The Future Fix Podcast: The secret life of sensors

Evergreen released the sixth episode of the podcast series, The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada. The Future Fix is a collaboration between Evergreen and Spacing for the Community Solutions Network that explores how data and tech are transforming communities across Canada. Each episode delves into an idea or innovation that seeks to address a community challenge — from disaster mitigation to broadband access to public transportation in the suburbs.

In this episode, we dive into a major component of smart cities is finding new ways to harvest data, and integrate it into ongoing urban planning.

Obviously, embedding sensors throughout the public realm creates multiple privacy concerns. This is something David Fewer, director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa, advises municipalities on, regularly.

But, data is power, and Newmarket Ontario’s Director of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives Susan Chase explains how Soofa benches throughout that town have helped government, businesses, and local events make the most of information how people move about the public realm.