UK Digital Trailblazers

Congratulations are in order for the market town of Chipping Norton, aka "Chippy" for its runner-up status at this year's Great British High Street Awards.

That's Shaun Fagan on the left in the photo, the Chairman of Experience Chipping Norton (ECN) and true believer in the vitality of small towns and the transformational potential of technology.

We're inspired by Shaun's work and are currently collaborating with him and the digital team at Real Towns to amplify this strategy for more UK towns and high streets.

5 Key Technologies of the Smart City -- Reblog

Wi-Fi Mesh Networks

So what exactly is a mesh network and why should we be excited about this?

When you think of the "smart home", with the ability to control your thermostat remotely or water your garden when it's needed, imagine this capability amplified into public infrastructure. Cities will be able to manage energy resources and control activities such as lighting and transportation controls through central dashboards. Read more about it here.

Expanding mesh network capability to citizens will be more than just offering public Wi-fi. It will enable street-level information exchange and a multitude of ideas we've yet to think about.

Keep an Eye on Wearables

Intel announced that it's downscaling its wearable division after several failures including the Basis Peak watch. While this may seem like bad news, most notably for the teams working on these technologies at Intel, it's just another ripple in a market poised to take off across multiple sectors.

There are some very smart minds working in wearables right now and many of the usability and human factors issues killing off some nascent products are accelerating innovation. Fitness and health are obvious markets, but more intriguing is how wearables interact with the everyday objects we encounter in an urban environment.

Speaking of Disruption...

Technology + horizontal integration with zero marginal cost = scaleable disruption.

What does this mean for urban planning and community development? Think of any processes that can be merged and integrated with user technologies (API), Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI)...transportation, utilities, resource management, B2B and B2C. Now keep going.

Read more about it here.

Technologies to Tackle Food Waste

Food waste has become the hot topic of late, most notably the ways in which technology is raising the bar and linking businesses with nonprofits for food donations. Boston-based startup Spoiler Alert launched a web-based portal to facilitate this exchange real-time and has received additional funding to accelerate the platform. Read more about it here.

When businesses see themselves as hubs and enablers within a community, rather than the local employer, there is great potential.

The Upside of Down

I've been reading Thomas Homer-Dixon's excellent 2006 book "The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilisation." Not exactly a cheery topic, but what is remarkable and hopeful is how prescient his observations were 10 years ago.

He identifies the convergence of global stresses as if it's a running commentary of 2016, predicting much of the strangeness that has been rolling out all year. What strikes me, though, is how my perspective has changed from assuming that we're ill-equipped to overcome some of these stresses, to feeling that the political and socio-economic environment is never better for exploiting the opportunities in front of us.

In other words, we've been too comfortable. I see entrepreneurial, innovative people tackling some of these issues head-on through collaboration outside the normal channels. There will be much disruption ahead.