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I believe the issue is that noone really knows whats going to be built from both City of Toronto and Sidewalk Labs, here's Sidewalk CEO's AMA: https://www.reddi

I believe the issue is that noone really knows whats going to be built from both City of Toronto and Sidewalk Labs, here's Sidewalk CEO's AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/7p8wf9/hi_im_dan_doctoroff_ceo_of_sidewalk_labs_ask_me/ https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/7p8wf9/hi_im_dan_d... Although it mentions partnership, there are no concrete projects in Toronto mentioned from Sidewalk Labs even in the AMA. Whereas for City of Toronto, I would say they just have no clue whats really going on. I would hazard a guess to say that maybe its too early to come up with anything as they're dealing with physical buildings and some sort of land/property development or that there just wasn't that much planned in the first place because its an initial trial.

ronilan 9y ago
The Q&A is a gem: > Q: I'm trying to understand what Sidewalk Labs actually does? Is it, for the most part, a consulting firm? A developer? > A: ... We want to ... we launched ... with ... belief ... we hope ... not going to build the whole thing ourselves ... need to work with all kinds of partners ... We see our role ... as trying ... things like people-first street designs, an energy system that could one day be climate positive ... all kinds of local innovators, civic groups, academics, etc, will fill in the details will their ideas and creations. Google will be Google and local developers will build condos there. Don't worry. It's Canada ;)
- bitmapbrother 9y ago
  If you're going to quote someone you should really post what they said. The short answer is: We want to build the first truly 21st-century city. The longer answer is we launched Sidewalk with the broad belief that if we combined the best in urban planning and design with the latest in technology and open digital infrastructure, we could meaningfully improve quality of life for people in cities. But one of the big challenges we saw was that no single city in the world could really stand out as a model how to do that. That’s what we hope to achieve with Waterfront Toronto: neighborhoods that pilot ideas, new and old, to solve big urban problems that cities everywhere are facing. Of course, we are not going to build the whole thing ourselves, because real neighborhoods can never be completely planned. We’re going to need to work with all kinds of partners and groups in Toronto and beyond. We see our role with Waterfront Toronto as trying to put in place some of the underlying infrastructure — things like people-first street designs, an energy system that could one day be climate positive, buildings that can adapt to new uses. On top of those systems, all kinds of local innovators, civic groups, academics, etc, will fill in the details will their ideas and creations. Sidewalk Toronto is our main focus. But there are also areas where we think real innovation is possible today that no one is working on yet, and when we find those opportunities we incubate companies to take them on. For example, we incubated a spin-off company called Cityblock Health that now works to improve health care delivered to low-income urban populations.
  - madeofpalk 9y ago
    Parent quote provided a very accurate summary. There's actually nothing of substance in that quote, and it certainly doesn't answer the question: what does Sidewalk Labs actually do?
    - naasking 9y ago
      From that quote, I got that Sidewalk Labs is intended to create an environment to foster development of innovative ideas, particularly in the space of modern living with tech. Is that not a sufficient description? Xerox PARC for modern living.
      - s4vi0r 9y ago
        I think that's a _very_ generous interpretation of the comment.
        naasking 9y ago
        I don't think so: > we launched Sidewalk with the broad belief that if we combined the best in urban planning and design with the latest in technology and open digital infrastructure, we could meaningfully improve quality of life for people in cities [...] That’s what we hope to achieve with Waterfront Toronto: neighborhoods that pilot ideas, new and old, to solve big urban problems that cities everywhere are facing. [...] We see our role with Waterfront Toronto as trying to put in place some of the underlying infrastructure [...] On top of those systems, all kinds of local innovators, civic groups, academics, etc, will fill in the details will their ideas and creations. How is this meaningfully different from what I said? Suppose we rewound time to before cloud infrastructure like AWS and Google Cloud existed, and Google came out with App Engine saying, "we put in place the underlying infrastructure so people can build useful things on it". And people just keep asking, "but what does it do?" In both cases, the answer seems to be that it provides a platform for other people to implement their own innovative ideas. Given it's Google, this neighbourhood will probably provide ubiquitous wifi and power availability, fiber internet everywhere, and the "livable city" constraint means it will be a walkable space, so few cars, if any. I'm sure there will be plenty of other useful infrastructure I haven't even thought of.
- nashashmi 9y ago
  Seeing the rest of the comments to this post makes me want to set the opinion straight here and answer the question. Sidewalk labs is not constructing. They are not consulting for anybody. They are not designing a city. They don't want to take any liability for anything. So the only thing they are doing is being a think tank, sort of an imagination company. They identified a site for development that could play host to their ideas. And now they want others to participate in their idea. City of Toronto is one. Their role is to establish policies. Developer will be two. Their role is to establish an overall design. Consulting firm is three. Their role is to create a design. Construction firm is the fourth piece. Sidewalk Labs will facilitate the process. The rest is a blur like financing, market, economic incentive, actual policies versus urging versus encouragement. They will figure it out eventually.
  - naasking 9y ago
    > Sidewalk labs is not constructing. They are not consulting for anybody. They are not designing a city. They don't want to take any liability for anything. I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. They say they will create some core infrastructure, including internet and power at the very least. They likely aren't constructing it themselves, but they are probably financing and overseeing this core piece.
- fouc 9y ago
  Is there a tool that strips out buzzwords? I vaguely recall hearing about one
  - narag 9y ago
    There is a manual procedure to do that, in one of Asimov's Foundation book. Some Empire officer, described pretty much as a Sun King aristocrat, spends some days in Terminus and the secret service records every word that comes out of his mouth. Removing all platitudes, obvious lies and adulation the result is a blank page :) I loved that.
  - sunir 9y ago
    I used cutting edge deep learning to extract the following: “We are going to waste public money and screw up Toronto’s urban design and pocket a bunch ourselves while hoping no one catches us and yes we are in way over our head.”

