Making Cities Smarter——How citizens' collective intelligence can guide better decision making

As massive, complex organisms, cities somehow manage to deliver services, move products and goods, protect us, educate us, inspire us. But how can they do it smarter?

If you're a smart leader you know you don't know the next [person] that it's going to come from. It can come from the most junior person in the organization. But the more voices you can listen to the better chance you are going to have of getting the estimate right or getting the new idea that no one else thought of. 

No city planner can match the expertise dispersed among citizens. Tapping into residents’ preferences and local knowledge can yield solutions that even the best planning can’t match. At the same time, citizens can make more effective decisions when cities fuel their collective intelligence with data.

Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.—Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

By / William D. Eggers，Jim Guszcza & Michael Greene

Illustration By / Dongyun Lee