Building the Digital City (with Jacqueline Lu and John Houweling)

Let's Think Digital

As digital technologies become increasingly embedded in the fabric of the built environment, there are real questions about whether our cities, where 8 out of 10 North Americans live, are truly ready to be digital or smart cities. Do we have the right levels of transparency for citizens to know what data is being collected, how, and for what purpose? And are governments ready to use data and technology to improve and modernize our public institutions?

This week, we talk to two amazing guests about these questions.

First up is Jacqueline Lu. She is the President and Co-Founder of Helpful Places, a social impact enterprise that is working to ensure that places we live and work in, and the technologies within them, are helpful and empowering for people and their communities. In this segment, we talk to Jacqueline about her contention that, with all of the digital technologies we are surrounded by, we are already living inside a computer. We also get into Helpful Place's project called the Digital Trust for Places & Routines standard, which is meant to increase the transparency, legibility and accountability of digital technology in the built environment.

Our second conversation is with John Houweling. John is the Director of Data, Analytics and Visualization for York Region in the Greater Toronto Area. John shares his insights from a fascinating career focused on data both in the public and private sectors and his his insights on the importance of data to fuel the digital revolution. We also talk about the digital maturity model that Think Digital has developed with York Region that help public sector organizations better understand what they need to do to make sure they have the capacity to operate effectively in a modern digital world.

Watch on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNuJ_1kx_jY

Related Links

• Blog Post: Think Digital Digital Maturity Assessment Model
• Helpful Places
• Digital Trust for Places and Routines Standard
• York Region "Putting Data to Work"

Chapters

00:04 Introduction

03:09 Interview with Jacqueline Lu

04:57 The Impact of Digital Technology on Public Spaces

07:38 The Role of Trust in Technology Adoption

12:57 The Digital Trust for Places and Routines Standard

16:02 The Importance of Transparency and Trust in Technology

21:34 Government Adoption of Technology is a Trust Issue

26:44 Interview with John Houweling

29:17 John's Journey and Transition into Government

33:36 Data Sharing and Collaboration

36:52 Digital Academy and Training

40:24 Digital Maturity and Benchmarking

44:38 Adopting Digital Standards

48:37 Conclusion and Final Thoughts from Ryan