Real-Time Cities: an Introduction to Urban Cybernetics Harvard Design School: SCI 0646900

Johnny Hazboun, Harvard Kennedy School, MC MPA Exercise #1: Case Studies in Sensing and Data Collection Real-Time Cities: an Introduction to Urban Cybernetics Harvard Design School: SCI 0646900 Spring 2014

Narrative Title 1 | reCAPTCHA: Crowdsourcing the digitization of books 2 | Grass root mapping 3 ] Gold Corp crowdsourcing geological intelligence 4 | Carbon neural volcano 5 | Pothole detection app

1 | reCAPTHCA reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service that helps to digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows. http://www.google.com/recaptcha. The service is crowd sourced and depends on users identifying a word and typing it in. http://on.ted.com/vonAhn

1 | reCAPTCHA

1 | reCAPTCHA How was the data collected? Collected through the security feature placed on Web Sites called CAPTCHA, which was originally developed to distinguish if the user is a computer or a human Why was the data collected? What is interesting about the data? To verify its accuracy of the scanned words. Data collections serves two purposes a) protecting the user and the website from hackers b) it provides a crowd sourced verification of the accuracy of scanned documents. What stories about the urban dynamics can the collected data tell? The time it takes to digitize content is broken into 10 second increments distributed over an entire population saves the city tremendous amount of time in digitizing their libraries What sort of questions about urban dynamics can be answered by looking at the data? A city that doesn’t have the budget to digitize its libraries is now able to do it at virtually no cost. How is the magnitude of the data is dealt with; limiting the collected data, limiting the dimensions in the data set, or abstracting the data? The word is verified multiple times, then the software abstracts the option that matched the most.

1 | reCAPTCHA How are particular patterns highlighted through techniques for tagging the data in order of their importance? Each word that is verified by the user is tagged with the time it entered and how many times it has been verified. After a certain percentage of users solving the unknown word, the system is assured the accuracy of the spelling. How does the original question to be addressed operate as the benchmark for eliminating unnecessary details in the data? The original question is: is this an accurate scan of the word. So the information about who or what IP was this word verified by is unnecessary and eliminated for anonymity Is the data of a static or dynamic nature? If dynamic, what is the frequency of change and what happens when it starts to change? The data is static, once a word is verified in a certain text, it is locked. Who is the target audience of the data presentation? Google and facebook which provide the service back to its users What are their goals when approaching the data presentation? What do they stand to learn? Reduce cost, increase accuracy and build crowd sourced services on top such as translation projects.

2 | Grass root mapping A group of activists, educators, technologists, and community organizers now known asPublic Laboratory came together to organize the Gulf Oil Mapping project. Since May 2010, they have been working with New Orleans-based Louisiana Bucket Brigade to get Gulf Coast residents out on boats and along beaches to produce high-resolution aerial imagery of the spill’s effects. All the imagery from this project is being released into the public domain. http://grassrootsmapping.org/

2 | Grass root mapping

2 | Grass root mapping How was the data collected? The images are collected through the use of low cost pseudo-satellites made of balloons and kites Why was the data collected? What is interesting about the data? To identify the amount and location of oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico The data is useful for environmental assessment as well as in the years of litigation. The group was able to get a wider coverage than the press could with much higher quality images. What stories about the urban dynamics can the collected data tell? To identify the amount and location of oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico The data is useful for environmental assessment as well as in the years of litigation What sort of questions about urban dynamics can be answered by looking at the data? Objective is to identify location of spills, however given the low cost approach the system can be used to tell traffic, number of people in a stadium or a concert How is the magnitude of the data is dealt with; limiting the collected data, limiting the dimensions in the data set, or abstracting the data? The images are 10,000X higher resolution than satellite images of NASA, they are stitched and put on map overlays of Google Earth Open layers.

2 | Grass root mapping How are particular patterns highlighted through techniques for tagging the data in order of their importance? Geo-locations of each image is put onto an Google map overlay. The images with the highest spills are given the highest importance. How does the original question to be addressed operate as the benchmark for eliminating unnecessary details in the data? If the second image of the same location is identical to the first one, then it is discarded. But, since the situation in the Oil Spill was fast moving, each new image was necessary. Is the data of a static or dynamic nature? If dynamic, what is the frequency of change and what happens when it starts to change? Oil spills are fast moving with the water, so multiple images of the same location are taken throughout the day to determine our dramatic the situation is and to what direction is it moving Who is the target audience of the data presentation? Fishermen, media and courtroom. In addition, the images were open to the public for any additional use What are their goals when approaching the data presentation? What do they stand to learn? The magnitude of the oil spill. The discrepancy between what the media has to say and what the public has to see.

