To be smarter, cities need to display their intelligence more explicitly. This means creating graphics and learning materials that help everyone in and not in the region understand clearly the pressures, trends, and emerging opportunities around the city. It’s not enough to talk about “Chicago” generally. Data and Information Visualization allows us to encode information into graphics. This unites the micro- (neighbourhood) and macro-economic (City-Region) views. To this end, cities might consider setting up new shops within GIS departments or somewhere similar. Perhaps a new position - Municipal Information Manager. Long-term, the work might be similar to Boston Municipal Research Bureau, yet much more visceral, multi-media, sensorial, absorbing.

Toronto, Ontario

#Visualizaiton #Diagramming