Smart Cities: a “brave new world” for KM?

Ravi Sharma (NTU) & Dennis Linders (UM-B)

www.ntu.edu.sg/home/asrsharma

Abstract

Outline

• Environment Scan

• Background Review

• Analytic Framework

• Field Approach

• Work in Progress

• Towards KM Practices

ENVIRONMENT SCAN

• WHO (2010) - 70% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050

• Cities are becoming a platform for the innovation economy. Florida - demonstrated that cities able to attract and retain creative citizens are better positioned for sustained growth

• 5th World Cities Summit 2014 Mayors’ Report - putting people at the heart of cities was the one central, unifying theme

• The Government of India plans to raise 100 smart cities - cities with better facilities, better connectivity and better environment. But how well prepared is the nation to take the plunge?

What is a Smart City

While some people continue to take a narrow view of smart cities by seeing them as places that make better use of information and communication technology (ICT), the cities I work with … all view smart cities as a broad, integrated approach to improving the efficiency of city operations, the quality of life for its citizens, and growing the local economy.

Boyd Cohen in http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680538/what-exactly-is-a-smart-city

Cohen’s Smart Cities Wheel

Strategy & Policy Implications

• Validation of the fundamental premise of the K-Gini measure of the relationship between income generation and knowledge index => low human development bloc exhibits a weak relationship between knowledge index and economic activity whereas high and medium blocs have stronger relationships

• Based on their strategic strengths and characteristics, societies may develop policies to attain higher value creation by leveraging on knowledge or non-knowledge resources

• Knowledge intensive societies, knowledge reflective societies, other-resource driven societies, knowledge deficient societies

• Also intrigued by Alan Krueger (Princeton) Great Gatsby curve which traces the link between inequalities and mobilities

LESSONS LEARNT?

It happens to the best of us!

INTELLIGENCE

analyze this data for insights and trends to make

smarter decisions

INTEGRATION

bring data together from across the city

INSTRUMEN-TATION

collect (lots of) data

IBM’s 3i’s - BEST PRACTICES?

200+ cities from 40+ counties have joined the program to date.

The Global City Indicators provide 53

standardized metrics (27 core) on 21 topics that

simplify complex subjects to numbers that can be

easily understood by policymakers and the

public.

• Enables comparative insight and global benchmarking—learn across

cities

• Assists cities in building core knowledge for city decision-making

• Provides framework for sustainability planning

• Promotes transparency and open data

First international standard on city indicators was released in

May.

ECONOMY

EDUCATION

ENERGY

ENVIRONMENT

FINANCE

FIRE AND EMERGENCY

RESPONSE

GOVERNANCE

HEALTH

RECREATION

SAFETY

SHELTER

SOLID WASTE

TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND

INNOVATION

TRANSPORTATION

URBAN PLANNING

WASTEWATER

WATER AND SANITATIONSource: iso.org

Research Questions

• Is it possible that less developed societies may learn and profit from the stories and lessons of the developed economies?

• Is it feasible to do so through the use of benchmarking and good practices of knowledge management policies for development?

• Is a knowledge society the required software for the infrastructure of a smart city so that economic exchanges and cooperation may take place?

• Conjecture - inequalities driven by globalisation & technology … knowledge (innovation & enterprise) the solution.

What is a Knowledge Society?It is worth noting that knowledge and ingenuity, not oil or

minerals, account for much of the value that has been added to the global economy in recent years, especially in the leading economies. (Spence 2008, p.98)

Castell’s Networked Society - need not be one wherein every individual has multiple skills across domains, but rather it is a community where individuals of each particular skill are networked a way that allows them to leverage the skills of others, with culture and context playing critical roles.

Movement away from physical goods to digital services based on knowledge and innovation.

Characteristics

• “making new connections and new configurations on the fly”

• In other words, creating IC and diffusing them to where needed in an unplanned, innovative fashion

• Not tangible (maybe) but effective in terms of productivity and contribution to running the economy

• Moved from muscular to neural support• Driverless cars and jobless people?• Challenge shifts from producing to distributing wealth• The Bruntland Commission’s & Amartya Sen’s idea of

sustainability

Europe 2020

• Smart growth: knowledge, innovation, education, and digital society.

• Sustainable growth: efficient production with greater competitiveness.

• Inclusive growth: greater labour market, better skills, fight against poverty.

