What do we mean by "Smarter?"

Building a Smarter Planet

What do we mean by Smarter?Tapping the Social Intelligence of Cities and Regions

Talk delivered to the Smarter Planet Advisory Board, October 19, 2010

Thomas [email protected] Computing GroupIBM T. J. Watson Research Center

Building a Smarter PlanetIntroduction

What do we mean by a “smarter” planet?

2 Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.


Two views of ‘smartness’

‘Smartness’ = technology• Sensors and meters to collect data• Aggregate and analyze the data• And use that as input to dashboards,

visualizations and control systems• People treated as passive and compliant

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.3





‘Smartness’ = people People can gather data People can analyze data People can act on data

and they do this in ways that are qualitatively different from what digital systems do






‘Smartness’ = people People can gather data People can analyze data People can act on data

and they do this in ways that are qualitatively different from what digital systems do

Both/And NOT either/or


Building a Smarter PlanetSocial Intelligence

Using the perceptual, cognitive and enactive abilities of large numbers of people to achieve purposeful ends



Social intelligence is the use of the perceptual, cognitive and enactive abilities of large numbers of people to achieve purposeful ends

Examples grassroots crisis response (also see Usahidi)




Examples grassroots crisis response von Ahn’s ESP game (also see “Games with a Purpose)




Examples grassroots crisis response von Ahn’s ESP game Wikipedia




Examples grassroots crisis response von Ahn’s ESP game Wikipedia

None of these examples – or anything like them –existed ten years ago


Building a Smarter PlanetSocial Intelligence in Cities & Regions

Social intelligence is particularly suited to being applied to make cities and regions smarter.

11


Social Intelligence is especially appropriate for cities and regions That’s where the people are Inhabitants develop a deep knowledge of the places they live, work and socialize in Inhabitants have a practical motivation for participating: it impacts their daily lives Inhabitants identify with places, and have networks of family and friends



But, as yet, socially intelligent systems for cities are in their infancy Perhaps simply a matter of critical mass

Let’s see what’s out there…


Building a Smarter PlanetSocial Intelligence in Cities & Regions: Taxonomy

Urban Systems: Informing* Making information accessible

Crime maps Maps of the urban forest Tourist information


* Not social intelligence


Urban Systems: Transacting Supporting 2-way private interactions

Crime tip solicitation Expense report analysis Mass surveillance



Urban Systems: Sharing Public sharing of knowledge

Reporting potholes and other street problems GreenWatch: wearable pollution monitoring sensors FourSquare: checking into and registering tips about places



Urban Systems: Co-producing People work closely together to produce a coherent product

Community Wikis Cyclopath: a user-editable map for finding bicycle-friendly routes


Building a Smarter PlanetSocial Intelligence in Cities & Regions: Example

Problem: Finding bike-friendly routes around the Twin Cities Good bike routes differ

from good driving routes




from good driving routes

1. Start out in opposite direction to avoid busy main street

2. Take side street that has lights at two busy crossings

5. Although greenway continues in right direction, take Park Ave due to bike lane3. Enter greenway bike path

via “intersection

4. This section of bike path goes through beautiful community gardens




from good driving routes Much of the information

that makes this a good route isn’t on regular maps

1. Start out in opposite direction to avoid busy main street

2. Take side street that has lights at two busy crossings

5. Although greenway continues in right direction, take Park Ave due to bike lane3. Enter greenway bike path

via “intersection

4. This section of bike path goes through beautiful community gardens


Building a Smarter PlanetSocial Intelligence in Cities & Regions: Cyclopath

Solution: Cyclopath A user-editable map

(a geowiki) with ‘official’ data

(e.g., USGS, MNDoT) and user-entered

data

Notes: This is not by IBM,

although it has a few small connections

Cyclopath is open source, and a product of the GroupLens lab at the University of Minnesota

Terveen, Priedhorsky, et al. ~ GroupLens Lab, University of Minnesota



The User Interface Map and map key




The User Interface Map and map key Map controls

edit, zoom, pan




The User Interface Map and map key Map controls Control panels

request routes, adjust view, revert changes, etc.




Map elements Blocks (street) Points

Block Point




Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points) Notes (points)

Tags

Notes

for this point




Social Intelligence in Cities & Regions: Cyclopath

Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks)

Tags

for this block

Notes




Social Intelligence in Cities & Regions: Cyclopath

Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks) Ratings (blocks only) personal (private) estimated (from others) computed (from MN DoT data)

Rating

for this block




Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks) Ratings (blocks only) Intersections How streets connect (or not)

Intersection




Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks) Ratings (blocks only) Intersections

• How streets connect (or not)

•Important for computing routes – data often missing or inaccurate for bikes

Intersections?




Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks) Ratings (blocks only) Intersections Regions (not shown)

• Public (neighborhoods)

• Private(watch regions)




Editing Users need to edit

data because it might be missing it might be wrong it might be

misaligned and users have a

deep qualitative knowledge of places the is rarely found in official data sets




Editing example Here’s a street I

added. I gave it a name, a type, and a bikeability rating






And I can set a “watch region” so I can see if anyone changes it







Later on, someone else added the tag “unpaved”







Later on, someone else added the tag “unpaved”

Later I added a note




Computing routes Now we can use all

this data to compute bike-friendly routes





this data to compute bike-friendly routes Enter From and To





this data to compute bike-friendly routes Enter From and To Decide whether to

minimize distance or favor bikeability





this data to compute bike-friendly routes Enter From and To Decide whether to


And select tags to avoid, bonus or penalize when computing route





this data to compute bike-friendly routes• Enter From and To• Decide whether to


• And select tags to avoid, bonus or penalize when computing route

Notice that much of this data is user entered: point names, tags, bikeability




Computing routes The route





Can be color-coded according to various dimensions (e.g., hills, bikeability)






Has a cue sheet






Has a cue sheet Feedback can be

provided





Notice: my route starts out in the “wrong” direction – but that’s good because it avoids busy streets






And it has the other advantages I mentioned earlier






And it has the other advantages I mentioned earlier

And the route is also half a mileshorter than that offered by Google Maps’ new bike routing feature




Does it really work? Will people really use it? Will people go to the trouble of adding data? Will the added data make a difference?




Does it really work? It’s used! (in season)

1,500 registered users in all

daily: 15-30 registered logins; 150 unregistered

150 route requests per day




Does it really work? Edits matter

~10,000 edits by 400+ users

When routes requested during first 2 weeks were recomputed 9 months later (i.e. with 9 months of user-added data), the new routes were about 1K shorter (14.813.8L)



For example: indicating “connectivity” between Como Ave and the Intercampus Transitway allowed computation of a new route that

is .6 K shorter than the old route


An experiment:“Work Hints” Is it possible to

elicit and focussocial intelligence?


Priedhorsky, Masli, Terveen CHI ‘10




Try asking people

Cyclopath needs your help

“…We have created a system which will automatically

direct you to areas of the map that need work (more

bikeability ratings entered or edits to the geography of the

map itself)…”

<link to “work hints” window>






Try asking people• Direct a person to

an area that needs work

• let them work until they’re ‘done’

• ask if they want to do another area






Try asking people• Direct a person to

an area that needs work

• let them work until they’re ‘done’

• ask if they want to do another area




“Work Hints” results: a surprise People did about the

same amount of work per trial

BUT they did three times as many trials: 17.7 vs 5.0 trials




“Work Hints” results: in general Visually highlighting

work opportunities leads to more work

Users do ‘extra’ work (beyond what is highlighted)

Taking users to areas they are familiar with leads to more work of certain types

Issuing a “call to action” and visually highlighting causes a broader range of users to do work (and moreover the “lead workers” are different)



Cyclopath Futures Cyclopath doesn’t have to be

about bicyclists skiers (iceWiki) walkers disabled urban tourists local history garden clubs



Cyclopath Futures Cyclopath doesn’t have to be

about bicyclists Nor does it have to be just for

route finding ‘what if’ planning keeping inventories tracking change over time visualizing resources and

resource use


Building a Smarter PlanetClosing Remarks

Recap and takeaways…



Two types of smartness Technical AND social

(complementary, not exclusive) …and IBM needs to pay more

attention to the social part…



Social intelligence is old; what’s new is that digital systems enable it to take new and powerful forms

None of these examples – or anything like them –existed ten years ago



Cyclopath is a neat example of an important new class of apps that combine human-sourced knowledge with digital data to create a common resource provide mechanisms for eliciting and focusing human work to enhance the resource enable computations that provide resource-based services offer the potential of providing a platform for community collaboration



Takeaways People have rich and nuanced knowledge of their habitats People are willing to do work to contribute this knowledge Systems can be designed so that they can elicit and focus such work If the elicited knowledge is in a form that digital systems can use,

the knowledge can be used in computations and services



Takeaways People have rich and nuanced knowledge of their habitats People are willing to do work to contribute this knowledge Systems can be designed so that they can elicit and focus such work If the elicited knowledge is in a form that digital systems can use,

the knowledge can be used in computations and services

Two conjectures People who are collocated in cities and regions offer particularly fertile ground for social

intelligence because of their deep knowledge and local motivation Smart systems that succeed in getting people to participate – in providing, analyzing

and acting on knowledge – are more likely to be seen as acceptable and legitimate



Credits and Connections The ESP Game is by Luis von Ahn and colleagues at CMU The Cyclopath project is by Terveen, Priedhorsky, et al. at the University of Minnesota

(Priedhorsky started at IBM Research in Cambridge, in September 2010)

I can be reached at Thomas Erickson/Watson/IBM or [email protected], and browsed at http://www.visi.com/~snowfall


Technology

What do we mean by "Smarter?"