesn't matter if it's a Microsoft WindowsCE electric controller or an Open Source GNU electric controller. As long as the cities arrive at a common interface spec for what a core electric controller does, this can work.

      --
      John
    2. Re:Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that The guys I worked for last year got sued into oblivion for trying to implement this defacto standard. Turns out it's patented, by a fun stealth patent.

      Posting anon due to *u*king Nda.

    3. Re:Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by v1 · · Score: 1

      Turns out it's patented, by a fun stealth patent.

      What's a "stealth patent"?

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    4. Re:Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Also known as a submarine patent: basically, patent something and try as hard as possible to keep the patent secret while encouraging the use of the technology. Then, once everyone is using it and is too locked-in to change, start charging licensing fees on the patent.

    5. Re:Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by segedunum · · Score: 1

      Of course it can be done with proprietary gear. That's what the proxy or bridge patterns are for: commonize the interfaces so that Fred's Electric Controllers and Barney's Electric Controllers both have a common ElectricController interface....It doesn't matter if it's a Microsoft WindowsCE electric controller or an Open Source GNU electric controller.

      This made me piss myself with laughter. Certainly the last part did. I don't think either you or those who have modded you up have quite grasped tha last thirty years of hardware and software activity. Interfaces and standards, although useful in theory, count for absolutely nothing. The implementation is everything, and the only way of being compatible with an implementation yourself is to either buy it or know what's in it. You've totally painted over the computer industry's failure on that front as well as patents, NDAs and a ton of other barriers that simply stop compatibility in any practical sense. Without knowing the ins and outs of an implementation then history has shown us that bugger all works.

      The fact that you laughably talk about WindowsCE and 'Open Source GNU' even leads me to believe that you're a bit of a shill who's still trying to peddle that 'Open standards and not open source' crap that Microsoft in particular has been trying to get over. Sorry, but open source guarantees open standards because everyone is going to know how your stuff works anyway.

    6. Re:Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by samurphy21 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You've totally painted over the computer industry's failure on that front

      TCP IP, UDP, PCI, ISA, USB, SATA, IDE, ASCII TXT.

      These are some pretty big non-failures of open standards that allow any implementation of various devices and data to interact and communicate successfully. While I have no doubt that there are examples of failures, as well, the fact that I can read what you write on my computer, made by a different manufacturer, to different specs, with different architecture from yours says that intercommunication of a heterogeneous nature is not a fart in the wind.

    7. Re:Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by plover · · Score: 1

      The fact that you laughably talk about WindowsCE and 'Open Source GNU' even leads me to believe that you're a bit of a shill who's still trying to peddle that 'Open standards and not open source' crap that Microsoft in particular has been trying to get over. Sorry, but open source guarantees open standards because everyone is going to know how your stuff works anyway.

      You're making crap up. I never said anything about closed source. The patterns OPOS so successfully established were indeed open source. They are used to proxy the closed-source proprietary device drivers.

      I've been using OPOS for 14 years. None of the hardware scanner makers, Symbol, Norand, Welch-Allyn or PSC created it. They were perfectly happy to have vendor lock-in where we could only replace one Symbol scanner with another Symbol scanner. Instead, competitors in the retail software business, PSI, ICL, Fujitsu, IBM and NCR all helped create it.

      What that means to me is that the software vendors turned scanner hardware into a commodity item. I can go to any of the hardware vendors and ask "Do you have OPOS service objects for your scanners?" If the answer is "no", we take our money and walk away, which is why the answer has always been "yes" for the last 8 years.

      The OPOS interface standard is also simple enough and documented well enough that anyone who can write a device driver can implement a service object for an unsupported device. A big part of the success is that it's divided into two parts: a Common Control layer and a vendor-provided Service Object layer. The hardware vendors just have to provide the Service Objects, and the POS software vendors have to consume the Common Control objects. And the OPOS Common Control layer is indeed open. Anyone can download the source. All the proprietary stuff is hidden away, either in the retail software or in the device drivers. It was also so successful that the retailers running Java and Linux based POS introduced their own flavor, JPOS. Curiously enough, Microsoft's .Net version of it, POS for .Net, hasn't been nearly as well received by the retailers.

