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Stories
See how communities like yours are tapping the potential of data and technology
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How Okotoks became North America’s role-model for water consumption
Okotoks water infrastructure was wearing out and the city favoured a water infrastructure modernization project to revamp the way it manages its supply.3 Manitoba municipalities create their own fibre optic internet service
In Southwestern Manitoba, communities’ low debit internet resulted in poor quality phone calls and almost impossible to stream videos.In New Brunswick, Open Data Keeps the River on Watch
In New-Brunswick, a group of civic tech leaders created an app to monitor and forecast river levels in their province.Opinion
Indigenous Innovation
The Indigenous Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ICIE) aims to spark an eventual Indigenous business and cultural district: the first of its kind in Canada.
Article
Lake research video translated into Ojibway to help promote language as well as science
Emma Bruyere, a grade 9 student narrates Ojibway version of Experimental Lakes Area video on mercury research and hopes to spread awareness about her language.
Opinion
Can Indigenous culture ever coexist with urban planning?
More and more acknowledgement of Indigenous “ownership” of lands is done. But does it really grant them with some determination over the lands upon which cities are built?
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Article
Small town near Toronto plans to transform into a city of the future
Innisfil, a small town roughly 60 km north of Toronto is set to become home to futuristic city called the Orbit.
Insight
Lesson from a phone jack
Something as small as a phone jack can provide a wealth of wisdom as how to plan technology infrastructure. As this kind of framework tend to stick around for a very long time, one has to carefully plan its deployment.
Insight
People are the key to accelerating tech strategy in today’s cities
Even though technology is a useful tool for cities, one must never forget the importance of people. To be effective, a conversation about smart cities has to start with people.
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Opinion
City dilemma: Making smart tech work citywide with limited funds
Cities and tech companies are eager to make the leap to larger-scale smart-city technology projects. But can they work with limited funds?
Article
Animikii Raises $1M to Scale Social Impact Through Indigenous Technology
Largest investment of its kind into an Indigenous technology social enterprise. Investment led by Raven Indigenous Capital Partners with additional financing from BDC.
Article
Indigenous Women in Tech
Most of the time Indigenous women in the tech industry are the only woman in the room and almost always the only Indigenous woman. As they are under-represented in the tech industry Animikii made a list of women who are changing the field.
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Opinion
Why open standards are fundamental to deploying data for smart city services
In order to improve the citizens’ quality of life smart cities will have to be built in an open and standardised way.
Opinion
Without a critical approach to big data it risks becoming an increasingly sophisticated paradigm for coercion
The ability to quantify has become so embedded in the discourse of “innovative knowledge production” as to constitute an epistemic virtue.
Article
City of Markham continues its digital strategy with Your Voice Markham
The online engagement platform is a new avenue for the city to unveil project plans as well as for citizens to voice their opinions and ideas for projects, submitting opinions and ideas to be viewed publicly.
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Opinion
The fallout of smart cities is social isolation
Technology leads to reduction in human contacts and face-to face dealings and the loss of spontaneity and personal decision-making in daily life, increasing social isolation.
Opinion
Smart Cities Improve The Health Of Their Citizens
This article intends to explore two questions: how can Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and systems engineering enable people to address the area of health in cities and what are the business implications of these?
Article
How Smart Cities are Making their Citizens Healthier
If the power of technology in the transformation of transportation and infrastructure systems in cities is a given, it can also tackle health and environmental challenges associated with city living.
Opinion
Smart cities can’t exist while there’s a digital divide
How digital inclusion has to be placed at the center of smart cities strategies. Providing equal access to service and digital tools is the solution to benefiting all citizens and making the smart city a truly equitable place.
Image: A wall in Bairro Alto, Lisbon, covered with circuit boards painted white.
Opinion
A city is not a computer
Brain as computer VS city as computer. Urban intelligence involves experience, observation, sensory engagement. We need new models for thinking about cities that do not compute.
Opinion
Artificial Intelligence at the service of smart cities v2.0
How conversational artificial intelligence platforms will make cities smarter? This article explores the idea of integrating these new technologies in an ethical way, in order to improve and simplify the life of citizens.
Article
Solving the mobility puzzle: Portland tests analysis tool based on cell phone data
Using data in order to know how people actually move around the city.
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Article
Looking for the next battery breakthrough? Think small
As more and more interest is shown in Electric Vehicles (EVs) the full potential of the technology is not quite there yet. A battery still takes an hour to recharge, but this could change in the near future.
Insight
I Commute from the Suburbs. Is Anyone Thinking of Folks Like Me?
In order to become more incusive, transit service has to be thought through as cities expand.
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Opinion
How roads can help cool sizzling cities
Special permeable concrete pavement can help reduce the "urban heat island effect" that causes cities to sizzle in the summer, according to a Rutgers-led team of engineers.
Opinion
Fighting extreme heat in cities with urban design
To adapt to climate change, we need to build cities like we did in the past – moving toward a climate-responsive urban design, centered on people.
Opinion
How AI and data turn city water management from an art to a science
More cities are looking to drones and other equipment for preventive maintenance, but it is uphill work in a sector that has traditionally resisted change.
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Presentation
The ‘parasitic’ homes that could change cities
As urban centres face housing shortages and skyrocketing prices, parasitic structures could open the door to a whole new way of living in cities.
Opinion
Emotional response to city design could guide urban planning
Scenario-testing models are being built to help urban planners and architects to see the impact of their designs.
Opinion
Can a city solve homelessness with an app?
As cities deploy community-facing apps to alleviate homelessness, questions linger around who the tech is intended to benefit.
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