Download or read book Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia written by Anthony M. Townsend and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-10-07 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unflinching look at the aspiring city-builders of our smart, mobile, connected future. From Beijing to Boston, cities are deploying smart technology—sensors embedded in streets and subways, Wi-Fi broadcast airports and green spaces—to address the basic challenges faced by massive, interconnected metropolitan centers. In Smart Cities, Anthony M. Townsend documents this emerging futuristic landscape while considering the motivations, aspirations, and shortcomings of the key actors—entrepreneurs, mayors, philanthropists, and software developers—at work in shaping the new urban frontier.