User:Serge Neuman/sandbox

Popularized by the industry at the end of the 00s for marketing reasons, there are articles on Smart City as early as late 1998

They all have in common the fact that at one point or another they incorporate some solutions from ICT. But beyond that two different smart cities can have very little in common. They can even go for completely different directions. However, that’s legit as a Smart City must be before anything else a functional city! And there are many models of cities as each city must meet specific needs, challenges and ambitions. Without a precise inclusive definition, it cannot be a common specification to turn any city into a smart city. Consequently, many players are pushing for their own definition that serves their own interests. That’s definitely what did the ICT’s key player during the first era of Smart City. They came with their expertise of network management and explained that cities are actually numerous flows that need to be optimized for the city to run smoothly. We call smart cities built upon this assumption: Smart City 1.0. The fact that several solutions of this era are still used in today’s smart cities, proves there is some truth in this assumption. The era of Smart City 1.0 ended when city managers wanted their power back. They created the era of Smart City 2.0. The second era didn’t last long. It was quickly replaced as stakeholders had no technology nor mindful purpose to propose. Quickly, the citizens took the power of the Internet and social networks, to connect with others having common interests in order to be creative and conjugate their talents for a purpose. It created the era of Smart City 3.0. As the citizens were using more and more the Internet and the Social Network, they were also producing more and more data on themselves and their community. Following the example of the GAFAM who have demonstrated how valuable and lucrative personal data are, several start-ups plus the GAFAM themselves invested the Smart City. They are creating solutions that ease the life of the citizens and, for many, use them as trojan horses to collect data. They created the era of Smart City 4.0. We are currently living in the era of smart city 4.0. Open data is the most common feature of the French smart cities in 2018. However, we are at the edge of the Smart City 5.0. The General Data Protection Regulation (GRPD) defines a strong framework for personal data. Since May 25th 2018, It is no more possible for firms to do whatever they want with data in Europe. Moreover, the costs of the ICT and of CPU Time are steadily going down. AI are now affordable and thanks to amounts of data collected, AI can be trained too. Consequently, some players dream of digital twins for each city. It would create the era of Smart City 5.0. But a second strong driver is also taking momentum right now. More and more people are aware of climate change and want climate actions to take place. More broadly, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are less and less confidential. One can argue that the era of Smart City 5.0 is the one of a legit city with mindful comprehensive and lawful purposes. In other words, the era of Smart City 5.0 could be the one of cities gathering the best of everything to become genuinely sustainable while meeting all its specific needs, challenges and ambitions. Obviously this last option of Smart City 5.0 is compatible with the first one. Actually, as defined, this second option is inclusive in all the city’s dimensions. It is the


 * 1) REDIRECT Target page name

ultimate evolution of Smart Cities. Nevertheless it is unclear if it will be the next era of Smart City or if we will have many other before living it. Only cities’ stakeholders have the power to save us a lot of time. It all depends on their mindset.