Real-Time Cities: an Introduction to Urban Cybernetics Harvard Design School: SCI Spring 2014 Student Name Surname Exercise #2: Case Studies in Data Analysis (5 Ways to Make a Story out of Numbers)

Narrative Title Crowdsourcing for scoial responsibility 1 | Power Plant CO2 emission 2 | Adopt a Fire Hydrant 3 | Construction tool Tracking 4 | Patients like Me 5 | Crime Mapping

A Platform that gathers exact coordinates of power plants around the world (around 30,000 plants), fuel type, it consumers and the power it generates gathered through people who live or work near by a power plant. 1 | Ventus

1 | Ventus

What is the raw data? Location of the factory entered using google earth coorinates The type of energy it uses The amount of power it generates What processes are deployed to transform the raw data to information? Calculating the amount of CO2 each power emits What is the information that is the outcome of the aforementioned processes? Accuracy of carbon emission of power power plants around the world which leads to the understanding of the carbon cycle and coming up with better science to manage it

1 | Ventus How the act of sensing or access to raw data leads to comparison, judgment, reflection, reasoning, and abstraction? Most of the information we have from around the world is estimated and averaged. Measuring the exact amount of CO2 emitted from each plant gives us a much better idea about the amount of CO2 emitted per capita in each country and how its changes from one to another. How the sum of all the above processes is resulting in a limited sort of agency for the data-driven construct? Accuracy of carbon emission of power power plants around the world which leads to the understanding of the carbon cycle and coming up with better science to manage it

2 | Adopt a fire Hydrant In the midst of winter snowstorms, buried hydrants (13,000) cause dangerous delays in the ability of fire fighters to respond to fire emergen- cies. To check and clear off the thousands of hydrants across the city, Adopt-a-Hydrant lets governments turn to the community. This map-based web app allows individuals, small businesses, and community organizations to volunteer to be responsible for shoveling out specific hydrants.

2 | Adopt a fire Hydrant

What is the raw data? City data of fire hydrants was opened to the public. Red hydrants are not adopted by anyone. Green hydrants are not adopted What processes are deployed to transform the raw data to information? Cross-association between the location of the hydrants What is the information that is the outcome of the aforementioned processes? The status of the hydrant (cleared or not cleared).

2 | Adopt a fire Hydrant How the act of sensing or access to raw data leads to comparison, judgment, reflection, reasoning, and abstraction? The date helps the fire department know how much time and resources are needed to clear the hydrants in the case of a fire. How the sum of all the above processes is resulting in a limited sort of agency for the data-driven construct? The change in the context now is that the city sources its citizen to clear up to 13,000 hydrants, saving the city millions of dollars while ensuring the fire fighting response time is dramatically reduced during snow storms.

Tools are tagged with and RFID tag. Tool Link system on truck scans the items The system identifies each tag, and you can type in the name of the item. Once the inventory is complete, the system can track the items you tagged whenever they are in the truck, and alert you if they are missing. With a simple touch on the Tool Link screen, your truck will make sure you have the tools you need before you leave for the job. 3 | Tool Tracking in Construction Trucks

3 | Tool Tracking in Construction Trucks

What is the raw data? Radio frequency ID number What processes are deployed to transform the raw data to information? RFID scanners around the truck scan the RFID number which is associated to each tool. What is the information that is the outcome of the aforementioned processes? The scan data is transformed into presence of the tool or not.

3 | Tool Tracking in Construction Trucks How the act of sensing or access to raw data leads to comparison, judgment, reflection, reasoning, and abstraction? It helps the driver of the truck know what inventory is needed to the job site and what is missing How the sum of all the above processes is resulting in a limited sort of agency for the data-driven construct? This very simple tool status check helps the company arrive to the construction site with the needed tools. In the past, A site that is an hour away from any hardware store requires a huge waste of time to buy the tools and then redundant dollars on tools that may already be at the warehouse.

Sharing patient experiences who contribute new data that can accelerates research and help create better treatments. 4 | Patients like Me

What is the raw data? Symptoms Treatments Results and Side effects What processes are deployed to transform the raw data to information? Aggregation What is the information that is the outcome of the aforementioned processes? How many people are taking which drug for which symptom. Demographical data about each symptom

4 | Patients like Me How the act of sensing or access to raw data leads to comparison, judgment, reflection, reasoning, and abstraction? Drug comparison leads to understanding the efficacy of each drug for each symptom How the sum of all the above processes is resulting in a limited sort of agency for the data-driven construct? Leads to research to help improve the drug, remove the drug and know where it works and where it doesn’t

This portal is dedicated to helping law enforcement agencies provide the public with valuable information about crime activity by neighborhood. Our goal is to assist police departments in reducing crime through a better informed citizenry. We work directly with each agency and never scrape data from other sites! 5 | Crime Mapping

5 | Crime Mapping What is the raw data? Time, location and nature of incident reported by the police to the website What processes are deployed to transform the raw data to information? A portal that categorizes and allocated each incident into easy to use interface What is the information that is the outcome of the aforementioned processes? The information about each kind of crime in each available location

5 | Crime Mapping How the act of sensing or access to raw data leads to comparison, judgment, reflection, reasoning, and abstraction? It provided the public the ability to compare the rate of crimes from one location to another. How the sum of all the above processes is resulting in a limited sort of agency for the data-driven construct? The context of this simple information becomes very valuable in real-time to property seekers, investors and city crime control.