54% of the world's population currently lives in cities, and that number is set to grow.

So it's no wonder that so much of our transformation efforts are focused there.

Smart cities promise to be safer, less congested and more healthy,

and a lot of the tech to do that is already here. If you're able to spot patterns, if you're able

to look across multiple different disparate services or disparate infrastructures, then that becomes

your opportunity to really drive step changes.

Although we've been using data to analyze urban environments since the 70s, privacy remains

the biggest barrier to growth.

License agreement, when that thing pops up on your phone or on your computer, and the data

gets sent out, and if you're okay with that, then we know centralizing data,

you can do a lot of things. Some of them are good. Some of them are pretty creepy.

In today's episode, we talk about the big dreams and logistical nightmares of getting

smart city initiatives off the ground. We discuss the role of big data and the individual, why a siloed

smart city is destined to fail, and how a reimagining cities post-COVID might just bring about

some much-needed sustainable change. All that and much more, I'm Michael Bird, and this is

Technology Untangled.

Music I'm Michael Bird, and this is Technology Untangled. The modern city is changing.

Urbanisation and population growth are non-ending phenomena, with 66% of the population expected to be living in cities by 2050.

Well, I think it's fascinating about the evolving role of cities.

They originally came into existence predominantly through the Industrial Revolution as a place for

manufacturing and really their role was around the physical exchange of goods.

That's Jen Hors-Huitt from the Smart London Board.

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