      If the industry is powerful enough (retail is big) they can make things happen in their own domain that will force hardware suppliers to a standard of the industry's choosing. It won't happen overnight, but it can be done. History has shown it to be wildly successful in retail. And I believe that city governments could also eventually evolve a set of common interfaces or services. They're big enough, there are an awful lot of them, and they're already surprisingly well organized through Leagues of Cities and other organizations. All it would take would be for some technologically advanced cities in a large state (the valley cities in California are likely candidates) to adopt a set of standards for some of their services, and for those to spread through the rest of the state. From there, they could spread nationally.

      There is absolutely a lesson there: it can be done despite patents, and despite powerful industries that historically used hardware lock-in to guarantee future sales. And open source helps.

      --
      John
    8. Re:Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by sjames · · Score: 1

      See also Rambus vs. JEDIC, or the much more overt rand terms on patents in ISO standards.

      rand = "reasonable and non-discriminatory' = give me all your cash and I'll sneer derisively while stifling a laugh, no matter who you are.

  3. The building blocks.... by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems like the more we talk about this utopian city, we get ever so close to the ideal dystopian city.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:The building blocks.... by demachina · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unless its a city without traffic, pollution, gangs, poverty and the homeless its going to look pretty much the same to me. Getting rid of cars, trucks, and sirens would be the biggest step to a Utopian city I can think of assuming you replace it with effective transit, kinder gentler taxis, an effective logistics mechanism to replace trucks and effective emergency services without sirens.

      I recall reading recently there is a 2 mile square suburb in Germany which was designed to ban cars. They have communal garages on the edge for your cars. Rail service to commute to jobs in the city. Stores are designed to be walked to. Its bikes and pedestrians only in the interior. That is pretty close to Utopia for me.

      If people in businesses like IT, finance, etc and can telecommute effectively that would also be a huge step. Commuting alone make urban/suburban design an unavoidable living hell.

      Solving the homeless problem a lot harder. You can't just cage them, can't just ship them somewhere else, and you can't just wave a wand and solve the drug abuse, mental illness, criminal records, hatred for the man and hatred for 40 hour work weeks in factories and offices that made them the way they are.

      Here is an interesting article on CounterPunch with Alex Rivera, an indie sci fi film producer from Peru about his dystopian film, Sleep Dealer. It raises some interesting issues. One of the premises is based on a future sealing of the border to illegal immigrants who will instead continue to work in the U.S. through virtual links, like driving Taxi's, assembly line work in factories through robots, mowing lawns, etc. Its the ultimate continuation to outsourcing and globalization.

      --
      @de_machina
    2. Re:The building blocks.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      "I recall reading recently there is a 2 mile square suburb in Germany which was designed to ban cars. They have communal garages on the edge for your cars. Rail service to commute to jobs in the city. Stores are designed to be walked to. Its bikes and pedestrians only in the interior. That is pretty close to Utopia for me."

      We call it a "mall" in the U.S. I don't think it's a utopia. Given your statement I think you would be in heaven if you went to the Mall of America. ;)

      queue angelic theme... aaaaaahaaaaaaahaaaaaa

    3. Re:The building blocks.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2 mile square suburb in Germany which was designed to ban cars

      I think most university campuses fit that description. My uni's campus is 8.5 square miles. Pretty much no cars on the inside. Everyone walks and bikes. People work, learn, live, eat, etc. within those 8.5 square miles and the edges have parking lots where people get in their cars and go away...

    4. Re:The building blocks.... by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Unless its a city without traffic, pollution, gangs, poverty and the homeless its going to look pretty much the same to me.

      Traffic and pollution can be solved by technical means, but the rest I don't think are solvable without resorting to some kind of draconian measures, like taking homeless people to concentration camps. You could solve those problems in some places by having a relatively affluent population (like some small countries do now), but this usually means that poor people and mentally imbalanced people (that's the homeless; they're not homeless just because they have no money) end up located somewhere else, much like we currently have "developed" countries and "underdeveloped" countries that always seem to stay "underdeveloped" no matter how much aid people throw at them.