ronilan 9y ago

The Q&A is a gem: > Q: I'm trying to understand what Sidewalk Labs actually does? Is it, for the most part, a consulting firm? A developer? > A: ... We want to ... we launched ... with ... belief ... we hope ... not going to build the whole thing ourselves ... need to work with all kinds of partners ... We see our role ... as trying ... things like people-first street designs, an energy system that could one day be climate positive ... all kinds of local innovators, civic groups, academics, etc, will fill in the details will their ideas and creations. Google will be Google and local developers will build condos there. Don't worry. It's Canada ;)

bitmapbrother 9y ago
If you're going to quote someone you should really post what they said. The short answer is: We want to build the first truly 21st-century city. The longer answer is we launched Sidewalk with the broad belief that if we combined the best in urban planning and design with the latest in technology and open digital infrastructure, we could meaningfully improve quality of life for people in cities. But one of the big challenges we saw was that no single city in the world could really stand out as a model how to do that. That’s what we hope to achieve with Waterfront Toronto: neighborhoods that pilot ideas, new and old, to solve big urban problems that cities everywhere are facing. Of course, we are not going to build the whole thing ourselves, because real neighborhoods can never be completely planned. We’re going to need to work with all kinds of partners and groups in Toronto and beyond. We see our role with Waterfront Toronto as trying to put in place some of the underlying infrastructure — things like people-first street designs, an energy system that could one day be climate positive, buildings that can adapt to new uses. On top of those systems, all kinds of local innovators, civic groups, academics, etc, will fill in the details will their ideas and creations. Sidewalk Toronto is our main focus. But there are also areas where we think real innovation is possible today that no one is working on yet, and when we find those opportunities we incubate companies to take them on. For example, we incubated a spin-off company called Cityblock Health that now works to improve health care delivered to low-income urban populations.
- madeofpalk 9y ago
  Parent quote provided a very accurate summary. There's actually nothing of substance in that quote, and it certainly doesn't answer the question: what does Sidewalk Labs actually do?
  - naasking 9y ago
    From that quote, I got that Sidewalk Labs is intended to create an environment to foster development of innovative ideas, particularly in the space of modern living with tech. Is that not a sufficient description? Xerox PARC for modern living.
    - s4vi0r 9y ago
      I think that's a _very_ generous interpretation of the comment.
      - naasking 9y ago
        I don't think so: > we launched Sidewalk with the broad belief that if we combined the best in urban planning and design with the latest in technology and open digital infrastructure, we could meaningfully improve quality of life for people in cities [...] That’s what we hope to achieve with Waterfront Toronto: neighborhoods that pilot ideas, new and old, to solve big urban problems that cities everywhere are facing. [...] We see our role with Waterfront Toronto as trying to put in place some of the underlying infrastructure [...] On top of those systems, all kinds of local innovators, civic groups, academics, etc, will fill in the details will their ideas and creations. How is this meaningfully different from what I said? Suppose we rewound time to before cloud infrastructure like AWS and Google Cloud existed, and Google came out with App Engine saying, "we put in place the underlying infrastructure so people can build useful things on it". And people just keep asking, "but what does it do?" In both cases, the answer seems to be that it provides a platform for other people to implement their own innovative ideas. Given it's Google, this neighbourhood will probably provide ubiquitous wifi and power availability, fiber internet everywhere, and the "livable city" constraint means it will be a walkable space, so few cars, if any. I'm sure there will be plenty of other useful infrastructure I haven't even thought of.
nashashmi 9y ago
Seeing the rest of the comments to this post makes me want to set the opinion straight here and answer the question. Sidewalk labs is not constructing. They are not consulting for anybody. They are not designing a city. They don't want to take any liability for anything. So the only thing they are doing is being a think tank, sort of an imagination company. They identified a site for development that could play host to their ideas. And now they want others to participate in their idea. City of Toronto is one. Their role is to establish policies. Developer will be two. Their role is to establish an overall design. Consulting firm is three. Their role is to create a design. Construction firm is the fourth piece. Sidewalk Labs will facilitate the process. The rest is a blur like financing, market, economic incentive, actual policies versus urging versus encouragement. They will figure it out eventually.
- naasking 9y ago
  > Sidewalk labs is not constructing. They are not consulting for anybody. They are not designing a city. They don't want to take any liability for anything. I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. They say they will create some core infrastructure, including internet and power at the very least. They likely aren't constructing it themselves, but they are probably financing and overseeing this core piece.
fouc 9y ago
Is there a tool that strips out buzzwords? I vaguely recall hearing about one
- narag 9y ago
  There is a manual procedure to do that, in one of Asimov's Foundation book. Some Empire officer, described pretty much as a Sun King aristocrat, spends some days in Terminus and the secret service records every word that comes out of his mouth. Removing all platitudes, obvious lies and adulation the result is a blank page :) I loved that.
- sunir 9y ago
  I used cutting edge deep learning to extract the following: “We are going to waste public money and screw up Toronto’s urban design and pocket a bunch ourselves while hoping no one catches us and yes we are in way over our head.”