Content by The Buzz Business
Empowering Cities, Empowering People
T
oday, everything aspires to be
smart: from the ubiquitous—
the smartphone in your hand—to
sometimes the ridiculous (Google
Glass, Fitbit for dogs, Lily the
selfie drone). But, if we want our
future to be smarter, we need to
start thinking beyond smart for
smart’s sake now.
Tomorrow we face new
challenges: a growing global
population that is living longer
and moving to big cities. To be
prepared, we have to work out
smarter ways to move around and
to sustain basic human needs,
from automating food production
to personalizing healthcare. And
in times of accelerating change, we
need smarter ways to live together,
drawing on the insights of big data,
Internet of Things (IoT), and the
power of light to transform our
world into a place where everybody
enjoys better quality of life.
Consumption leads to prosuming, as big companies become
smaller and the role of individuals
rises. And circular economy thinking reduces waste, promotes reuse
and produces a seismic shift for
business, from selling products to
providing services.
This week, the Smart City Expo
World Congress in Barcelona
focuses on the imperative need
to discuss smart cities and how
they must be created not only for
citizens but also with them.
Referring to research that
Philips Lighting commissioned
to assess the progress cities were
Philips Lighting’s innovations improve life in the city
making toward adopting smart
technologies, Susanne Seitinger,
the company’s global sub-segment
manager, professional systems,
believes, “we need to re-frame the
concept of smart cities around
what they mean to residents and
how they see them delivering
something useful.”
Seitinger recalls that one of
Philips Lighting’s most surprising
findings concerned the way
people felt about their data.
“When we asked if they wanted
to share data to improve services,
they were really interested,” she
says. “It demonstrates the need
for governance and transparent
frameworks to use open data and
share back. Citizens were willing
to engage, to be in communication
with government. They want to use
different channels that generate a
sense of direct connection. That is
very meaningful to people.”
Just being “smart,” Seitinger
feels, is missing the point: “It has
to be about using technology in
surprising and new ways that provide real value. That sets you up for
a totally different approach. It is a
much more holistic, people-centric
view of what smart cities mean.”
Another interesting finding was
how open and keen the worldwide
business community is to be part
of a more collaborative setting.
Most citizens want a
say on the digital channels
that deliver smart city
services. They want to be
engaged with, rather than
have technology imposed
upon them”
Eric Rondolat,
CEO, Philips Lighting
As a global technology partner
leveraging IoT, Philips Lighting is
constantly coming up with ways
to use illumination to make tomorrow’s cities smarter, more livable
and more satisfactory for people’s
daily needs. And Philips Lighting,
Seitinger believes, has an advantage
over other companies vying for a
slice of the smart market precisely
because it works with light.
“Lighting is special,” Seitinger
says, “because it bridges the technical and emotional realms. We have
a much stronger sensibility around
quality of life issues. You cannot do
this if you do not care about tangible
outcomes and benefits for people.”