Summary
The article, “Google’s City-Fixing ‘Sidewalk Labs’ Is Finally Getting to Work” was an interesting piece written by Alex Davies, which explains Google’s recent endeavors to help create a “smart city”. In fact, this article talks about how Google plans to help solve urban cities biggest problems like congestion, housing, energy, and much more. Davies goes on to elaborate how Google has assembled an extraordinary group of individuals, highlighting Dan Doctoroff (former deputy mayor for economic development under Michael Bloomberg) to help “close the gap between traditional urban policy and the latest technology”. They plan to start working with 10 cities on proposals for the Sidewalk Labs citing their work in New York as an example of what they want to accomplish.
The Sidewalk Lab’s only public project has been referred to as LinkNYC. This project takes payphones and replaces it with a kiosk giving citizens the ability to use wifi, free local calls, and Internet browsing. This not only gives individuals without the disposable income exposure to the latest technology, it also gives Google the capabilities to collect data on traffic patterns, noise levels, and air quality.
Why Is This Important?
Being MIS professionals our jobs, more likely than not, will deal with using technology to create a competitive advantage. However, we don’t just want to give a competitive advantage, but to help apply the technology to set up customers for long-term success. For this particular case were not just seeing this philosophy being implemented for customers so to speak, but to help better prepare the community for the future by creating an extensive data sharing network.
Class Relation
Even though the article may not highlight any project management practices, I couldn’t help but wonder what approach Google was using to prepare for a massive project like Sidewalk Labs. Going back through the text, I couldn’t help but notice that they must be implementing some sort of adaptive SDLC due to complex, fast paced, and rapidly changing environment cities create. To be more specific, I believe that Google is using the Spiral Life Cycle model so they can continuously make refinements to their services while using information they’ve gathered from the previous project LinkNYC.
Thoughts
As we move into the future people are becoming more and more dependent on technology. From what you’ve read, do you see this as a good thing, or possibly a security/privacy risk for individual personal data? Also, where do you think Google stands in regards to SDLC? Do you agree or disagree with my assumption? Comment and let me know.
Source: http://www.wired.com/2016/02/googles-city-fixing-sidewalk-labs-is-finally-getting-to-work/
Thanks for sharing this article, Tyler. One thing that really stood out to me is how they are seeking urban builders who also understand technology. It seems like fewer and fewer careers can continue to exist if they are not backed by technical aptitude.
ReplyDeleteAs far as your point on the security/ privacy risk, I think that that is the largest concern I have with out world as it grows more and more dependent on technology is that we now have to consider risks that were never a problem before. With personal data, I am curious how they are going to implement so many capabilities without also using it as an opportunity to collect sensitive data. For example, with noise levels, those microphones could possibly be tapped into to listen to conversations. Expanding from an individual perspective however, cities running on technology could become more susceptible to modern day data terrorist attacks. I couldn't help but think about the Die Hard movie where the terrorist interrupts all aspects of the city. Imagine if we were all "driving" driverless cars as well!
I also agreed with your assumption on SDLC. Because this is a project that no one has attempted nor has a good understanding of how it will work, I think this is a perfect example of adaptive SDLC.
Great article and comment. Technical aptitude in city planning or collecting congestion, noise and pollution data require sophistication, and also a way to be transparent about what they are doing by sharing it with the public and getting comments from them. Not sure this is terrorist plot if everyone has eyes on the project. It's secrecy that could get them in trouble.
ReplyDeleteAnd why Spiral SDLC and not Agile? I didn't see this mentioned in the article, so just wondered your thinking.
ReplyDelete