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Annual TED prize awarded to the city of the future

Feb. 29, 2012, 9:48 p.m., Posted by Damian Thorman – 3 Comments

Video: Razorfish

Just moments ago here in Long Beach, Calif., TED unveiled the details of its annual prize in support of “one wish to change the world.” This year, the award is not going to a person, but to an idea: the City 2.0, the city of the future.

Over the coming year, TED will be asking leaders, innovators and citizens to create a new urban way of living, where 10 billion people can live healthily and sustainably. 

With Knight Foundation support, a new platform, www.thecity2.org, will allow people everywhere to help create their own future city. Citizens will able to propose – and lead – projects to upgrade their own cities on issues important to them – from transportation to public housing and recreational space and more. Civic and business leaders from around the globe will share ideas and resources.

In essence, as TED says, it’s a design challenge for one of the biggest issues of our day. And through the platform, Knight will help TED identify and spread the most innovative programs that help citizens become more deeply engaged in shaping their own city.

Knight Foundation has been an early and enthusiastic supporter, lending experience and expertise from decades spent helping communities across the country become more informed about and engaged in creating their own future.

Whether it’s helping Northeastern, Ohio come together to foster entrepreneurship and new industries, or Miami transform itself through the arts, we believe our democracy is strengthened when communities tap into their greatest human potential to determine their own solutions.

Knight’s Technology for Engagement Initiative grows out of that history to support innovative, digital technologies - like the new City 2.0 platform - that inspire civic dialogue and action. Several of our funded projects, including Community PlanIt, Code for America and DoSomething.org are here at TED sharing their ideas for using technology for action.

With the City 2.0, we are looking for solutions, not utopian dreams, that can help our cities build a better future. We hope you’ll take the challenge.

By Damian Thormon, national program director at Knight Foundation.

Comments

March 3, 2012, 7:53 p.m.

Jerry Schneider

One of the biggest problems our cities have now is a lack of connectivity between various modes of transportation which significantly reduces the mobility of the population.
In addition, many of our cities are choking on auto congestion, auto-generated pollution and other negative inpacts. Conventional bus and rail transit systems cannot effectively serve our very dispersed cities because they don't provide sufficient origin/destination connections to make much of a difference in the problems caused by too many autos, their parking problems, pollutents and a continuation of our dependence on foreign oil.

There are many better soutions to these problems that very few people currently know about. Some are market-ready, others are under development and some are still conceptual in nature. More than 100 of them are described and illustrated (some with videos) at the Innovative Transportation Technologies website. Many provide the connectivity that is so lacking in our cities while being much easier on tight infrastructure budgets and the necessary construction disruption that would be necessary to fit them into existing urban regions. It would be helpful if they could emerge from invisibility to being part of the needed urban solution space.

March 4, 2012, 3:29 p.m.

Richard Baldwin

I recently read a book titled The Vertical Farm. I strongly suggest you read this book as it addresses a substantial number of todays issues that impact our urban environment.

March 6, 2012, 4:36 p.m.

Charles Taylor Kerchner

City 2.0 will need a different education system, Learning 2.0. I've spent the last two years looking at the failures of education policy and at schools that depart from the century-old acquisition and storage model of learning. My reports and musings about where this may or should lead education policy are available on my site: www.mindworkers.com. I would welcome the thoughts of any of you working on city or urban design.

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