The more connected a community is:

a) the greater the variety of services
b) the lower the cost of services
c) the higher the quality of life

To date, modern infrastructure services aimed at connecting citizens have focused on physical things like roads, airports, electrical lines and so on. From time to time new technologies are invented, and a community must introduce new kinds of infrastructure to enable new types of services, just like we did with the introduction of electricity, telecommunications, and internet.

Building this infrastructure will enable new kinds of services while reducing the cost of delivery and management of existing of existing se​rvices. Like all good infrastructure, it opens endless new possibilities, some which are easy to see while others cannot be forecasted.

Improved CITIZEN - CITIZEN Communication
- Address-based communication: (optional to block or restrict)
- Send a neighbour an invite to an event
- File a complaint directly to a neighbour (without disclosing your id, not a written message just a multi-select like mow-lawn, shovel snow etc.) If the issue is not resolved, then it can escalate to the city
- Share an emergency response data set with a neighbour. No one can the see details unless they open it and when they do you get a notification but now if something happens they have means to help meaningfully
- coordinate community initiatives, collect qualified feedback and votes etc

Improved CITIZEN - BUSINESS Communication
- Businesses can connect their service offerings to a property, and building occupants/owners can see them in an app store type interface. The service """"app store"""" simplifies finding and managing services for consumers
- Local business could be highlighted in the app store like service listings to help them grow
- Citizens can opt into promotional offerings from vendors which allows them to see specials and promotions
- Once you've added a service provider, you have a real-time chat and a full history of all orders, information and communications
- Business has improved visibility with simple tools to help customers consume their services which means lower costs and higher revenues
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Improved CITIZEN - GOVERNMENT Communication
- Government services and representatives can link to each property similar to the business services
- Once citizen or business connects to a property, they would instantly be connected to all their government representatives and could easily see/create events, chats, and so on
- Governments would now have a mechanism with the required level of security and authentication to enable a digital option for voters. Voting could start with use on small issues and overtime, as people become familiar and comfortable could be scaled up for every type of voting
- Census information could be easily collected as it could be part of a person's profile and an option is granted to use the data for Census. Census collectors could skip homes which use the digital option saving thousands of hours of labour
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Improved EMERGENCY SERVICES
- Each resident can create an emergency response data set which includes whatever data they deem important. This could range from relatives and their phone numbers to medications to pets to names, ages and bedroom locations of children. This data is cryptographically locked and is not visible until it is accessed. The creator gives emergency services a digital key if needed the department uses it to view the data. If this happens, the owner of the data gets a notification with details about who looks at it and when.
- Emergency service groups can also send out notifications to a geographic area and know that messages will also be delivered to people who may not currently be in the area. For instance, a fire is occurring, and emergency services can transmit a recorded call or text the """"Occupants"""" of neighbouring homes. If someone is across town, they still get the call because of their relationship to the property
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Improved BUSINESS - GOVERNMENT communication
- Getting a permit is often complex and costly as it requires research into who to even contact. By Government departments to connect their services to a property simplifies everything for them and business. Now a company will be able to select a property and instantly connect to all the right departments and people
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LET'S MAKE CALGARY THE MOST CONNECTED CITY IN THE WORLD!

These are only a few of the measurable outcomes. What is exciting is it all comes from connecting buildings and lots to a social network like structure, and using relationships between the property and people, government and business to simplify how we connect as a community.

This is the future. Let's take the lead and put our city on the world stage for technology innovation and rachet even higher on the quality of life rankings!

This application requires technology that has already been developed but not yet implemented for a city.

Ideally, data about buildings and lots would be connected directly i​n the network.

According to numerous economic indicators, Calgary is one of the most business-friendly cities in Canada. However, the city does not appear on key rankings related to dynamics and innovation (e.g. JLL City Momentum Index 2017; which measure both short and long-term growth) and entrepreneurial behaviour.

The oil and gas sector has loomed large for decades and has been poaching great entrepreneurial talent by offering high income salaries. The current economic downturn and ambiguous estimates as to how many jobs will return to the city if/when oil prices rebound, invite us to consider the long-term sustainability of Calgary’s economy. This is where innovation and entrepreneurship matter most.

Recent research comparing Calgary’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to Waterloo, Ontario indicates that the city lacks a) a diversified economy, b) social relations supportive of entrepreneurial behaviour, c) citizens who access/are aware of available networked support, and d) an entrepreneurial mindset for business development beyond quick buyouts and short-term profits.

Without addressing this concern, the city’s supportive business climate (i.e. competitive tax environment, newly completed and several in-progress infrastructure projects, high-skilled knowledge era workforce, youngest median age in Canada, available low-cost commercial real estate, etc.) will not be leveraged and fall short of creating the kind of networked innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem.

