What Happened To Smart Cities‪?‬ The Cloud Podcast

Will speaks with Dr. Nick Maynard, Co-Founder and CEO of US Ignite. US Ignite collaborates with smart communities and research testbeds to drive high-impact solutions to their toughest challenges.
The Question: Whatever happened to the promise of smart cities in North America? With much fanfare Google announced plans to build the Quayside project in Toronto. A smart city featuring self-driving cars, Internet as a top-level utility along with gas, water, and light, and public-private data partnership empowering citizens with how their city is actually using resources. Other global cities have built smart city and innovation center projects in Slovenia, Russia, Spain, and China. I actually spent a little time in Internet City in Dubai. Smart cities are nothing new, Walt Disney famously planned the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) as a blueprint for the future. There’s always been a desire, but we’ve always come up short. Why has it been so elusive to build smart cities in North America? Whatever happened to the smart city?