      Getting rid of cars, trucks, and sirens would be the biggest step to a Utopian city I can think of assuming you replace it with effective transit, kinder gentler taxis, an effective logistics mechanism to replace trucks and effective emergency services without sirens.

      A lot of this can be done by moving to a proper rapid transit system. Such a thing doesn't exist yet; it's been tried with trains and such for years, but that only works in a few places. The answer is something like this; small, autonomous cars which go where you want, under automatic control along mag-lev tracks. This would eliminate most commuter traffic, though door-to-door service (like ambulances need) would still need a ground vehicle. I'm not sure how you'd get away from sirens though, because even without many private vehicles, ambulances would still have to contend with pedestrians, who need to hear such vehicles approaching.

      I recall reading recently there is a 2 mile square suburb in Germany which was designed to ban cars. They have communal garages on the edge for your cars. Rail service to commute to jobs in the city. Stores are designed to be walked to. Its bikes and pedestrians only in the interior. That is pretty close to Utopia for me.

      Sounds great, until you need to get some groceries. I don't know about you, but when I go shopping, I'm not capable of carrying a couple hundred pounds of goods home with me in two arms. Of course, the anti-car people usually tell me that I should simply go shopping at the corner market every day, or even better, just eat out all the time. The latter only works for people with a lot of money, and the former only works for people with too much time on their hands, and is really quite inefficient. I guess we could have groceries delivered, but that's not exactly cheap either.

      If people in businesses like IT, finance, etc and can telecommute effectively that would also be a huge step. Commuting alone make urban/suburban design an unavoidable living hell.

      Programming lends itself well to telecommuting, but many other jobs don't. While computer workers like us would frequently rather be alone, most other people like to be around other people. They're extroverts. They're not going to want to stay home in front of a computer all day, and videoconferencing isn't a replacement for the face-to-face interaction these people want. Personally, I have little interest in face-to-face interaction with my coworkers, but the people who write my paycheck aren't like that; they're extroverts, and that's why telecommuting hasn't really taken off that much.

      But the commuting problem can be easily solved with SkyTran as I pointed out before.

      Solving the homeless problem a lot harder. You can't just cage them, can't just ship them somewhere else, and you can't just wave a wand and solve the drug abuse, mental illness, criminal records, hatred for the man and hatred for 40 hour work weeks in factories and offices that made them the way they are.

      Actually, you can cage them. That's what we used to do, decades ago. Homeless people aren't homeless because they can't stand 40-hour work weeks; they're homeles

    5. Re:The building blocks.... by CodeBuster · · Score: 1

      If people in businesses like IT, finance, etc and can telecommute effectively that would also be a huge step

      Telecommuting is being killed by MBAs and other ignorant management types who are able to judge effectiveness only by who shows up at 8:00 am and sits in their cubicle all day looking busy. The problem IMHO is that MBAs and other business majors are taught that just about everything in a modern business, and especially with the right technology, can be precisely measured and controlled. Unfortunately, the real world is rarely so precise and it takes the sort of creative thinking and problem solving skills that are rarely found in recent MBA graduates to appreciate that and act accordingly. Finally, when a telecommunications company, such as AT&T, kills their telecommuting programs what sort of signal does that send to the rest of the corporate world?

    6. Re:The building blocks.... by demachina · · Score: 1

      Actually no, its the exact opposite of a mall. Malls are usually completely pedestrian hostile to get to. I think I'm talking about old fashioned corner grocery stores with lots of fresh produce out front. Malls also demand a huge population to support them meaning many of them travel long distances to get to it.... in cars.

      --
      @de_machina
    7. Re:The building blocks.... by demachina · · Score: 1

      "Of course, the anti-car people usually tell me that I should simply go shopping at the corner market every day, or even better, just eat out all the time."

      That is exactly what you should do and the "anti-car" people are right. If you shop every day or two for smaller quantities of groceries it means you can have more fresh bread, fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. Your food would taste better and be better for you than living off frozen food and out of cans.

      --
      @de_machina
    8. Re:The building blocks.... by demachina · · Score: 1

      "videoconferencing isn't a replacement for the face-to-face interaction these people want. Personally, I have little interest in face-to-face interaction with my coworkers, but the people who write my paycheck aren't like that; they're extroverts, and that's why telecommuting hasn't really taken off that much."

