Empowering the community in smart city conversations

Data-sensing technologies in urban spaces are measuring weather conditions, pedestrian foot traffic, determining when bins need to be emptied and sensing on street parking - how do we ethically capture, analyse, apply and communicate data to empower local people? Launching today, a new report from the Emerging Technologies Research Lab (ETLab) at Monash University in collaboration with the City of Melbourne has put a lens on how Melbourne's real-time public data can be gathered and used, to better plan for inclusive future smart cities. In many major cities, emerging technologies are adopted to improve urban efficiency. Technologies like Artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G are just some of the advancements that are improving the quality of life for many residents. Despite the benefits emerging technologies can offer, they are often used without consultation of local residents. Taking a more transparent approach, ETLab and City of Melbourne combined research expertise with industry knowledge to learn about community values and uses for city data as new sensor technologies were tested. The new 'City Sensing Data Futures Project' report builds on research collected from participants interacting with live data-gathering activations in Melbourne's Argyle Square from February to June 2021.