Building the Marketplace for Cities

Challenges and innovative solutions for global cities edited by CITYMART.COM

February 9, 2011 • 3:09 am 0

Tone Check & Parker App

Technological innovation is all about making every day life easier and more efficient. To that end, two new technologies have recently caught our attention. The first is called ToneCheck, developed by the Canadian technology firm Lymbix, it claims to check the tone of the language contained in your email. Like spellcheck, which catches all those typos and embarrassing errors, ToneCheck analyzes your completed email and offers a read on the dominant tone, warning when it detects a phrase that might be too aggressive or nasty. Of course, levels of acceptable nastiness vary among emailers, so ToneCheck operates on a sliding scale, letting you set the specific parameters for tolerant language. For now, the service only works as an add-on to Microsoft Outlook, and is free for the first 30 days. You can try it here. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, communication, Parking, urban policy

February 9, 2011 • 3:09 am 0

Tone Check & Parker App

Technological innovation is all about making every day life easier and more efficient. To that end, two new technologies have recently caught our attention. The first is called ToneCheck, developed by the Canadian technology firm Lymbix, it claims to check the tone of the language contained in your email. Like spellcheck, which catches all those typos and embarrassing errors, ToneCheck analyzes your completed email and offers a read on the dominant tone, warning when it detects a phrase that might be too aggressive or nasty. Of course, levels of acceptable nastiness vary among emailers, so ToneCheck operates on a sliding scale, letting you set the specific parameters for tolerant language. For now, the service only works as an add-on to Microsoft Outlook, and is free for the first 30 days. You can try it here. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, communication, Parking, urban policy

December 10, 2010 • 3:29 pm 0

My war on regional digitized road and transport data in Stockholm

During the years 2006 – 2009 when working in the regional public transport I found an lucky opportunity to fill one of my companies most frustrating data black holes with ones and zeros. But you can’t win them all! Listen to my story.

You are one year old when you learn to walk, you are five or six when you learn to ride a bike and at least 16 when learning to drive. All of us have as a primary means of traveling – walking (and here I include all in wheelchairs) and even motorists are occasionally forced to leave their car – at least to be able to refuel the car.

Although, since the modern era began, cities has focused on the car’s traction, and to be frank , we have built cities such as displacing pedestrians as second-class citizens. When Sweden a few years ago legislated that motorists have an obligation to give way to pedestrians intending to cross the street – then motorists raged and state that this is a traffic hazard!

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, Bicycles, bikes, Elderly, GIS, highway, impaired, intermodal, Location Based Services, mobile technology, Modifying Infrastructure, New Business Models, open data, Parking, public transport, road, Stockholm, Sweden, transportation, urban policy

December 10, 2010 • 3:29 pm 0

My war on regional digitized road and transport data in Stockholm

During the years 2006 – 2009 when working in the regional public transport I found an lucky opportunity to fill one of my companies most frustrating data black holes with ones and zeros. But you can’t win them all! Listen to my story.

You are one year old when you learn to walk, you are five or six when you learn to ride a bike and at least 16 when learning to drive. All of us have as a primary means of traveling – walking (and here I include all in wheelchairs) and even motorists are occasionally forced to leave their car – at least to be able to refuel the car.

Although, since the modern era began, cities has focused on the car’s traction, and to be frank , we have built cities such as displacing pedestrians as second-class citizens. When Sweden a few years ago legislated that motorists have an obligation to give way to pedestrians intending to cross the street – then motorists raged and state that this is a traffic hazard!

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, Bicycles, bikes, Elderly, GIS, highway, impaired, intermodal, Location Based Services, mobile technology, Modifying Infrastructure, New Business Models, open data, Parking, public transport, road, Stockholm, Sweden, transportation, urban policy

December 1, 2010 • 1:07 pm 0

The Vector Project Visioning Workshop.

At our Summit on Service Innovation last week in Copenhagen we ran 9 parallel Visioning Workshops, such as the one facilitated by Neil Clavin and Maya Wiseman on their Vector Project Showcase. The above video was edited by Viktorija Prak, a very talented student supporting Neil and Maya in the workshop, in which business leaders, strategists, researchers and cities invented new urban technologies to redefine the role of bikes in our cities.

Filed under: Citymart.com | Living Labs Global, Future of Biking Pilot Copenhagen, Our Summits, Uncategorized, Applications, Bicycles, community application development, Copenhagen, Living Labs Global Summit, Location Based Services, Modifying Infrastructure, Movements, New Business Models, open data, Tracing, urban policy

October 21, 2010 • 3:07 pm 0

Connecting cities: a Cluster.eu interview with Sascha Haselmayer

Cluster.eu, a great online and published magazine, gave me some challenging questions about our book “Connected Cities: Your 256 Billion Euro Dividend“.

Read it here - Connecting cities: an interview with Sascha Haselmayer.

Filed under: Connected Cities: Your 256 Billion Euro Dividend, Africa, Barcelona, Eindhoven, Location Based Services, London, mobile technology, New Business Models, Parking, Roaming, Stockholm, Tourism, Urban Development, urban policy

July 26, 2010 • 12:09 am 0

New York City Aims to Improve the Lives of Elderly

The challenges associated with growing old in some of the world’s largest, fastest, most-intimidating cities are not new. Crumbling side-walks, inaccessible public restrooms, stoplights that favor cars over pedestrians are problems that can be found in most modern 21st century cities. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, Elderly, Location Based Services, Modifying Infrastructure, urban policy

July 14, 2010 • 11:54 am 0

Future of Biking: Copenhagen Calls for Innovations

Copenhagen has one of the world’s most ambitious local climate policies, striving to become a zero-emission community by the year 2025. To achieve this commitment, the city already has put several measures and lines of investment into motion, actively collaborating with companies and technology experts.

Together with Living Labs Global, the City of Copenhagen invites innovators, researchers and companies to present innovative mobility solutions that help to achieve the goal of integrating Bicycles fully into a new intelligent and integrated transport system for the city. Already today, more than 55% of residents in Copenhagen use the bicycle daily, creating opportunities for new applications of IT in entertainment and safety, but also to address the several barriers that continue to exist between the excellent public transport system and bicycle uses.

Call for Pilots: The future of biking in Copenhagen.

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Filed under: Future of Biking Pilot Copenhagen, Uncategorized, Bicycles, Citymart.com | Living Labs Global, Copenhagen, Entertainnment, Healthcare, Mobility, Pilot, Social Networking, urban policy

July 5, 2010 • 3:22 pm 0

Registering Mobile Phones to Cut Crime, Kenya

Kenya has announced plans to register all mobile phone numbers in an attempt to diminish crime.
From now on users will have to supply proof of address and identity documents before they can get a phone number, while any numbers unregistered by the end of July will be disconnected. Many individuals support this new law as they believe it will make it generally more difficult for criminals to carry out crimes; this law specifically targets kidnapping gangs that often use unidentified cell phones to carry out their deeds. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, Modifying Infrastructure, Urban Development, urban policy

June 20, 2010 • 4:10 pm 0

What’s new in Mobile Health?

I’ve rounded up a number of interesting mobile health gadgets that have emerged on the market over the last 6 months. Here are a collection of self-explanatory videos which give us a pretty good glimpse at how these gadgets work and how they can be used. Check them out below:

MedApps
A mobile outpatient monitoring solution that proactively alerts doctors and nurses to potential health problems.

Read the rest of this entry »