      I think those people are just dinosaurs. VoIP and video conferencing is a completely sufficient replacement for communicating everything that needs to be communicated in a business once you acclimate to it. I imagine the only thing you are losing is time wasting BS'ing at the "water cooler", eavesdropping on others BS'ing, office politics, getting drunk after work, and the hitting on your coworkers, all of which are probably a net negative to actual productivity.

      I seriously don't know how people "think" in cube farms, with the constant noise, especially due to constant ringing phones and people talking on phones. Only way I could stand them was thanks to iTunes and internet radio. Having to listen to music all day isn't entirely healthy for productive thought either.

      Offices, commuting and cube farms are entirely a product of an age when you pretty much had to force everyone in to one place because telecommunications technology sucked. Times have changed. With a large percentage of workers doing most of their work through computers, there is zero reason you couldn't switch to telecommuting in a big way for everything other than factory work. About the only challenge you have is managers have to be astute enough to figure out who is producing and who isn't. I wager anyone who doesn't produce telecommuting probably doesn't produce sitting in a cube either. They are probably just better at faking it when they are in a cube.

      --
      @de_machina
    9. Re:The building blocks.... by mspohr · · Score: 1

      draconian measures, like taking homeless people to concentration camps

      Switzerland seems to have solved the problem of homeless people by giving them a place to live and taking care of their health problems. It's actually quite humane. I haven't seen a single homeless person in the three years I've been here.

      A lot of this can be done by moving to a proper rapid transit system. Such a thing doesn't exist yet...

      Actually, Switzerland does have an excellent nationwide transit system. It's an integrated network of trains and buses that you can use to go literally anywhere in the country. All decidedly low tech (except for the networking that keeps everything in sync) but quite effective.

      Sounds great, until you need to get some groceries. I don't know about you, but when I go shopping, I'm not capable of carrying a couple hundred pounds of goods home with me in two arms.

      I guess that you live in some primitive society without shopping carts and conveniently located stores... (Carts...not the kind you find in grocery stores but the kind you use to pull your stuff home... Easily handle a full weeks shopping. We also have internet shopping and delivery at quite reasonable prices.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    10. Re:The building blocks.... by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      That's idiotic. I don't have time to waste going to the grocery store every single day. I have better things to do with my time than that.

      As for frozen food and cans, I guess you've never heard of an invention called the "refrigerator". It keeps my fruits and vegetables quite fresh, so I don't have to go shopping more than once a week.

    11. Re:The building blocks.... by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I think those people are just dinosaurs. VoIP and video conferencing is a completely sufficient replacement for communicating everything that needs to be communicated in a business once you acclimate to it. I imagine the only thing you are losing is time wasting BS'ing at the "water cooler", eavesdropping on others BS'ing, office politics, getting drunk after work, and the hitting on your coworkers, all of which are probably a net negative to actual productivity.

      You can think that way all you want, but are you in charge of a multimillion-dollar (or multibillion) publicly traded company, or any company of any size at all? No? Neither am I. The people that are in charge of these companies value all those things you list above (probably including banging their secretaries), and they're the ones that write my paycheck.

      I'd be perfectly happy to never come to the office, and just do all my work at home and communicate by email, but technical types like me aren't the ones running companies, it's the "dinosaurs" who value things like taking clients out to bars and getting drunk, banging secretaries, water cooler conversations, office politics, etc.

      I seriously don't know how people "think" in cube farms, with the constant noise, especially due to constant ringing phones and people talking on phones. Only way I could stand them was thanks to iTunes and internet radio. Having to listen to music all day isn't entirely healthy for productive thought either.

      It sucks, but it's not quite as bad as you make out, at least in the places I've worked. Usually, engineers like me are seated in cubes surrounded by other engineers, and engineers don't generally talk on the phone a lot, so there's usually not many ringing phones, talking, etc. Now, when you have engineers seated next to marketing types (I did have one cube like that years ago), then it becomes a real problem. Nothing kills your productivity faster than sitting next to some loud-mouth who talks on the phone all the time.