3 | Gold Corp In March 2000, Gold Corp introduced the "Goldcorp Challenge" with a prize of $575,000 for “best methods and estimates of location of gold”. Geological data about 55,000-acre property was revealed its Web site. In addition to miners, entries came from graduate students, consultants, mathematicians, and military officers, all seeking to enter the challenge. The computer graphics received by contestants “identified 110 targets on the Red Lake property, 50 percent of which had not been previously identified by the company”. The new targets yielded an astounding eight million ounces of gold. It is estimated that the collaborative process shaved two to three years off their exploration time. Project Video: http://youtu.be/n5jxtHFxJOA

3 | Gold Corp

3| Gold Corp How was the data collected? Through an online challenge Why was the data collected? What is interesting about the data? To identify the exact location of gold underground based on data that goes as far back as 1948. The calculations came from many different sources, but what’s interesting is that the valuable ones came from people who had little to do with the mining industry What stories about the urban dynamics can the collected data tell? The data was visualized using 3-D mapping to tell the amount and the location of the gold concentration underground. What sort of questions about urban dynamics can be answered by looking at the data? Identified locations of gold there were unknown before. The company was able to answer where is the best location to dig How is the magnitude of the data is dealt with; limiting the collected data, limiting the dimensions in the data set, or abstracting the data? Answer… …

3 | Gold Corp How are particular patterns highlighted through techniques for tagging the data in order of their importance? The calculations identified 110 sites where 50% of them were unknown. The 3-D visualization helped the company identify which site is more important than the other saving tremendous amount of time and effort in excavations. How does the original question to be addressed operate as the benchmark for eliminating unnecessary details in the data? The visualization helped eliminate the plots of land that contained no gold. Is the data of a static or dynamic nature? If dynamic, what is the frequency of change and what happens when it starts to change? The data is statid Who is the target audience of the data presentation? Mining companies. This could also apply to the oil and gas industries. What are their goals when approaching the data presentation? What do they stand to learn? Answer… …

4| Carbon Neutral Volcano The Iceland volcano caused fall in carbon emissions because the eruption grounded aircrafts from flying across the atlantic. The volcanic ashes prevented the emission of an estimated 2.8m tonnes of CO2 that would have been emitted had the flights went on. Project Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MSnD4DrUwo

4 | Carbon Neutral Volcano

4 | Carbon Neutral Volcano How was the data collected? The estimates CO2 emitted by the Volcano and the amount of CO2 emitted by the total number of flights that were banned due to the volcanic ashes. Why was the data collected? What is interesting about the data? In order to compare the amount of emission generated by nature to the one generated by man. The Volcano has caused a reduction in the net amount of carbon emissions. What stories about the urban dynamics can the collected data tell? The Volcanic emissions are a small fraction of what the aviation industry emits every day. What sort of questions about urban dynamics can be answered by looking at the data? That volcanic carbon emissions are insignificant when compared to the manmade emission. How is the magnitude of the data is dealt with; limiting the collected data, limiting the dimensions in the data set, or abstracting the data? Answer… …

4 | Carbon Neutral Volcano How are particular patterns highlighted through techniques for tagging the data in order of their importance? Tagging the amount of CO2 that would have been emitted of the flights that were banned due to the Volcanic eruption. How does the original question to be addressed operate as the benchmark for eliminating unnecessary details in the data? CO2 emitted from flights that were not cancelled was not factored in. Is the data of a static or dynamic nature? If dynamic, what is the frequency of change and what happens when it starts to change? Data is dynamic as the eruption lasted more than a week. The frequency of change was by the minute. As to continued to change, the amount of emission measured indicated the gravity of the disaster. Who is the target audience of the data presentation? To influence public opinion on CO2 emission, climate change and global warming. What are their goals when approaching the data presentation? What do they stand to learn? Answer… …

5| Auto pothole detection. The App is called street bump. It fetches data through smart phone accelerometers and combines it with GPS location to identify the location and the state of pot holes in the streets of Boston. Project Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MSnD4DrUwo

5 | Auto pothole detection

5 | Auto pothole detection How was the data collected? The level of vibration and the GPS location of when that vibration happens on a trip Why was the data collected? What is interesting about the data? To identify the location of a pothole so as to fix it. The data is crowd sourced through local citizens at no added cost to the city. What stories about the urban dynamics can the collected data tell? The severity of the state of the roads in the town will now be exposed to the public. This will eventually highlight the level of the infrastructure in the city and can be compared with other townsby the public. What sort of questions about urban dynamics can be answered by looking at the data? We can now answer the budget needed to fix the roads which can help city government in budget allocation and tax allocation. How is the magnitude of the data is dealt with; limiting the collected data, limiting the dimensions in the data set, or abstracting the data? Answer… …

5 | Auto pothole detection How are particular patterns highlighted through techniques for tagging the data in order of their importance? The severity of the vibration determines the priority of which pot hole needs to be fixed first. How does the original question to be addressed operate as the benchmark for eliminating unnecessary details in the data? Vibration in a non-paved road for example are eliminated Is the data of a static or dynamic nature? If dynamic, what is the frequency of change and what happens when it starts to change? Dynamic. After every storm and after every road maintenance job, the data must be refreshed. Who is the target audience of the data presentation? City government and the public. What are their goals when approaching the data presentation? What do they stand to learn? The speed of the city response and holding them accountable to the public and highlighting the effectiveness of the road maintenance teams

Real-Time Cities: an Introduction to Urban Cybernetics Harvard Design School: SCI 0646900