Four Questions State Legislators Should Ask Themselves About Advancing Smart and Connected Communities

Invited to present at the Smart City Summit sponsored by the National Conference State Legislatures (NCSL), I wrestled with the key take-aways I could present to State Legislators about Smart and Connected Communities that would resonate with the primary work of legislators — legislating. After much thought, I settled on a narrative that centered on four questions that flow from the increasing viability of a smart home as a platform through which governments can deliver critical services to residents.

Within the national dialogue about Smart Communities, there is a lot of discussion and buzz about the impact of new networks and infrastructure that will be deployed in 2–5 years. With these four questions, I suggest that State Legislators should direct their attention to a platform that is in place now and has the potential to transform the way that States deliver key services to residents: the smart and connected home. Indeed, State Legislators can act now to implement pilots and partnerships that will position their state as a leader in the use of telemedicine, distance learning and other innovative applications and services.

A truly Smart and Connected Community of the future will undoubtedly leverage smart and connected homes as a platform and provide impactful applications and services to residents in the homes.

Four Questions for State Legislators

Question 1: How can your state utilize increasingly ubiquitous communications networks to augment the education, job training & health initiatives administered by the state?

More than 80% of US homes now have access to broadband service with gigabit per second speeds (“gigabit service”), up from as little as 4% of homes as of December 2016. To me, this explosive growth in the percentage of US homes that can be considered “smart” homes, means that — for the first time — there exists a viable platform that local, county and state governments can use to provide government services to residents at their home.

Question 2: If you were to assume that a super majority of residents in your state lived in smart and connected homes, what steps could your state take to leverage the value of telepresence and distance learning applications for the delivery of key services?

Several telehealth and virtual education/training pilot projects have served to highlight the efficacy and efficiency of telepresence and distance learning. For instance, a University of Alabama pilot program is replacing office visits for dialysis patients with comprehensive telehealth exams. The University of Louisiana Lafayette has created a virtual “field trip” though which students can tour a solar energy plant. A program at Stanford University is working to develop an AI-driven suite of monitoring and tracking applications to monitor health, nutrition, activity levels, and indications of distress to allow elderly Americans to more confidently age at home.

Question 3: Which existing initiatives might be modified/expanded to encourage partnerships that would help your state become a leader in the use of distance learning and telehealth applications and services?

In 2016, about a third of all state and local spending went to K-12 and higher education and another 22% went to public welfare programs including health care and other relief for the needy. State legislators should consider funding studies and pilots designed to explore whether and how existing services delivered by the state (including education, job training and health initiatives) could be more effective and efficient if delivered directly to residents at their homes.

Question 4: What barriers impede innovative pilots and collaborative partnerships related to the virtual delivery of key services to residents in their homes?

In some cases, the barrier to pilot projects is not a lack of funding but the existence of regulations that limit or make burdensome the delivery of services virtually directly to residents in their home. State legislators can work to ensure that their state’s rules and regulations encourage the virtual delivery of government services to residents in their home.

Smart Home as a Platform for Delivery of Services

If successful, the four questions above serve to reinforce the idea that — as more and more Americans live in smart homes connected by advanced broadband networks — there is an opportunity for state and local governments to deliver key services to residents in their homes. For the great majority of homes in the U.S., no additional infrastructure needs to be deployed to deliver applications and services that will help residents manage a chronic disease, age in place or train for a new job.

State Legislators can put in place the studies, pilot projects and collaborations that establish their state’s leadership in the delivery of virtual services. Legislators can work now to advance the virtual delivery of services via a network of smart homes in their state and have an immediate impact on their state’s Smart and Connected Community efforts.

About this Medium Site

On this Medium site, I intend to explore an array of topics related to the transformative power of smart and connected communities. A central question for this observer of the smart city movement: how will municipalities develop, deploy and support smart and connected community projects at scale?

I welcome feedback and comments from readers.