Awareness and Smart City Implementations: Sensing, Sensors, and the IoT in the Public Sector

This chapter explores implementation challenges as opportunities for moving beyond smart and connected governments by focusing on awareness in relation to sensing, sensors, and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the public sector in the context of smart cities. A review of the research literature for smart city implementations is conducted from multiple perspectives, highlighting a range of issues and challenges for the public sector. The theoretical framework for this chapter uses the construct of awareness in relation to the key smart city characteristics of adaptability, complexity, innovation, and readiness. The research design for this work utilizes a single case study approach to explore evolving understandings of smart city implementations in contemporary urban environments. Multiple methods of data collection are used including survey and interview while content analysis is used in the iterative analysis of data. Data were collected and analyzed from diverse individuals in multiple small- to medium- to large-sized cities, mostly in Canada and extending to other countries (e.g., Israel). This work makes several contributions by providing (a) an expanded way of looking at IT (information technology) implementation in the public sector for twenty-first century urban environments encompassing sensing, sensors, and the IoT; (b) understandings of IT implementation challenges as opportunities in the public sector for more responsive and aware solution-making; and (c) a conceptual framework for more dynamic notions of implementation in the public sector, as in ambient implementation. This chapter advances an awareness-based explanatory model for ambient implementation of use to the public sector in smart cities.