OECD’s Economic Recovery Plan

1. ICT skills and employment

2. Broadband technologies

3. R&D and innovation programmes

4. Venture finance (start-up firms)

5. Enabling environmental impacts of ICTs

Source: Directorate for Science, Technology & Industry

Background Review

• Adam Smith & David Ricardo advocated the free exchange of goods, services, ideas

• Well understood that the knowledge policy of a society plays a critical role in determining the welfare and well-being of its constituents. cf Fukuyama (1992, 1995)

• Link between knowledge and well-being established by Stiglitz as a “global public good”

• Literature in knowledge-based development generally agrees that to attain inclusive growth, it is necessary to devise strategies that diffuse the knowledge-base of economy across segments

Recent Scholarly Work

• Brynjolfsson & McAfee – Race Against the Machine: only knowledge and innovation jobs will survive

• Acemoglu & Robinson – Why Nations Fail: “extractive” political and economic institutions

• Newsome – Global Research Institute: inequality can be mitigated by mobility

• Chan HC – LKY Centre for Innovative Cities: data analytics cannot replace socialisation (and wisdom)

• Jean-Pierre Lehmann (IMD) – capitalism is at a “tipping point” (resonates with Sen’s idea of social justice)

• Summers in 2014 FT article – US risks turning into a Downton Abbey economy

Al-Ali’s CICM Framework for KOs

StagesIC

Knowledge Innovation Intellectual Property

Structural Capital References, Certification

Product / Process Design

Patents, Software & Databases

Human Capital Qualifications, Experiences

R&D outcomes T&Cs, NDAs

Social Capital Social Networks Brands TM

Accounting-based Approaches

• Accounting methods are favoured by regulators because they are consistent with GAAP and offer lower risks but lack clear framework and may create confusion and misrepresentation of value

• IC community prefer the intellectual assets approach but much more research, experimentation and standards needed

US Methods• Science & Technology Indicator (DoC)

– funding in flows, human resources, capital investments and business assistance; and outcome measures that report on the high-tech intensity of the state’s business base, and other outcome measures (e.g., patents, earnings, and workforce employment)

– for economic development planning• New Economy Index (PPI)

– level of education of the workforce, the numbers employed in high-tech sectors, the number of patents issued

– Influence economic policy formulation• CHI Index

– measure patent citations and technology cycle times– to create an innovation index for companies

• Knowledge Scorecard (Lev & Bothwell)– estimates overall return on IC or knowledge assets by discounting returns by

physical assets and cost of funds– similar to Tobin’s Q and EVA

International Methods • Navigator & IAM

• Danish Guidelines for IC statements

– knowledge narrative: describes how the company has organized its knowledge resources to meet the needs of its customers (including the company’s vision, mission, and value proposition)

– management challenges: derived from the knowledge narrative, and describes the challenges that management faces in developing knowledge resources wrt customers, employees, processes, and technologies

– reporting part: describes the initiatives and actions taken to address management challenges, and reports on their progress through figures, indicators and charts

• Canadian Total Value Creation

– calculates PV of future value streams using DCF techniques

Source: 2012 PWC Report

Macro-Economic Methods• World Bank’s Knowledge Assessment Methodology

(KAM) & Knowledge Economy Index (KEI)

• KAM reports the relative performance of countries on the knowledge economy

source - www.worldbank.org/kam

Framework from Sharma et al (2008)

Conceptual Model of Chandrasekar & Sharma (2010)

Knowledge disparities (and lo-mobility?) are not conducive to sustainable growth and development

K-Gini Research

Normalised GDP/capita with normalised KEI scores were plotted for societies at three stages of development … allows a simple descriptive analysis of whether knowledge is ‘punching its weight’ in terms of income generation (economic perspective may be taken as a proxy for value creation)

INORGANIC

dependent

Hi HDI

Innovation & enterprise

Lo HDI

job-shop

Lo IMPACT

ivory-tower

KnowledgeCreation & Absorption

KnowledgeExploitation & Diffusion

Knowledge & Innovation• Michael Zack’s types of knowledge framework: Innovation

results in 3 types of new knowledge• Core (knowledge to stay in the game)

– Product/process/service can be new but may only serves to keep the nation in the game due to effects of globalisation (e.g. information as commodity means many others are innovating at the same time).

– Need to assess the relativity of innovation outcome through benchmarking.

• Advance (knowledge that allows differentiation, an advantage)

• Innovative (knowledge that changes the rules of the game)

• Max Boisot’s I-space explains the cyclical movement of knowledge (also mirror innovation process)

• Scanning

• Problem solving

• Abstraction

• Diffusion

• Absorption

• Impacting

• Knowledge is thus the currency of innovation

Global Innovation Index

Source: http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/content.aspx?page=GII-Home

Innovation & Social Capital• Foster nation’s cohesiveness

– Innovation in current times needs brain power of the many versus the few (industrial age)

– Knowledge as the foundation of innovation means innovation policies and processes will promote knowledge sharing amongst the knowledge assets in the nation to drive innovation

– Knowledge sharing is dependent on trust which also drives cohesiveness of the people who participates in the innovation process -> hence contribution to social capital.

– Network effect achieved from knowledge sharing increases intellectual stock.

– Supported by Francis Fukuyama and Gordon Redding’s idea of trust and “proclivity to cooperate”

Economic basis of Innovation

• Effects of globalisation negates local advantage of tangible assets, therefore need competitive advantage derived from intangible assets through innovation to meet current and/or latent demand of global consumers.