      Offices, commuting and cube farms are entirely a product of an age when you pretty much had to force everyone in to one place because telecommunications technology sucked. Times have changed.

      No, they haven't, at least not that I've seen. While all the technology is certainly in place for lots of workers (especially technical workers like myself) to stay at home and work, the people who are our managers simply don't think that way, and I don't know how long it'll be before it becomes generally accepted. Some companies do allow a fair amount of telecommuting, and a few only do telecommuting and have no office at all, but these companies are few and far between. I've worked at several very large tech companies (Intel, Freescale, etc.) and none of them use telecommuting to a very large extent.

      I think telecommuting will become more prevalent, but it's going to take a lot longer than we technical types wish because the people in charge simply don't think the way we do.

    12. Re:The building blocks.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One component of the "City 2.0" will be a manageable singular interface for communication, consolidating all the new technologies. In that vein, you can look at Unified Communications as the early technology that can evolve into a truly revolutionary solution. Check out Adaptive Engineering's Concourse software www.adaptiveengine.com if you want to see how user-oriented, efficiency-minded communications software is transforming the way enterprises function.

  4. Re:fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Not until City 3.0. Please be patient.

  5. Utopia by rhyder128k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As an aside, More's novel describes a constructed society that had strived for perfection with absurd outcomes. Always makes me smile when people assume Utopia to mean an ideal society. Having said that, perhaps the hubris is typically apt. BTW, nearly 500 years old but still a highly recommended short read.

    --
    Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
    1. Re:Utopia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Laura who?

  6. Dumb and dumber. by khasim · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yankee Group calls this the Anywhere initiative, which is partly about making mobility in a city infrastructure more flexible, efficient and scalable. In this model, anything can be an end point, including portable gadgets, your vehicle, an office building and your home.

    Jeffrey Breen, chief technology officer at the Yankee Group, says that the IP-based, packet-switched cloud model in the enterprise can apply to city infrastructure -- that is, as a vast, interconnected smart grid and social network with widespread and reliable wireless access. Mobile citizens would be a click away from city services.

    Imagine it. a quarter million devices connecting to your wireless "cloud".

    None of which were spec'ed or validated by you or your group.

    Tech support nightmare. Not to mention maintaining all the access points.

    This is not "Utopia". This is WiFi. A means of connecting wireless devices (most of them) to services (most of the time).

    1. Re:Dumb and dumber. by PowerVegetable · · Score: 1

      Couldn't've said it better.

      We're hit with media stories every day, and it's important to build a set of add-on attachments for your Bullshit Meter.

      The one on display here is "if the source is using an exciting fantasy to sell you on their premise, there might be bullshit"

      Also, "If the source is speaking in general terms about technology, there might be bullshit"

  7. TR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey I've been to the Thomson Reuters data centers, pretty awesome, and yah I think they said that every once in a while, they'll drop off the utility grid and power their own center with the four 2MW diesels. Those things are beasts.

  8. Utopia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Utopia is a world without idiots like Enderle and Laura Dildio.

  9. Mandatory punishment by hwyhobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Could we please have mandatory flogging for anyone who uses the term "2.0" with anything other than numbered software or documentation revisions? It has got to be more annoying by now than "paradigm".

    --
    End anonymous moderation and posting on /.
    1. Re:Mandatory punishment by Brett+Buck · · Score: 4, Funny

      I disagree. I think you can combine "2.0" and "paradigm" to instantiate their synergy to create a diverse empowerment of all stakeholders. As long as you don't brick society in the process. Call it "English 2.0".

                Brett

    2. Re:Mandatory punishment by still+cynical · · Score: 1

      I disagree. I think you can combine "2.0" and "paradigm" to instantiate their synergy to create a diverse empowerment of all stakeholders. As long as you don't brick society in the process. Call it "English 2.0".

                Brett

      Wow. You better hope the Buddhists aren't right, otherwise your next life is going to suck a lot for that one.

      --
      Ignorance is the root of all evil.
    3. Re:Mandatory punishment by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

      Are you suggesting I am recycling comments from a prior existence?

    4. Re:Mandatory punishment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, that versioning is perfectly fine. Don't tell me you want to call it City SVN20090516! But they got the version number wrong, I would say that given the city development history, this is more like City 6.0 or even City 6.1.