This is especially disappointing given Calgary’s long history of more startups per capita than almost anywhere else in the country. This is a task our city can lead on.

We will be able to meet key targets that we have already outlined:

• ImagineCALGARY: By 2036, Calgary is ranked as the most favourable Canadian city in which to establish businesses that support sustainability practices (p. 39)
• Action Plan 2015-2018: P1; P2 (p. 43)
• Building on our energy: Entrepreneurial energy (pp. 22-32); Innovative energy (pp. 33-40).

The City of Calgary facilitates entrepreneurial/innovative activities for youth in tandem with private partners and social institutions through an existing city-wide ICT channel (like the public library card or myID) or a new platform that is either built (through competitive grant funding) or licensed (like LRNG cities do -- https://www.lrng.org). Could be accessed and utilized through all mobile and web-enabled devices (e.g. app)

Advantages:
• Aligns with Strategy 2, Action 3 of the “entrepreneurial energy” section of the Building on our energy document (p. 32; i.e. Develop pathways to entrepreneurship for future leaders and youth).

• Wealth of stakeholder interest that could support programming and networking from high school through postsecondary education.

• Federal Government and Government of Alberta could support proposal through incremental funding (aligned with their Framework for Student Learning’s aim in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in students)

• Would be the first city in Canada to pursue a youth policy of this scale that not only serves a clear need, but ensures that long-term fostering of entrepreneurship (in all sectors) is actively cultivated.

• Expand on existing initiatives to cultivate youth entrepreneurship in Indigenous communities.

• City could make much of the data openly accessible to assess trends in work, volunteering, and social cohesion.

Case Studies: Digital Badging in Philadelphia, Providence and Chicago and LRNG cities(like Kansas City). All of these cities embraced long-term culture shifts. Calgary can aggregate some existing programs under a new banner (i.e. The Hackathon) and forward to the community.

• Link 1: https://nycfuture.org/pdf/Innovation-and-the-City.pdf (p. 14)
• Link 2: https://www.lrng.org/about
• Link 3: https://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/Youth%20entrepreneurship%20policy%20brief%20EN_FINAL.pdf (pp. 12-16)

If we wait five years to invest in AI graduates, it'll be too late. Don't leave it to the schools to come up with the program fees. Tell them to start the programs and have the city pay for most of it, charging the students a nominal fee. Keep the standards high allowing only the best and brightest students to be accepted. The AI program is different from any other programs in that it needs to be singled out and given more funding. The bottom line is the program needs to be affordable for most Canadians.
Calgary cannot wait or we'll be left behind as other cities worldwide are already investing in AI education for its citizens.

Calgary can study other cities to find out how they are measuring the effectiveness of their AI education. Do this quick and start implementing a strategy as the "golden opportunity" is going to pass soon.

Technology will be a collaborative effort between the city and the education centers to provide state-of-the-art facilities whereby students can thrive in innovating AI. Students will have to utilize cutting-edge technology create the most advanced AI possible.

This idea isn't so much a huge problem as a huge SOLUTION! This idea has the potential to address problems we don't even know exist; from encouraging economic diversification to addressing social issues.

The City can measure the impact of this challenge by establishing a platform to track and get publicity for their experiments. Use software which can identify key words to evaluate what kind of experiments are being conducted and what is being learned. Include surveys to get more targeted feedback.

Create a platform for all City departments to publish their experiments, their goals, outcomes and lessons learned. Teams can compete on how many experiments they run and how often the fail (yes fail. we learn more when we fail and need to incentivize it).

Critical to the success of this is that experiments be small and controlled. Thus the repercussions of failure are small and controlled but the lessons still persist.

This idea is ambitious because it could render Calgary and Alberta a global leader in materials conversion, recycling and re-use. It could reduce waste and improve the environmental health of Calgary, Alberta and Canada. It would enable economic diversification with the use of existing petroleum products, reduction in dependence upon new petroleum products and help us move towards sustainable innovation.

The effectiveness of this idea can be measured by considering how much daily material waste is collected; what happens to it and how it impacts the environment. We can then consider what the economic benefits would be if we converted these products locally and see the change in economic stimulus through petroleum bi-product conversion, manufacturing, wholesale and retail sales.

This idea is attainable through technology because innovative technology would be required to create the new facilities, develop advanced sorting systems and conversion processes. Data is limitless as the research and innovation possible with a mega-site would enable us to study and determine optimum conversion processes, means to convert, analysis of materials discarded and potential reuse, sales and market potential, domestic use and foreign use. This facility could render Calgary a legitimate leader in materials processing incorporating technology, data analysis, manufacturing strength and equipment innovation.