“Introduction to Entrepreneurial Urbanism…Entrepreneurial Urbanism… Urban Prototyping… Be Your Own Souvenir… Water Wall… Electronic Countermeasures… Hack-a-Thons… Youth, Digital Technology, and Community.. Reinventing the Pay Telephone… Sensor Valley…”
Case Study: Youth, Digital Technology and Community
Case Study: Reinventing the Pay Telephone
Case Study: Sensor Valley
Context: Introduction to Entrepreneurial Urbanism
Looking at how entrepreneurs are helping to shape our cities.
Planners do not necessarily work with entrepreneurs, but this would be great opportunity to think creatively and innovatively about neighborhoods and places.
There are also opportunities to engage youth, and for people in arts, business, technology, and those interested in urban design to come together to develop exciting ideas.
Traces the geographical, historical and theoretical contexts for entrepreneurial urbanism.
Entrepreneurialism emerged in the 1970s and 1980s when reduced funding forced cities to think differently about how they could support different activities, and there was also heightened competition as a result of internationalisation.
So cities began to work with local stakeholders for example to try and defend jobs and find new ways of securing new forms of investment.
Three features of entrepreneurial urbanism: partnerships, some level of speculative developments for the future, and for whom the entrepreneurial urbanism is for.
Exploring the way that digital arts can be used to enhance our communities.
Water Light Graffiti is a surface made of thousands of light-emitting diodes, also known as LEDs, which are illuminated by the contact of water. It is a way to have members of the public engage in an urban space temporarily sharing their own messages and art.
Hackathons – bring a bunch of people in a room, give them a clear problem, and then go ahead and solve it in a pretty quick period of time (e.g. over the weekend, 24 hours, couple of hours etc).
Explanation of what happens during a hackathon e.g. start the event with a set of presentations and people form teams around those, around the different problem statements.
One benefit of hackathons: build networks – people got to know each other, work together, and learn new skills – that extend beyond the hackathon.
Why is this important to the city? Many people will argue that hackathons are a flash in the pan or a fad or a trend. Even if they are, that ignores the underlying set of factors that gave rise to hackathons.
Case study of Beacon, a next generation public communications hub e.g. solar powered, no need to insert coins, touch buttons, or pick pick up a receiver – it is controlled by voice and gestures, noise cancelling technologies and directional speakers, keeps citizens informed etc.
Bring technologists, artists and other creative types together, to work together to create experiences that are sensual and engaging in our communities.
