Opinion | The real problem with Hong Kong’s flailing smart city plans is not the technology
- There’s a lesson to be learned in officials’ repeated failure to encourage mass adoption of a tech upgrade, be it the ‘Leave Home Safe’ app or digital payments
- They must focus less on the technical aspects of an initiative, and more on making the connection to how the technology improves our lives
The Leave Home Safe app indicates a broader struggle around “smart cities”. Every city wants to use technology to solve its problems, but in practice struggles to implement these bold visions. Why? The answer is that smart cities are not simply about tech.
People have a narrow understanding of what it means to be “smart”: sensors, public Wi-fi, and so on. Yet current visions of a smart city often do not answer how technology can be used to improve the quality of life in a city. They do not deal with the foundation of the social contract: trust.
Without that connection, people will not adopt these public technologies that rely on the idea of the common good and collective interest. And, without mass adoption, city governments won’t see the macro-level benefits, from deploying big data for social good to more efficient governance.
04:41
Hong Kong eases Covid-19 curbs, tells customers to use contact-tracing app at reopened premises
The Global Institute For Tomorrow has been researching this question and how it applies to Hong Kong’s key challenges. We need to redefine “smart city” to include a unifying vision of using technology to address social challenges and improve quality of life.
