Complex City Systems

Information and communications technology (ICT) is being exploited within cities to enable them to better compete in a global knowledge-based service-led economy. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, cities exploited large technical systems (LTSs) such as the telegraph, telephony, electrical networks, and other technologies to enhance their social and economic position. This paper examines how the LTS model applies to ICT deployments, including broadband network, municipal wireless, and related services, and how cities and city planners in the twenty-first century are using or planning to use these technologies. This paper also examines their motivations and expectations, the contribution to date, and the factors affecting outcomes. The findings extend the LTS model by proposing an increased role for organizations with respect to an individual agency. The findings show how organizations form themselves into networks that interact and influence the outcome of the system at the level of the city. The extension to LTS, in the context of city infrastructure, is referred to as the complex city system framework. This proposed framework integrates the role of these stakeholder networks, as well as that of the socioeconomic, technical, and spatial factors within a city, and shows how together they shape the technical system and its socioeconomic contribution. The CCS framework has been presented at Digital Cities Conferences in Eindhoven, Barcelona, Taiwan, London and at IBM’s Global Smart Cities Conference in Shanghai between 2010 and 2012. Its finding are timely in the context of major policy decisions on investments at regional, national and international level on ICT infrastructure and related service transformation, as well as the governance of such projects, their planning and their deployment

The Talent Connection

The battleground of international competitiveness in the 21st century is innovation, and cities are increasingly viewed as the foremost places where innovation takes place. For cities to flourish and enjoy a sustainable future in a high velocity, knowledge intensive, networked economy, they must continually re-invent themselves, and that requires talent, deep resources of human capital, which may not be adequately provided from local resources alone. The paper demonstrates that the talent pool is the crucial asset that can attract firms, creates new levels of enterprise, and enables a city to re-invent itself as it is buffeted by increasing technological, social and environmental pressures. But attracting talent alone is not enough, a city must connect with it too as highlighted in the previous submission two. In this periodical article which builds on the paper published in IMPP in 2008, the author describes the practical actions and programs that cities need to apply to develop local talent, attract international talent, retain it, and above all connect these resources and their associated networks to local firms and institutions

The Managed Service Paradox

This paper examines the contrasts in the provision of managed service in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. It highlights the polarization between infrastructure services that are growing in scale and increasingly becoming a commoditized, and customized or even one-of-a-kind service projects. The paper refers to the approaches taken by three highly innovative advanced service companies, IBM, Ericsson, and Cable & Wireless, to package and deliver ICT service on a more industrialized basis. The authors identify the six-stage process that describes these companies’ journeys to date from. They explore the challenges these companies faced on that journey as well those currently facing them as they move to a higher degree of industrialization. To address these challenges, the authors propose a model with three axes: offering development, service delivery, and go to market. The model demonstrates how the increasing industrialization of managed service requires an approach integrating all three of these dimensions. They also show that strong governance is required to address the impacts of technological evolution, marketplace dynamics, and corporate culture. The paper has formed the basis of the academic and executive education programs taught at both Imperial College and is the heart of the new service design masters program at the Royal College of Art. Because of its relevance to large industrial companies seeking to transition from an industrial offering to a service or solution led offering, the paper has been turned into a course that has been delivered to Arup, Vodafone, Finmeccanica, Telefonica, Samsung and Laing O’Rourke to date and this programme has been delivered by the authors in Korea, Taiwan, US and the UK

La connexió del talent

Ciutat intensiva en coneixement: atracció i retenció de talent a través de les oportunitats d’ocupació i de la qualitat de vida. Exemple: 22@Barcelon

Attract and connect: The 22@Barcelona innovation district and the internationalization of Barcelona business

