City as Software

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Definition

City as Software is the idea that a city is a malleable, writable system capable of being edited and changed by its citizens. Adam Greenfield wrote that seeing a city as software would allow "people a fundamentally new way to engage and co-author the environment they inhabit."[1]

For example, some cities have open data sets, allowing developers to write applications based on specific city data. Developers have written mobile transit trackers some cases, software has been created that “You provide citizens with a variety of congenial ways to initiate trouble tickets, whether they’re most comfortable using the phone, a mobile application or website, or a text message. You display currently open cases, and gather resolved tickets in a permanent archive or resource. You use an algorithm to assign priority to open issues on a three-axis metric:</blockquote>

“Then, of course, (((yes, of course Adam, do go on))) you apply the usual variety of visualizations to the live data, allowing patterns to jump right out. Which city department has the best record for closing out tickets most quickly, and with the highest approval rating? What kind of issues generally take longest to address to everyone’s satisfaction?
[2]</blockquote>

References

  1. Comment on Frameworks for Citizen Responsiveness: Towards a Read/Write Urbanism by Adam Greenfield in response to Fred Scharmen - July 7, 2010 at 1:02 pm.
  2. Frameworks for Citizen Responsiveness: Towards a Read/Write Urbanism