Urban computing is the integration of pervasive applications and services into the public spaces of our cities and towns. Research into this relatively young field has concentrated on applications and installations based around individual events running over a short period of time. But what if a city presented an open system or ‘city machine’, for which programmers wrote both long-running and ephemeral applications using a common API across city spaces?

In his lunchtime talk, Tim Kindberg discusses the idea of a city considered as a system that we can program and instrument. The talk will cover the opportunities and challenges both at the system level, including the question of system volatility and evolution, and at the human level, including the models we will need for human-city and crowd-computer interaction, as well as the political geography of urban computation.

Tim Kindberg, founder and managing director of matter 2 media, has two decades of experience as a computer scientist, helping technologies grow to solve business problems and enhance individuals’ experiences. Tim was a senior researcher at HP Labs in Palo Alto and Bristol, where he worked on the Cooltown, Cityware, Mobile Bristol and Active Print projects, His current research interests are in applying ubiquitous and mobile computing technologies to the digital media industry.

 The slides for this talk are available below or on slideshare.

 

 

This Lunchtime Talk is part of Open Studio Friday which takes place at the Studio every week:

Do you want to find out what is going on at the Pervasive Media Studio? Are you interested in meeting our residents, talking about a specific project or curious about pervasive media? Why not pack a sandwich and join us for one of our Lunchtime Talks and Open Studio Friday.

Lunchtime Talks are informal presentations by Studio residents and associates. They normally take place at 1pm on Friday, are free and open to everybody who’s interested in what we do.

After the Talk, we also invite you to stay with us for the afternoon to continue the conversation or work on your own projects. We provide chairs, tables, wireless and a great space. You bring what you need to work with (laptop/mobile). Our open afternoons close at 5pm, usually with a trip to the bar.

Let us know if you haven’t been to the Studio before and we'll be happy to show you around! Send an email to Shirin@pmstudio.co.uk and we will meet you at 12.30pm for a quick tour. We look forward to seeing you soon!