“Big data is not about just handling volume, nor is it about data. It is about creativity. Combine technology advancements with human ingenuity and the possibilities are endless” Frank Buytendijk

Glasgow has recently been the lucky recipient of £24 million, courtesy of the Technology Strategy Board. Within the council a program called Future City | Glasgow has been set up in order to investigate ways of making Glasgow a safer, smarter and more sustainable city. One of the ways they aim to achieve this is by leading the way in using open data to become a more responsive and technology driven city though its public initiative, Open Glasgow.
 
Snook, with a citizen-led approach, has been commissioned to specifically investigate two key service areas within the city: waste collection and road repairs.

Using our service design approach, we are looking at how we can transform these two service areas over a period of 20 years. Our aim is to deliver a service that is relevant to the needs of people today, but also to grow with them into the future of tomorrow. It is not just about making Glasgow a future city, but a better city.

Since mid-November last year, we have run numerous public workshops, spoken to taxi drivers, bus drivers, students, waste experts and cyclists. We have even stood out in the famous Glasgow sunshine, handing out hot cups of tea, just to hear what is important to people on the topic of potholes and rubbish. We have also visualised problem areas to try to understand how current services work. You can follow our project via our blog and through the Twitter hashtag #ogsd.

Gopro, seeing the streets from a pedestrian perspective from Robin Bini Schneider on Vimeo.

This project is a unique opportunity for Snook. We are able to share our agile methods of working whilst maintaining a collaborative approach, sharing insights with Future City | Glasgow and their clients. These clients make up a number of Glasgow based design firms also working with Future City | Glasgow. We think they are all amazing and love working in such a collaborative way. These clients are:

Tangent Graphic is an award winning agency specialising in brand identity & art direction. Tangent are working on a set of brand stories for Open Glasgow.
O Street is an agency that works across a broad range disciplines, with a focus on strong, creative thinking. They are working on a number of widgets and digital dashboards for displaying data in an accessible, understandable and clear way.
Stipso create visual content for living Infographics, which both display and collect data. They are looking at the technical aspects behind the widgets and dashboards.

Icecream Architecture is a consultancy for public engagement, the promotion of ideas and subsequent implementation. They are working on a number of public initiatives around the topic of digital literacy.

This is an exciting time for Snook to be working on such a unique project and to be working on new ways to envision the future of Glasgow’s services and future technologies. Watch this space.