Suárez, Juan Luis

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Western University Scholarship@Western CulturePlex Lab DataPoints CulturePlex Lab 3-2020 THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF THE WATERFRONT DOCTRINE Juan Luis Suárez Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cultureplex_datapoints  Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Citation of this paper: Suárez, Juan Luis, "THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF THE WATERFRONT DOCTRINE" (2020). CulturePlex Lab DataPoints. 10. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cultureplex_datapoints/10 Quayside to a very large parcel of  the eastern water-front Sidewalk Labs named the Innovative Design and Economic Acceleration (IDEA) District. Shockingly, in Sidewalk Labs’ proposal, the project grew in scale from its original size of  4.9 hectares to Sidewalk Labs’ newly proposed footprint of  77 hectares. The allegedly condescending language in the volume (including claims of  transparency about Sidewalk Labs’ business model) and the perceived bullying of  the Goo-gle company only added to what for many Torontonians was already unrequited love. It also left Waterfront Toronto in a very weak position since it could not cave in to such a bold move by Sidewalk Labs.Waterfront Toronto seized Sidewalk Labs’ apparent mis-step with respect to its IDEA proposal, to reframe the partnership with the company while adopting a strong position as steward of  the public good, ensuring that the public corporation became a powerful arbiter and deci-sion maker1. 1  After analyzing Sidewalk Labs’ Digital Innovation Appendix, the most recent report of  the Digital Strategy Advisory Panel denounces that Waterfront Toron-to has again become the subaltern in its relation with Sidewalk Labs.VOL 4  l  ISSUE 2 l  MAR 2020 l  ISSN 2561-5211CulturePlex Data PointsTHE FOUR COMPONENTS OF THE  WATERFRONT DOCTRINEAuthor:   Juan-Luis Suárez                                                                                     1The CulturePlex has identified four areas of  interest in the still emerging Waterfront Doctrine. These areas result from the set of  decisions adopted by the three-lev-els-of-government (municipal, provincial and federal) corporation as well as from the positions taken by each of  the different stakeholders.1. The PartnershipThe Partnership is the title of  volume 3 of  Sidewalk Labs’ Master Innovation and De-velopment Plan answering the request for proposals issued by Waterfront Toronto to devel-op the Quayside. The volume became infamous as soon as it was made public and it be-came known that Sidewalk Labs, without an invitation, had expanded the boundaries of  the project from the IDEA district plan, digital innovations, Quayside map plan, smart housing, and urban innovations (Sidewalk Labs)Credit: Sidewalk Labs. CulturePlex Data Points I VOL 4 I ISSUE 2 I MAR 2020                                                    2This strong position was firmed up in an open letter from Stephen Diamond, the Chair of  Waterfront Toronto Board of  Directors, dated October 31, 2019. In his let-ter, Mr. Diamond summarized the main points around the Master Innovation Development Plan’s (MIDP) Threshold Issues2. Without an immediate correction of  these issues, the project would end3. Up until this moment, this is the strongest part of  the Waterfront Doctrine.  2. InnovationThe second area in which the Waterfront Doctrine needs to clar-ify and codify its position is in-novation.“Innovation” is a polysemic term that is used for many, sometimes contradictory, pur-poses, and that has come to rep-resent all the good things that digital technologies will bring to society and the economy. In particular, Canada has bet a great deal of  its economic future on invest-ments in our innovation destiny.The problem is that Sidewalk Labs’ Master Innovation and Development Plan uses the term “innovation” in many different ways, depending on the context and the performativity act that it intends to play. Waterfront To-ronto has not clearly defined innovation either, although the whole project about the Quayside is imbued with an ethereal innovation spirit. As we will discuss in an upcoming issue of  Datapoints, the closest we have to an innovation doctrine is the let-ter Sheldon Levy wrote along with the report of  the Quayside Evaluation Committee4. Getting the inno-vation part of  the Waterfront Doctrine right is very im-portant in order to get out of  the dichotomy between innovation and ethics. The CulturePlex believes that if  we cannot get both words in the same sentence –“eth-ical innovation”–, the project on Toronto’s Waterfront will be a missed opportunity to illuminate and lead the digital path that Canada will take in the 21st Century.2   The next issue of  CulturePLex’s DataPoints will dig into the Threshold Issues.3  An opinion piece in The New York Times titled “How Toronto Reined In Big