      No, looking at the FA, it looks more like City 6.1 RC6 to me.

  10. Yet another bad article. by American+Terrorist · · Score: 5, Informative
    For those who didn't bother to RTFA, let me save you some time: new energy generation and distribution techniques + more internet = new cities. The money quote

    The reality is that the city of the future will likely have many aspects of a contained and managed ecosystem

    is just retarded, as anyone who has ever been anywhere near a city realizes that none of them are remotely resemble contained ecosystems, no matter how much solar power and internet you add.

  11. media does not a city make by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The city of the future will need food, clothing, competent shelter, and transportation.

    Like all the cities of the past, media was not high on the list of necessities. In fact, it wasn't on the list because te technology didn't exist. And media won't be high on the list in the future, either.

    To quote Brecht:

    You gentlemen who think you have a mission
    To purge us of the seven deadly sins
    Should first sort out the basic food position
    Then start your preaching that's where it begins.
    You lot who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
    Should learn for once the way world is run
    Whatever words you twist or lies you tell
    FOOD is the first thing - morals follow on.
    So first make sure that those
    Who are now starving
    Get proper helpings when we all start carving!

    What keeps mankind alive?

    WHAT KEEPS MANKIND ALIVE?
    The fact that millions
    Are daily tortured stifled punished silenced and oppressed.
    Mankind can keep alive
    Thanks to its brilliance
    In keeping its humanity repressed.
    And for once you must try not to shirk the facts:
    Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.

    The average city of 2050 will more resemble Calcutta than Dubai.

    Word.
    RS

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
    1. Re:media does not a city make by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dubai is a shithole

    2. Re:media does not a city make by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 1

      Totally. But not as much of a shithole as Calcutta.

      --
      Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  12. My future city by Animats · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I want my city to have a Steel Pipe Snow Melting System. And underground freight tunnels. And a Continuous Transit System with Sub-Surface Moving Platforms. And rooftop heliports. And skyscraper restaurants.

    1. Re:My future city by American+Terrorist · · Score: 1

      1. Move farther south

      2. No need, most freight moves around cities, not through.

      3. Might work in cartoons.

      4. I'll care when I can afford a helicopter. If everyone owns one, where do they all park?

      5. They already exist.

  13. Oh jesus christ! by n3tcat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Enough with the 2.0 bullshit! This isn't City 2.0! this is City 11,050,523.6.15 RC4.

    Unfortunately, this is exactly like when they used to call shit "So and So 2000" or "So and So Xtra". I guess the 2.0 will stop whenever they have a new futuristic-sounding moniker.

    1. Re:Oh jesus christ! by sjames · · Score: 1

      Once the political machine get's involved, 2.0 will probably be the appropriate term. Of course we all know what an x.0 version is like. The smart people wait for x.1.

  14. What a lousy article... by sirwired · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lets take it from the top:

    1) They quote Rob Enderele. A "I know something about everything" 'IT consultant'. Also known for rendering his expert opinion on topics such as "Open Source and the Fools Who Use It". Thought the SCO Group had an open and shut case.
    2) Okay, a few example projects for the SmartGrid stuff. However, modulating electric use during peak periods is several decades old.
    3) Blogs! Chat! Wikis! Buzzword-driven crap. We already have things like Newspapers! Telephones! Websites!... the "Web 2.0-ish" stuff is hardly a revolution.
    4) For a high-tech city, San Jose sure does have a primitive airport. You get to board a jetliner using a set of roller-stairs after passing through the '50s area terminal. I think a child with an Erector Set could have built their new Terminal faster.
    5) We quote a product manager at Intel for information on how great WiMax is. Gee, there's an impartial source. Too bad WiMax has yet to get significant traction in the market. Clearwire is badly struggling and isn't very good.
    6) After more worthless jabber from Enderele... A data center w/ backup batteries! A technological miracle! If needed, they can run the data center off the diesel generators! Morons... small diesel generators are so damn expensive to run, it would rarely, if ever, make sense to crank them except during a power outage.
    7) More quotes from another Buzzword Generator, the Yankee Group. How do I become an "IT Consultant" of this type?

