Urban Planning Unplugged: How Wireless Mobile Technology Is Influencing Design Elements in Seven Major U.S. Cities

As wireless mobile technologies become central to contemporary living in urban areas, private service providers are undertaking directives to expand their broadband designs. Using critical policy analysis, this research examines city planning documents in cities with wireless broadband technology initiatives. It finds a disconnection between urban planning efforts and wireless technology policy that must be remedied to ensure democratic communication technology policies for the future

Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Traffic flows, with Consideration of Data Privacy

USDOT Grant 69A3551747109This project develops an artificial neural network (ANN), a class of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, to accurately model and predict future delays at an intersection. Developing such modeling and prediction systems raises considerable data privacy concerns and it is incumbent upon municipal, state, and federal branches of government to prioritize citizens and their concerns before the implementation of new smart community technologies that are fueled by unprecedented levels of data collection. The technique proposed in this study identifies nonlinear, time-varying mapping between the inputs to the ANN and its output, the predicted delay. The traffic data measured at a Long Beach intersection with heavy truck traffic are used to build a realistic simulation in Vissim, a microscopic traffic flow simulator. The authors designed and performed experiments on the developed Vissim model to train the ANN delay predictor and validate the generalization ability of the predictor. The simulation results agree with the on-site delay measurements. This suggests the ANN predictor can accurately predict the delay at the intersection with heavy-truck penetration. Because smart technologies raise data privacy concerns, the research team led 32 study participants on \u201cdatawalks\u201d designed to gauge comfort levels and attitudes toward devices that collect personally identifiable information. Study participants encountered public WiFi routers, surveillance cameras, automated license plate readers and other surveillance technologies. They used a custom app to respond to prompts related to data collection, sharing and analysis. Study participants\u2019 responses, along qualitative data collected during a \u201cdebriefing\u201d conversation following each walk, provided insights into residents\u2019 attitudes toward smart communities technologies and identified privacy concerns. The quantitative and qualitative findings in this study inform a series of recommendations that research teams can follow to implement real-world test labs at busy truck intersections while fostering public trust, installing these modelling and prediction systems, and ensuring the overall safety and efficiency of the intersection\u2019s traffic flow

THE TELECOM INDUSTRY EFFORT TO DEREGULATE IP-ENABLED SERVICES THROUGH CREATION OF A DIGITAL IMAGINARY

This study applies critical discourse analysis to examine how language influences digital technology policies. Specifically, the researcher examined how lawmakers and telecommunications providers symbolically associated widely supported ideas—including net neutrality, job creation, technological innovation and consumer protection—with deregulation of phone and broadband services. These concepts, which frequently clash with the actual intent of the legislative proposals, have become central to the “digital imaginary” created by the telecom lobby. More than 30 states have adopted legislation that eliminates or reduces the authority of local and state agencies to regulate voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone services. The discourse surrounding passage of VoIP deregulation provides key insights into how culturally symbolic phrases are used to legitimize arguments, even when they clash with reality. The analysis focuses on about a dozen state bills modeled after legislation written by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative corporate-member group

DEPLATFORMING THE SMART CITY: GIVING RESIDENTS CONTROL OVER THEIR PERSONAL DATA

Smart city platforms–encompassing mobile apps, cameras, sensors, algorithms, and predictive analytics—function as surveillance tools. Specifically, these Internet-connected devices and services generate troves of data on residents, including real-time geolocation, energy consumption habits, travel patterns, mobile device identifiers, Internet browsing history, phone contacts, credit card numbers, and much more. The proposed project is focused on the City of Long Beach’s vision to use data in ethical ways that avoid reinforcing existing racial biases and discriminatory decision-making. When fully implemented, this digital rights platform will operationalize both privacy and racial equity as priorities for all deployments of smart city technology. First, the platform will feature text and the open-source iconography that visually conveys how the City of Long Beach uses specific technologies, what data the devices collect and how the City utilizes that data. We plan to strategically deploy these information points across Long Beach, physically adjacent to or digitally embedded within civic technologies, e.g., sensors, cameras, small cells, mobile payment kiosks, and a 311 app. The platform will include a feedback application consisting of access (via QR code or hyperlink) to an online dashboard where users may learn additional details, update data collection preferences, and share comments/concerns with local government officials. The ultimate goal is to develop a backend solution that enables residents to opt-out of data collection. The platform will provide residents with a clear understanding of how local government applies predictive and diagnostic analytics to personal data, and will also empower community members by granting them agency

User and ISP Rights of Device Attachment and Device Management

Internet research often assumes users may connect devices without consent by their service providers. However, in many networks the service provider only allows use of devices obtained directly from the provider. We review how United States communications law addresses the rights of users to connect devices of their choice. We explicate a set of user and service provider rights. We propose legal requirements for attachment and management of devices. We illustrate how these proposed regulations would affect the services currently offered on telephone, cable, satellite, video networks, and cellular networks, as well as on the Internet

Data ideologies of an interested public: A study of grassroots open government data intermediaries

Government officials claim open data can improve internal and external communication and collaboration. These promises hinge on “data intermediaries”: extra-institutional actors that obtain, use, and translate data for the public. However, we know little about why these individuals might regard open data as a site of civic participation. In response, we draw on Ilana Gershon to conceptualize culturally situated and socially constructed perspectives on data, or “data ideologies.” This study employs mixed methodologies to examine why members of the public hold particular data ideologies and how they vary. In late 2015 the authors engaged the public through a commission in a diverse city of approximately 500,000. Qualitative data was collected from three public focus groups with residents. Simultaneously, we obtained quantitative data from surveys. Participants’ data ideologies varied based on how they perceived data to be useful for collaboration, tasks, and translations. Bucking the “geek” stereotype, only a minority of those surveyed (20%) were professional software developers or engineers. Although only a nascent movement, we argue open data intermediaries have important roles to play in a new political landscape