Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2010 > March > 16 > Entry
SXSW panel: The City is a Platform
Date/Time: 11 p.m. Tuesday
Panelists: John Tolva (IBM), Jen Masengarb (Chicago Architecture Foundation), Dustin Haisler (City of Manor), Assaf Biderman (MIT), Ben Berkowitz (SeeClickFix.com)
The gist: Cities and metropolitan spaces are increasingly becoming a platform for interactive design. The city is becoming part of the Internet—it’s a space constantly being monitored by embedded sensors. Interactive designers can use their skills to connect a city with its citizens. Open source government will improve life for everyone involved. Better communication between people and government will eliminate anxiety that stems from lack of knowledge about decisions that are made.
Quotes: “The city is layer upon layer of place-based and time-based meaning waiting to be peeled back” -John Tolva “ “Until our cities can talk to us, we need to figure out how to talk to them.” -Jen Masengarb “Innovation in government is something that game mechanics can be applied to…this is like our Foursquare for government” -Dustin Haisler
Takeaways: This was one of the few panels that spoke to affecting real-world change. Though it’s a much larger place, the City of Austin cnould learn a thing or two from Manor’s system of citizen engagement.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW 2010
Comments
Austinites love to be heard, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion. If you can't be nice, we reserve the right to remove your material and ban users who violate our Visitor's agreement. Click here to report comment abuse.