The city of Newark, NJ recently unveiled a new smart city kiosk called BrandNewark. Earlier this year, Kansas City billed itself as "the world's most connected Smart City" after installing 25 community kiosks resembling giant iPhones. Which begs the question, are kiosks the future of way finding and community engagement? They've been around for decades, first as free-standing art installations on street corners with posters and notice boards (think Art Nouveau and Paris), evolving into digitally enabled beacons with advertising.
There are issues with on-street web terminals. The LinkNYC project experienced a few set-backs when it was discovered that people were using the kiosks to access pornography in public places. This is where the internet and public spaces meet. What we access on our laptops and smart phones is something else entirely when it becomes public forum. Maintenance and vandalism are also issues with stand-alone kiosks that require the public to engage with them in order to access information.
If we are all walking around with a smart phone, that becomes our kiosk.
I think the idea of a kiosk is the idea that smart phones exclude some folks. http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/02/22/smartphone-ownership-and-internet-usage-continues-to-climb-in-emerging-economies/ from that link, about 85-90% of "developed" nations have smart phones. Probably still a place for the public pylon, but clearly the future is in your hand--literally.
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