I noticed some of the inaccuracies in his examples, but not all of them because I don't know enough about the technical details like you do. Thanks for pointing them out. The bigger argument still holds, I think: There are a lot of problems with the smart city that are not being addressed by IBM or by Cisco, for example. While the impact now is not much more than infoscreens crashing or public transport disruption, there will be bigger systmes with bigger problems if we decide to 'smarten up' our cities. Especially when data-driven decision making becomes more and more central to the functioning of local governments. What happens when 'smart' public services crash, are inaccurate or just misguided?I’ve also seen my share of gaps, shortfalls, and misguided assumptions in the visions and initiatives that have been carried forth under the banner of smart cities.
I think it's premature to discuss shortfalls when the technology and implementation is still at the "scenario" level of development. It's like that whole bullshit "internet of things" monicker, which GE just calls "telemetry." "Internet of things?" Ooh! Aaah! Fancy! Unknown! Mystical! Subject to change without notice! Telemetry? A hundred years old and not something you can sell to Wall Street.