Innovation is frequently cited as the battleground of international competitiveness in the 21st century and cities are increasingly viewed as the cauldrons of innovation, enriching not only their surrounding regions but their nations as a whole. Across the globe massive renewal is taking place in our cities infrastructure to support a highly networked, knowledge-based economy. At the same time there are fundamental shifts occurring in the nature of work and the workplaces our cities host, as well as transformation of the outputs of industry with the growth knowledge based economy as well as patterns of consumption that are services based. Cities are competing with one another to attract not only firms and direct foreign investment, but also skilled knowledge workers to develop their social capital and capacity for innovation. But is the attraction of top talent the crucial ingredient. In this study we examine the transformation of Barcelona and its historic cotton district to become an international hub of innovation. The author highlights the importance of not only attracting talent but crucially connecting that talent with local firms and social and cultural institutions. The paper describes the actions required by city agencies, and as a result of its recommendations with regard to Barcelona, the city agencies transformed their programmes for attracting and connecting talent, created online services, BCNInternational, as well as supported the deployment of international clubs, Gild, and transformed their “landing” programme to assist international people and business ventures setting up in Barcelona’s new 22@district to connect with innovative local firms and institution

The Service Design Imperative

Is service design another specialisation within the design discipline, or is it somehow reshaping design itself, transforming both what we mean by design and the role and responsibilities of designers? In this journal paper the role of service design is examined in business and in the public sector as a tool for strategic innovation, and how it is transforming the role of the designer and the profile of the profession. This paper explores the opportunity to apply service design methodologies to complex and strategic challenges in both the public and private sector. It examines the opportunities for service transformation that new and emerging digital technologies present and the implications for the role of the designer and the practice of design itself. We are experiencing a unique combination of digital technology innovations. We have the tools to transform existing services and to innovate new ones, and the imperatives for innovation in the public realm and private sectors are more intense than ever. Design has raised its level of ambition in terms of the complex social, economic and environmental challenges it wishes to address, but it must also raise its intellectual and technical capacity to realize this ambition. The paper identifies the specific new skills required and the role of educators in achieving this end

Complex city systems : how cities are using technological systems to transform and compete in a global knowledge based economy

Imperial Users onl

The Design London Story

The book was published to mark the culmination and achievements of Design London 2007-2011. Directed by Leon, Design London received £5.8M seedcorn funding from NESTA, HEFCE and the partner institutions. The project undertook action research into interdisciplinary innovation, setting out to discover what was needed to respond to the challenges identified by the 2005 Cox Review of Creativity in Business. It led to a better understanding of how disciplines may work together effectively, avoiding simplistic importations of ‘design thinking’ in favour of a deeper mutual learning. The project implemented and refined those solutions leading to: innovative courses at Imperial College London (1,600 postgraduate students during the project, now 500 annually) and RCA (new Master’s in Service Design with Imperial College London); a new Chair in Design at Imperial College London; executive education delivered to 600 SMEs; an incubator for novel Intellectual Property. Ten new businesses applied the methods devised as a result of this research. These won the Dyson Award, the RCUK Business Plan Competition, British Design Award 2010 and Gates Foundation Award, as well as further NESTA funding. The model was disseminated internationally to help create similar centres in Qatar, Mexico, Helsinki and Cape Town. Academic outputs by Leon and others were published in Academy of Management Journal; Information Systems Journal; Journal of Evolutionary Economics; Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice; Management Science; Long Range Planning; Organisational Research Methods. Leon presented research at leading academic conferences worldwide. A report on the UK designer fashion economy was produced for NESTA. Dyson’s ‘Ingenious Britain’ report (2010) encouraged government to ‘learn the lessons from Design London…to examine how the model can be applied to other Universities, courses and incubators’. Cox wrote in the present volume (2011) ‘its significance goes well beyond the impact within its two parent organisations.

Design practice for blue green infrastructure in the context of urban resilience

This paper presents four projects where design practice is applied to address the challenges of engaging communities in the maintenance of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI). The design projects were initiated by the Royal College of Art in partnership with Enfield council, UK. The aim was to develop service propositions that encourage shared ownership of Broomfield Park between local communities and the council. These projects demonstrate the relevance of design practice in developing urban resilience through BGI. When considering BGI as a ‘wicked problem’, design practice demonstrations its potential in fundamentally transforming the traditional way in which public services are designed and implemented