Technology

Presenting the second of two runners-up in our Common Shares writing competition: Yen Ha brings us the story of a pair of strangers navigating the extremes of the sharing economy.

Jeffrey Roth, the Assistant Commissioner for Management Initiatives at the New York City Fire Department, explains how his team is pushing the boundaries of analytics to inform operations and improve government stewardship of public resources.

Marshall Cox, the inventor of a simple way to regulate the temperature of a steam-heated apartment, explains how reducing the energy wasted in aging infrastructure can offer new and important approaches to green technology.

Adam Greenfield critiques the prevailing definition of the "smart city" and calls for an alternative vision that understands and responds to the messy realities of human existence.

Tony Schloss and Alyx Baldwin discuss how their initiative leverages locally controlled infrastructure, community-based applications, and youth capacity building to provide a platform for local communication and Internet access in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Announcing the winner of our Fuzzy Math writing competition: Steven Higashide imagines a near future in New York, in which a new City agency — the Department of Externalities — monitors and evaluates the social and environmental effects of everyday actions.