Tech” (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/opinion/how-toronto-reined-in-big-tech.html) heralded Waterfront’s new strong position vis a vis Sidewalk Labs.4  The letter is dated January 15, 2020.3. Digital GovernanceThis is the area that has result-ed in the most public debate since it was known that a com-pany owned by Google would lead an urban development project in Toronto. The rea-son for the public’s mistrust of  Sidewalk Labs is directly related to the fact that Goo-gle’s business model revolves around the collection and analysis of  personal data. Allowing this to happen in a city would imply a renunciation of  the government’s obligations to look after its citizens’ digital rights, and one more step in what some experts are describing as a state of  digital urgency. It would also mean a radical change in how relations are conceived and lived among neighbours, and between citizens and the government, as there would be a private, intensive data collection company, mediating those relations. So far, Waterfront Toronto has published a draft of  its Digital Principles, promised a Guide to Building In-telligent Communities, and formed a Digital Strategy Advisory Panel (whose members demand the urgent creation of  a comprehensive digital governance frame-work before moving forward with the project). In spite of  these measures, Waterfront Toronto still struggles to offer an overall solution to digital governance.It is important to note that Waterfront Toronto is acting in a vacuum in many of  these digital, and data related themes as regulation and citizens’ awareness have not yet caught up with the speed at which technology is advancing. This is an opportunity for the corporation to influence how these regulations will be shaped in To-ronto and Canada. If  the Waterfront Doctrine comes up with a clear, well-defined, and assertive framework for data and digital governance of  the Quayside, the Water-front Doctrine could become a world leader in the harmo-nization of  digital innovations and digital governance, at least with respect to smart cities. Credit: Sidewalk Labs.Credit: Sidewalk Labs. CulturePlex Data Points I VOL 4 I ISSUE 2 I MAR 2020                                                    3Waterfront Toronto Priority Outcomes:infrastructure along with the systems that will control the delivery of  digitally enabled services), it will mean that not only will it be almost impossible to remove it from this position, but that all interactions in that city will happen through it: this includes the actions of  the government, private companies and citizens. The city, as we know it, will likely disappear.The Waterfront Doctrine is necessary and urgent. The fu-ture of  the city depends on it. ABOUT THIS ISSUEThe current DataPoints is part of a series of issues about Sidewalk Labs’ project in Waterfront Toronto. In the fol-lowing Datapoints we will provide criticism and analysis of the most recent news and public documents related to Sidewalk Labs. Along with the analysis we will provide an overview of the project and the ethical concerns that urban data collection may arise.www.cultureplex.ca EDITION Emilio Calderón DESIGN Ana Ruiz SegarraCOORDINATIONYadira Lizama-MuéCOLLABORATORSBárbara Romero Daniel Varona Cordero Tata Méndez Mahecha María Paula Espejo Zeina Dghaim          @cultureplex    cultureplex@gmail.comLondon, Ontario, CanadaThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. CulturePlex Data Points I VOL 4 I I SUE 2 I MAR 2020                                                  4. The City is the PlatformFinally, the CulturePlex con-siders that the most import-ant issue to be resolved in the emerging Waterfront Doctrine is not explicit in any document, butwill tip the balance one way or the other about what 21st-century (digital, smart) cities will be like.The CulturePlex calls this issue the “platform issue” and describes it as the need to strengthen the laws, regulations and uses that make the city the true plat-form of  urban life. This is what has happened in most of  the history of  urban development and the cause of  the success and growth of  this human invention.However, the digital economy currently favours a model in which the most dominant companies tend to thrive only under the platform model: these com-panies become the de facto platform that connects and regulates the interaction among the different types of  participants of  the specific social and economic sec-tor the companies work in. If  a company is able to become the platform of  a neighbourhood or an ur-ban area (for example, by providing all technological Credit: Sidewalk Labs.u Affordabilityu Sustainabilityu Inclusivityu Economic opportunitiesu Mobility

THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF THE WATERFRONT DOCTRINE

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THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF THE WATERFRONT DOCTRINE

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