Redacción de The Smart City Journal, Author at thesmartcityjournal.com

Volvo Cars invests $1bn for next-generation electric car production

Volvo Cars invests $1bn as they strive to offer their customers longer range, quicker charging, and lower costs with their next generation of pure electric cars How does Volvo intend to achieve this? To realise these ambitions, Volvo Cars will invest $1bn (SEK 10bn) in its Torslanda manufacturing plant in Sweden in the coming years, in…

Tourism leaders call for urgent action to protect oceans

Tourism’s central role in advancing the Blue Economy was highlighted as UNWTO chaired a special session and joined a Heads of State panel at the One Ocean Summit In a session on “Tourism in the Blue Economy” co-hosted with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and France, high-level representatives stressed how implementing a blue economy…

Trials show why local governments may want to text their residents more

Local leaders have tried using social media, email, paid advertising, mailers, and many other channels, often with mixed results For local leaders looking to communicate critical messages to the public, breaking through the noise is always a challenge. The pandemic only made the job harder—and more important than ever. Faced with getting the word out…

Heritage-led regeneration to fall back in love with our historic centres

The importance of connecting local actors and creating the right entrepreneurial framework Despite Covid, we still remember how nice it is to wander in a historic area in awe of old buildings, ancient monuments, traditional shops…But sometimes, these areas are affected by abandonment, poverty, insecurity, lack of services. Locals and tourists alike might fall out…

Supercomputers, AI and the metaverse: here’s what you need to know

Ultra-fast data processing brings with it far-reaching and fundamental ethical questions Since the beginning of this year, there has been a lot of hype, scepticism, cynicism, and confusion surrounding the concept of the metaverse. For some, it has added to the confusion of an already elusive world of augmented reality and mixed reality. But for the…

Unlocking South Korea’s KRW281-trillion (USD236-billion) digital opportunity by 2030

Labor productivity rate -on a per-worker basis- in South Korea is 20% lower than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average despite having one of the longest working hours among the OECD countries South Korea has been a longstanding global leader in technology and innovation. The country is home to world-leading ICT companies…

Energy Communities: How private citizens are saving the planet

The future of sustainable energy will be driven by energy communities — i.e., the private generation of energy that is based on a 3D model of decarbonization, digitization, and decentralization. As we transition from passive consumers to prosumers (who both produce and consume goods and services), smart contracts will play an invaluable role in protecting our…

Digital sovereignty in Europe

Commission proposes Chips Act to confront semiconductor shortages and strengthen technological leadership The Commission proposes a comprehensive set of measures to ensure the EU's security of supply, resilience and technological leadership in semiconductor technologies and applications. The European Chips Act will bolster Europe's competitiveness, resilience and help achieve both the digital and green transition. Recent global semiconductors…

Las Vegas adopts online permitting for builders, developers

The city is partnering with a digital services technology provider to advance online and contactless services related to building applications, documents and even inspections with the planning office The city of Las Vegas is expanding its online service portfolio with a platform that will allow businesses, real estate developers and others to digitally file important…

European cybersecurity test project in Barcelona

In conjunction with the company Cisco, work is being carried out on a new European project pursuing security in the sphere of the Internet of Things The European project H2020 IRIS is made up of 19 organisations from different European countries. The goal is to offer a support framework in cases of security incidents, with the Computer…