    SirWired

  15. Deja vu. by dingo_kinznerhook · · Score: 0

    Every time someone mentions a bright vision for a city, I think of Le Corbusier and the Pruitt-Igoe project. It may work in principle, but there's always the potential for things to go wrong socially in a way that wasn't expected.

    Of course, human nature has improved since then. Techology's prepped the world to usher in a bright new era of human achievement!

    --
    "God does not play Minecraft with the world." - Albert Einstein
  16. enderleisanidiot by sys.stdout.write · · Score: 1

    Aren't tags supposed to help group stories together? ;-)

    1. Re:enderleisanidiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. That's a pretty big group.

  17. Cool story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wake me up when we're talking about robots

  18. No, utopia would really be like... by Twinbee · · Score: 1

    I think a more realistic vision of utopia would involve better battery technology (to allow for less noisy and cheaper running engines), nuclear power, and solar panel tech (someone mentioned those in a recent story actually). And OLED screens to allow for GIANT screens. Solve those four, and the sky's the limit.

    Speaking of which, it would help if standard urban and residential surroundings were built like holiday resorts (with a focus towards zero maintenence). Also 'multiple levels' such as ziggurats, multi-tier *towns* (not just buildings), and things like grass which doesn't grow more than 2cm would help.

    --
    Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
  19. Metro Wifi is unfair and arguably illegal by shuz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I live in Minneapolis and our city wide wifi causes more problems than it solves. Once you get into the grid area reception to any access point other than the city wifi is poor. US Wireless ensured that their signals on all three non-overlapping channels are stronger anywhere inside the grid than any other source. That means Joe Bob running a personal wifi out of his home will have poorer reception than if this city wide wifi didn't exist. Oh and the wifi is both not free(actually rather expensive) and low bandwidth. I think that a city wide wireless network can have positive benefits, but I believe it needs to be better designed to not dance around fcc rules of broadcasting radio signals in a spectrum that is designed for general public use. My best suggestion would be to use a radio spectrum that had decent material penetration, one that is licensed by the FCC so no one else can use it, and uses a relatively cheap to manufacture radio in a number of general purpose packages. If we are going to use tax dollars to put together metro wireless internet grids why not simply design a technology around just that purpose. Of course I live inside a perfect world so take what I say with a grain of salt.

    --
    There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
    1. Re:Metro Wifi is unfair and arguably illegal by cypris87 · · Score: 1

      On the other end of the spectrum, I live in Baltimore, and have Sprint's WiMAX in my apartment. It's not the best internet connection I've ever had at home, but it's always at least 2 times better than the DSL that was the only other option. I no longer have problems streaming Netflix, and often times get the best quality, so it's definitely good enough.

  20. Ubiquitous my ass by ahs_boy · · Score: 1

    I live in Baltimore city, and there ain't no "Ubiquitous wireless networks" around any of my coffeeshops, dammit.

  21. Two-Point-Oh by juancnuno · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one sick of two-point-oh? Seriously, just stop.

  22. Cities need to be organic by Brandybuck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cities need to grow and evolve "organically". All of this new technology is wonderful and awesome, but if imposed from above by planners, will only result in distortions and unintended consequences. City planning beyond a local neighborhood level just doesn't work well. We don't like to admit it, because we've been taught since childhood that central planners are quasi-omniscient, but it's true. Cities are just too complex.

    That doesn't mean that cities don't get planned, they do. Cities are an emergent order. No one person (or committee) can possibly plan an efficient healthy city, but the voluntary interactions of a hundred thousand inhabitants can give rise to one. The information needed to run a city is extremely dispersed and constantly changing, so that it cannot be codified into a static plan. This is about Hayekian information coordination. It's something every city manager needs to understand. Only then will City 2.0 be open to us.

    --
    Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
    1. Re:Cities need to be organic by evilviper · · Score: 1

      City planning beyond a local neighborhood level just doesn't work well.

