S06E24 of Connection Problem: Smart Cities & Civil Rights
Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (1827–1895) Partial Eclipse of the Moon
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Hi,
It’s launch week, apparently. The European Commission published their AI plans (apparently solid, but failing to take into consideration civil society). A report I co-authored on smart cities and public policy should be out by tomorrow, hopefully? It might take until early next week. And I can share a preview to a new collaboration in the space of smart cities and civil rights with you.
Enjoy.
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If you'd like to work with me or bounce ideas, let's have a chat.
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Personal-ish & project updates
Writing: My attempt at writing 20 blog posts in 20 work days is still ongoing, well behind time by now. (overview), if at a somewhat slower pace. The most recent posts: Trustmarks, trustmarks, trustmarks and Slashing extra curriculars.
Taking a break: Repeat klaxon: I’ll be traveling with various degree of disconnection for most of March. If there’s stuff to discuss, please hit me up before then if possible, or bring some extra patience 🙏
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Europe’s AI plans
The European Commission published its plans for AI regulation, alongside some other, related strategies this week. I haven’t had a chance to more than glance at it, but Politico’s Janosch Delcker has you covered. (He’s been doing a consistently fantastic job on that beat now.)
We have a thing waiting, currently in layout, that will read like a direct response even if it’s been written in parallel to that doc. Spoiler: It focuses on the role of civil society for the future of Europe’s AI efforts, which is basically completely absent from the European Commissions’s plan. The rest, at first glance, seems pretty reasonable to me, and I hope I can look at it more thoroughly over the next couple of days.
Which also reminds me of the bit below on Zuck, two sections down. But first…
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Sneak preview: The Berlin Institute for Smart Cities and Civil Rights
Through a fortunate coincidence, I happed to meet Markus Löning, Germany’s former human rights commissioner, and we started working on a project together. One thing led to another, and before long we realized there is an overlap in our work that’s a natural fit: The intersection of smart cities and human rights.
Fast forward a little, and I’m happy to introduce to you the Berlin Institute for Smart Cities and Civil Rights (BISC for short), a new collaboration between Markus’ company and mine. In it, we combined our expertise with human rights impact assessment and smart cities / tech governance. I hope and am optimistic that it’ll be useful.
A word of caution: I’m sharing this in the spirit of a true preview. It’s the softest of soft launches. That website and everything on it is likely to change dramatically over the next few months.
That said, I think it gives you an idea of what we’d like to achieve:
To offer a way for cities to better evaluate (and plan) smart city initiatives based on a rock-solid foundation: The UN Human Rights Principles, UNDP Sustainable Development Goals, and the Declaration of the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights. We aim to combine and operationalize them into various formats that help city governments make better choices in that space, based not primarily on efficiency but civil rights.
You can find the website at berlininstitute.org.
I imagine this might also be relevant to a few foundations that work in areas like civic engagement, emerging technologies, ethical tech, etc.
Please don’t hold back and feedback, we’re very much in learning and listening mode. 🙏
ps. Wish I could share the smart city / public policy report mentioned above, but at the time I have to send this email out, it’s still in last minute prep. I’ll share it with you and on Twitter when I get it myself.
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Zuck visited Brussels
…trying to “woo” top policy makers in a “charm offensive”(Politico). They aren’t having any of it, though, it seems. Good. Can we please stop pretending that Facebook needs to make up their mind on where they stand? They’ve demonstrated it over and over and over again, beyond any doubt, and then doubled down on their positions.
Bonus points for Politico, by the way, for breaking gender norms by bestowing on Zuck the questionable honor usually reserved for powerful women in media reporting: Always mentioning what they wear instead of/in addition to what they do in their professional capacity. (It’s still a weird thing to do.)
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Miscellanea
- An app can be a home-cooked meal. Lovely piece by Robin Sloan about DIY apps, made exactly for the handful of people who’d want to use them. Not that I could (make an app like that) but the approach sounds kinda lovely.
- Interesting to see Bloomberg (the media company, not the presidential candidate himself) launch a vertical on climate change.
- Anab Jain wrote up a fantastic piece around climate change, revolutions, and hope: Calling for a More-Than-Human Politics, with a reminder: “Revolutions are dark, murky, and can be (very) slow. Living with, and through revolutions, is an act of hope.”
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If you’d like to work with me or have a chat to explore collaborations, let’s chat!
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Currently reading: The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes)
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What's next?
Launching all the things, then performing a metaphorical mic drop to disappear for a few weeks. But that’s not until after next week’s installment.
Yours truly,
Peter
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Who writes here? Peter Bihr explores how emerging technologies can have a positive social impact. At the core of his work is the mission to align emerging technologies and citizen empowerment. To do this, he works at the intersection of technology, governance, policy and social impact — with foundations, public and private sector. He is the founder of The Waving Cat, a boutique research and strategic advisory firm. He co-founded ThingsCon, a non-profit that explores fair, responsible, and human-centric technologies for IoT and beyond. Peter was a Mozilla Fellow (2018-19) and an Edgeryders Fellow (2019). He tweets at @peterbihr and blogs at thewavingcat.com. Interested in working together? Let’s have a chat.
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