SMART CITIES AND THE INFLUENCE OF BIG TECH

Life, Work, and Play 3.0: Welcome to Tomorrow’s Smart City – A decade ago, destinations like Rio de Janeiro were already powered by high-tech command centers capable of monitoring weather, traffic, electricity usage, natural disasters, emergency situations and more – now the world’s most storied cities (New York, London, Tokyo, Dubai, etc.) are all competing to outdo each other in terms of technology-powered upgrades. Boston is allowing citizens to crowdfund to urban spaces; Sacramento is embedding
sensors in roadways and vehicles to improve traffic patterns and minimize accidents; San Francisco is equipping firefighters with augmented reality
helmets that let them 3D map nearby terrain to see through smoke; fleets of self-driving trucks are taking to the streets in many urban areas; drones are
starting to deliver packages and mail around Great Britain, etc. Clients recently asked us to think about why the next revolution in high-tech advancement is your hometown – and what the metropolis of the future will soon look like.

Fight the (Online) Power: Who Will Win (and Set the Rules) in the High-Tech Culture War? – FTC vs. Twitter. Justice Dept. vs. Google. Trump vs. Facebook. Why are technology and social media giants increasingly coming into critics’ crosshairs, just how much power do they wield to influence public opinion, and why – in the case of the tech titans – are they so determined to fight to cling to power? Is it really a question of playing monopoly with business, an issue of political oneupsmanship, a game of competing partisan interests – or is it really the beginnings of the coming fight to decide who wields incredible influence over information, and how it’s shaped and disseminated. The results of the battles we’re seeing play out now could redefine the media that we enjoy and consume for years to come. We were asked to take a closer look at how they’re shaping up.