This year’s Smart City World Expo Congress in Barcelona emphasized inclusivity as part of its motto. Open North, as an organization that understands inclusivity as a foundation for our work on digital transformation, was there to engage with people from all around the globe and further our mission to use data and technology for the […]
Category: Smart cities
Open Smart Communities in Practice: How communities across Canada advance their goals and overcome challenges using data and technology
State of Open Smart Communities in Canada
Finding Common Ground: Integrated Climate Action for Open Smart Communities in Canada
Open Smart Communities in Practice: How communities across Canada advance their goals and overcome challenges using data and technology
About the report This report documents the progress of several ‘smart city’ initiatives currently underway in communities across Canada. It will be particularly useful for local government staff who work within municipal, regional, and other local government structures on initiatives featuring smart or digital components. The report provides a glimpse into the institutional changes that […]
Smart Cities and Human Rights
In this brief, the authors outline the risks that smart city technologies pose to human rights as set out in Canadian law. At the fundamental level, local government staff must uphold human rights or otherwise risk legal repercussions and public backlash. In a more proactive framing, this brief explores smart city projects from a different […]
Open Smart City Initiatives as Tools for Indigenous Data Sovereignty
Indigenous data are largely not held or possessed by the Indigenous nations and peoples they represent. As an organization that focuses on data sharing and Open Smart Communities, we have much to learn to ensure that the First Nations Principles of OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) set forth by the First Nations Information Governance […]
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Creating Civic Value in Open Smart Communities
As the concept of “Open Smart Cities” has matured, complex issues are arising. These issues range from reconfiguring relationships between municipal departments to placing restrictions on how urban technology is deployed. Cities must determine who is accountable for the impact of new technology and they must ensure that the technology is maintained over time. Finding […]
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Managing Urban Green Infrastructure for Climate Change Through an Open Smart City Lens
This research brief provides a smart city lens to natural asset planning and encourages municipalities to consider how data and technology can be leveraged to improve efficiencies and achieve sustainability objectives. Using four key concepts of the smart city (openness, integration, transferability, and collaboration), the author explores how these concepts can be used in practice […]
Smart Home Technology Facilitated Violence
This research brief describes the challenges that arise when smart home technologies are used for abuse and violence, which is known as smart home technology-facilitated violence (SH-TFV). As the adoption of IoT devices such as smart cameras, smart speakers and smart doorbells grows, this issue becomes increasingly urgent for multiple levels of government. This brief […]