• Value driver of growth in production (products, services, processes) -direct

• Value driver of growth in complementary, specialised and co-specialised assets – indirect (David Tecce, 1986)

• Innovation acts as a change agent in the architecture of the industries through determinants and interfaces from policy (Jacobides, 2006)

• The key to modern capitalism is not wealth accumulation but innovation & enterprise (Redding, 2014) … studied innovative vs collaborative societies

Economic basis of Innovation• Warren Kinston framework of 7 types of work

– NIC resides at the 7 levels

– Innovation needs to occur at the 7 levels to grow NIC holistically

– Each level is differentiated by• Level of abstraction

• Time span

• Basis of need

Knowledge Societies & Smart Cities• What is the “software” that needs to sit on the smart

cities’ “hardware” and how may both be developed in tandem?

• Can the infrastructure of a Smart City or Knowledge Scape bridge knowledge disparities?

• Would these narrower disparities lead to less growth and development inequalities?

• Is a “level playing field” or “flatter world” the antecedent of sustainable growth?

• Are narratives from Finland, Switzerland, Israel, Singapore & Qatar a comprehensive source of BPs & LLs?

WIP : Knowledge, Innovation and Sustainable Development

1) construction and validation of a knowledge disparity scorecard which could serve as a knowledge opportunities index within a society (analogous to the ITU’s Digital Opportunities Index);

2) analyses of five to seven successful knowledge societies using the K-Disparity scorecard in order to derive best practices and lessons learnt in the implementation of digital literacy programs;

3) investigation of how digital literacy may be used to bridge knowledge disparities or gaps inherent in society so as to promote the equality of opportunities for development;

4) understanding of whether a “level playing” leads to “a bigger pie” as a result;

5) and hence - the development of a general theory of information and knowledge policy which articulates the causal links between knowledge, innovation and sustainable development.

Soft Systems Methodology

• Developed by Peter Checkland (Lancaster) in the 1980s

• Interacting systems may be engineered to meet objectives

• Organized way of tackling perceived problematical (social) situations; action-oriented => systems thinking to bring about improvements

• Steps 1 – 4 : learning cycle; 5 – 7 : action

SSM

ArchitectureFair &

Efficient Growth

Design

Policies

Governance

Innovation & Enterprise

Eco-System

Infrastructure & Investments

Explanatory Variables

Dependent Variable

Control Variable

A General Theory?

Clients cite knowledge services as the Bank’s most valuable contribution—more than twice as often as

financial resources.

THE WORLD BANK: URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN 120+

COUNTRIES

The World Bank has worked on urban development projects in over 120 countries, enabling us to know what works and what doesn’t and apply these lessons learned

from one place to another.

“Singapore has a unique opportunity to be the first smart nation anywhere in the world….to lead the world in the use of analytics to improve people’s lives.

To do this, we have to be big enough and small enough—big enough to be relevant; and small enough to experiment, practice and learn.”

- Steve Leonard

Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore

Both government and individual citizens gain far

more insight on performance and opportunities for

improvement. But more than that, this vast new

streams of data make possible new governance

arrangements—dynamic pricing, incentives,

accountability, etc.

City is promoting environmental awareness and action among more than 2 million Singaporeans through community-based programs (CDC’s)

Meeting city-wide goals requires

—“every individual effort will

count”

CALL FOR COLLABORATION (3P)

large-scale test bed for collaboratively piloting new innovations

Integrated Planning +

Coordinated Action

+ Shared Accountability

Epilogue

• Mary Robinson: Information is our most precious resource, limited only by the constraints of human intelligence, innovation and imagination. However, like most resources, it is not shared equally. I would like to see full and free sharing of information and knowledge, across all sectors and borders, guided by the shared values and universal language of human rights.

• In-vogue to plan for “smart cities” that would provide the hardware for an information society and beyond. But a situation in which only an elite proportion of a society can exploit the opportunities of “smart cities” cannot possibly lead to desirable outcomes such as inclusiveness, participation and sustainability.

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.

Alice: I don't much care where. The Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.

To Probe Further• World Bank’s Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM) and Annual World Development Report• UNDP’s Human Development Report• ITU ICT Indicators Database• GII 2013• World Health Organization. 2010. Urbanization and Health. 88, 4, 241-320.

http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/88/4/10-010410/en/• Sir Michael Spence’s Growth Report (2008)• Fukuyama, F. (1995) Trust: The Social Virtues & the Creation of Prosperity, The Free Press, New York.• Checkland, P. and Poulter, J. (2006) Learning for Action: A Short Definitive Account of Soft Systems

Methodology and its use for Practitioners, John Wiley, New York.• Florida, R. 2013. Why San Francisco May be the New Silicon Valley, Atlantic Cities, August.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2013/08/why-san-francisco-may-be-new-silicon-valley/6295/

• Cohen, B. 2012. What exactly is a smart city? Fast Company, FastCo.Existhttp://www.fastcoexist.com/1680538/what-exactly-is-a-smart-city

• ABI Research, 2011. “$39.5 Billion Will Be Spent on Smart City Technologies in 2016” Retrieved January 1, 2012, from http://www.abiresearch.com/press/3768-$39.5+Billion+Will+Be+Spent+on+Smart+City+Technologies+in+2016.

• Owyang, J. Tran, C., Silva, C. 2013. The collaborative economy. Altimeter, 1-51