Editorial

摘要

The term smart city is one that is going to crop up an awful lot over the next few years. We all know that it's going to happen, and that it makes a great deal of sense on a number of levels. The point is, though, the street lighting column could be right at the centre of this, a ready-made infrastructure through which to implement city-wide technologies. No longer simply a support for a light fitting, this could be a powerful part of a fundamental network that provides everything from telecoms and vehicle charging points to traffic and pollution control. The thing is that by its very nature the smart city requires an enormous amount of collaboration and cooperation, and such is the scale of the enterprise it must be hard for cities to know where to start. It needs vision and leadership, and it's possible that the Humble Lamppost initiative will supply that.