{"id":435,"date":"2017-04-25T15:15:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T15:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/industry\/blog\/industry\/2017\/04\/25\/imagining-city-future-cities-unlocked\/"},"modified":"2018-11-22T15:19:54","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T15:19:54","slug":"imagining-city-future-cities-unlocked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/industry\/blog\/financial-services\/2017\/04\/25\/imagining-city-future-cities-unlocked\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagining the city of the future with Cities Unlocked"},"content":{"rendered":"
Consider this \u2013 over 70% of the world\u2019s population will live in cities by 2050. At the same time, one in every four or five residents will be senior citizens with distinct accessibility needs.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Influencing the future of cities has been a key driver of mine for a number of years. By way of introduction, I am\u202fLinda Chandler<\/a>, a Microsoft Digital Advisor based in Singapore. Microsoft Digital Advisory Services is a team within Microsoft Services. Digital Advisors bring their expertise, as well as Microsoft\u2019s resources, experience and innovation, to empower organisations to reach their digital aspirations. We partner with our customers to drive a programme of change to build their digital business, and our website can be found\u202fhere<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My work on smart cities is a perfect outlet for my passion of making a difference in society with technology. Citizens do not care about the underlying technology running their city. Instead, they focus on what they have prioritised for centuries: quality of family life, education, jobs and societal legacy. I\u2019d like to share two ideas with you \u2013 the broad concept of the Anywhere Working City, and a specific project addressing accessibility and inclusion \u2013 Cities Unlocked.<\/p>\n The Anywhere Working City<\/strong><\/p>\n The concept of an Anywhere Working City is a highly liveable, polycentric city, driven by societal expectation of a different way of working and living, enabled by new paradigms of buildings, technology and transport. In our original paper, Philip Ross and I covered four concepts:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Technology could be the long-term driver of societal change that determines our perceptions of the future of work.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Cities Unlocked<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cCities Unlocked\u201d is a collaborative program incubated by Microsoft Research, the result of a unique partnership between Microsoft, the UK charity Guide Dogs and a number of other organisations. A prototype of an audio-rich experience will enhance the mobility, confidence and independence of people with sight loss. Using 3D audio, ambient intelligence in the cloud and a simple app on a smartphone, a person gets an extraordinary sense of what is surrounding them, which stimulates a magical experience of exploration and discovery. The pilot for Cities Unlocked was in the UK.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n