      False dichotomy. There is no such thing as a planned city (versus an unplanned city). It's all a question of degree.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    2. Re:Cities need to be organic by Brandybuck · · Score: 1

      I meant "centrally planned". Is there an individual or committee that imposes its plan on everyone from the top, or does the city arise from the interaction tens of thousands of individuals each with their own personal plans? Cities are an emergent order, and pure central planning cannot work any more than pure communism can work. It's against human nature.

      --
      Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
    3. Re:Cities need to be organic by evilviper · · Score: 1

      Is there an individual or committee that imposes its plan on everyone from the top,

      Always! That's why cities have water, sewer, roads, waste disposal, etc. available.

      They don't go through and upgrade the infrastructure every time a new house is built. There is always a central authority planning ahead.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    4. Re:Cities need to be organic by Brandybuck · · Score: 1

      You've completely misunderstood my point.

      Take roads for an example. Many roads arose purely organically, with no planning, central or otherwise. They just happened to be where people walked and beat down a trail. Or where people decided to build their houses back centuries ago. Others follow the courses of rivers and streams. Once laid down, a curve in a road can remain long after the obstacle that was in its way is gone. Europe is a great example. Nearly all of the small towns are completely unplanned. Even the cities are largely organic. (It's one reason mass transit works so much better in Europe than in the hyper-planned Los Angeles basin). I had a friend visit from Germany who remarked on California, "all the roads are unnaturally straight!" Some roads are planned however, but not always centrally from the top. Often time its the real estate developer who lays out a few blocks in a subdivision. And of course, water and sewers tend to follow the roads.

      --
      Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
  23. Thomson Reuters? by Ant+P. · · Score: 1

    Same Thomson Reuters that's currently suing its own customers for reverse engineering their proprietary file formats?

  24. Core changes... by Colin+Smith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1: Walkable cities; http://www.newurbanism.org/

    Everything I need should be no more than 10 minutes walk. Why should I have to get in a car/bus/train to get the stuff I want. East Kilbride, Cumbernauld ... disasters.

    2: PRT: http://www.atsltd.co.uk/media/

    Solves much of the traffic and logistic problems for those areas you can't walk to.

    3: Reform of the monetary system; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFb26u9g8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxdPIOUTd2k

    Lending money into existence is the cause of a lot of our existing problems.

    Don't hold your breath on any of it.

    --
    Deleted
  25. Pneumatic tubes by doronbc · · Score: 1

    Pneumatic tubes, ala Futurama.

  26. Baltimore by IceCreamGuy · · Score: 1

    As I sit in my 130 year old studio apartment, I can safely say that I'll only consider Baltimore a city of the future when I get more than 200kb/s upload speeds and less than 130ms ISP gateway pings on my city-wide, 4G, futuristic-looking Xohm modem.

  27. smart energy grid? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who the hell wants the utilities knowing what you have plugged in at home not to mention selling that information.

  28. We need to go backward in the future city by a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*'(),x · · Score: 1
    We need to return to the pre-auto era, with cycling and walking, and some public transit, for a healthy future city.

    tOM

    --
    Epitaph: At last! Root access!
    1. Re:We need to go backward in the future city by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh, a 'legacy' city.

  29. 2.0, really? by ouachiski · · Score: 1

    Really, 2.0, I would have thought that cities had been through way more major revisions than that. probably be more in the ballpark calling it city 3589654782.0

    --
    sorry for my comments, I'm drunk
  30. Just more standards by meuon · · Score: 1

    The standards already exists: C12.22 (ANSI Standard) and the metaset provided via MultiSpeak (http://www.multispeak.org) are just the beginning. The problem is the classic one, or patents, trademarks, different technologies, philisophies and toolsets. Here, we have a bunch of IEEE Power Engineering Society types setting yet another set of standards. It doesn't mean they'll be adopted by anyone, and if so, if they will be well implemented. It's the stuff I write interfaces to every day, it's all arcane, it all depends on budgets, scope, vendors, trade secrets.. The utility industry WILL adopt common standards, because they need to to achieve cost effective integration. But the IEEE will have little to do with it. I've got a big roll of Linux powered duct tape at http://www.utiliflex.com/ that glues a lot of bad SOAP/XML/ModBus/DNP/SCADA together.. This world ("smart" grid/meter) needs an incredible amount of glue code.

    --
    Mike Harrison -