What it means placing citizens at the heart of smart city transition

Summary

Peachtree Corners is making a name as one of the USA top testing grounds for shiny new smart city technology. The 45,000-person city is home to an unusual public innovation experiment. Curiosity Lab invites private firms to come test out their prototypes in a 500-acre public space called Technology Park Atlanta.

A lot of the promise of smart cities depends on data collection and algorithmic use of that data, so citizens are understandably wary. As for data privacy, the city is not developing its own rules; its data handling complies with the strictest current federal standards for storing, processing, and transmission of data.

One of the biggest concerns is not wiring, or data, but housing stock and how to keep housing costs at an affordable level.