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The Smart Cities Collaboratory will be focusing on the issues associated with the use of distributed smart grids.

The mission of the Smart Cities Collaboratory will be to explore issues associated with the use of distributed smart grids, cloud computing and mesh networks for the purpose of improving health, human security, resilience and sustainability. 

Members

Kathy Gilbeaux Maeryn Obley mdmcdonald Miles Marcotte Norea WDS1200-Columbus

Email address for group

smart-cities@m.resiliencesystem.org

Researchers Use GPS Data to Speed Up Tsunami Warnings

      

In this Jan. 2, 2005 file photo, a wide area of destruction is shown from an aerial view taken over Meulaboh, 250 kilometers (156 Miles) west of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Researchers in the United States are hoping to use GPS data to speed up current warnings. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

U.S. seismologists currently testing new warning system

by Andrew Pinsent - CBC News - May 5, 2012

Scientists in the United States have been testing an advanced tsunami warning system using GPS data, combined with traditional seismology networks, to attempt to detect the magnitude of an earthquake faster so warnings of potential tsunamis can get out to potentially affected areas sooner.

The prototype is called California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN), and is a collaboration between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, whose focus is on environmental conservation.

The City as Lab: 21 Metropoles Prepare to Prototype

Living Labs Global co-founder Sascha Haselmayer addresses the crowd in Rio de Janeiro

submitted by Albert Gomez

good.is - by Zak Stone - May 4, 2012

In a megapolis like Mexico City, any planning initiative that moves citizens from cars to busses will pay off in reductions to traffic and air pollution. A major deterrent to using public transportation in the city? Comfort, according to Dr. Julio Mendoza, director of Mexico City's Institute of Science and Technology. Many would rather drive than experience that particular breed of public transportation-pegged anxiety: waiting helplessly on the street corner for a bus that feels like it won't ever arrive.

After participating in the Living Labs Global Award program, a competition designed to help cities solve planning challenges, the Mexican capital may have found a fix. In February, Mexico City and 20 other LLGA participants around the world put out an open call to companies to pitch solutions to important but fixable problems.

The Third Industrial Revolution: How the Internet, Green Electricity, and 3-D Printing Are Ushering in a Sustainable Era of Distributed Capitalism

by Jeremy Rifkin - huffingtonpost.com - March 28, 2012

The great economic revolutions in history occur when new communication technologies converge with new energy systems. New energy revolutions make possible more expansive and integrated trade. Accompanying communication revolutions manage the new complex commercial activities made possible by the new energy flows.

Today, Internet technology and renewable energies are beginning to merge to create a new infrastructure for a Third Industrial Revolution (TIR) that will change the way power is distributed in the 21st century.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Low-Hanging Fruit: Can an Edible Forest Take Root in Seattle?

submitted by Albert Gomez

      

Beacon Food Forest Schematic Site Plan

by Zak Stone - good.is - March 2, 2012

Imagine if your neighborhood park doubled as a communal orchard. Out of fruit in the fridge? Just stroll down the block and pluck the first ripe pear you see. It may sound like a hippie fantasy, but residents of Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood could soon be living that dream, with a community group planning to break ground on the country's largest "food forest" this summer.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

How the 2012 TED Prize, The City 2.0, Aims to Crowdsource the Future

submitted by Janine Rees

by Anthony Flint - theatlanticcities.com - March 1, 2012

LONG BEACH – It’s never long at the annual TED conference before attendees feel awash in mind-bending, technology-enabled ideas. This year, it was the theory that there are multiple universes, a robotic drone that is an exact replica of a hummingbird, and a demonstration of the wisdom of the crowd (a request for online guesses from the 5,000-plus attendees of the weight of an ox brought onstage, the average of which was 1,793 pounds. The beast’s weight: 1,795 lbs.).

So it was fitting that the official announcement of the TED Prize 2012, The City 2.0, revealed a kind of global Wikipedia connecting citizens, political leaders, urban experts, companies, and organizations, with the goal of improving the 21st century city using up-to-the-minute crowdsourcing techniques.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

The Coming Entanglement: Bill Joy and Danny Hillis

scientificamerican.com - February 15, 2012

Digital innovators Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and Danny Hillis, co-founder of the Long Now Foundation, talk with Scientific American Executive Editor Fred Guterl about the technological "Entanglement" and the attempts to build the other, hardier Internet. Web sites related to this episode include http://compass-summit.com and The Shadow Web

(LISTEN TO THE PODCAST IN THE LINK BELOW)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=the-coming-entanglement-bill-joy-an-12-02-15

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Networked Society "Thinking Cities"

A view into some to the underlying elements of distibuted smart grids within resilient cities:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ctxP6Dp8Bk&feature=youtu.be

The Age of Big Data

Image/Chad Hagen - The New York Times Company

submitted by Samuel Bendett

by Steve Lohr - The New York Times -February 11, 2012

GOOD with numbers? Fascinated by data? The sound you hear is opportunity knocking.

Mo Zhou was snapped up by I.B.M. last summer, as a freshly minted Yale M.B.A., to join the technology company’s fast-growing ranks of data consultants. They help businesses make sense of an explosion of data — Web traffic and social network comments, as well as software and sensors that monitor shipments, suppliers and customers — to guide decisions, trim costs and lift sales. “I’ve always had a love of numbers,” says Ms. Zhou, whose job as a data analyst suits her skills.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Big Data, Big Impact: Possibilities for Development

During the Davos Economic Summit, there were several interesting presentations under "Big Data, Big Impact."  One presentation focused on possibilities for international development.  As San Francisco builds out its distributed smart grid in a post-peak oil world, the issues of how "Big Data" are applied becomes evermore critical to the resilience of the City and the sustainability of its neighborhoods.

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A flood of data is created every day by the interactions of billions of people using computers, GPS devices, cell phones, and medical devices. Many of these interactions occur through the use of mobile devices being used by people in the developing world, people whose needs and habits have been poorly understood until now. Researchers and policymakers are beginning to realise the potential for channelling these torrents of data into actionable information that can be used to identify needs, provide services, and predict and prevent crises for the benefit of low-income populations. Concerted action is needed by governments, development organisations, and companies to ensure that this data helps the individuals and communities who create it.

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Mesh Cities

 

What does it take to become a smart city?  Why are mesh cities important to sustainability?

 

For more information:

<http://www.meshcities.com/>

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