The Journal of Smart Cities and Society focuses on the already existing and well-known concept of smart cities which amalgamate smart infrastructures with human’s needs through services at a community level. “Smart Cities” is an emerging concept which has been gaining momentum as the technology available becomes more sophisticated and provides continuous stimuli to solve some of the growing concerns due to demographical growth. There are already various “smart” areas of technology quite consolidated and making their way into business and society. These smarter systems are supported by various areas in computer science, for example sensor networks and context-aware software, which facilitate delivering more specific services to humans in more specific daily life contexts and are better aligned to their individual preferences. This has not been a sudden revolution, but rather another stage in technological evolution. With areas such as artificial intelligence maturing and basic infrastructures including increasingly capable communication networks looming in the technical horizon there are strong signals that this trend will only continue. Then it seems quite a natural progression for society in general, and for our technical communities as well, to move from the various current “smart” silos, such as smart homes, smart cars, smart transportation, smart food grow, smart health, to be interconnected through an overall area which focuses on the multiple combinations and on their cooperation to achieve benefits for society none of those single areas can achieve in isolation. Hence there are strong motivations for their emergence and consolidation and on the other hand given the combination and complexity of resources required, is a topic which will require a long and patient discussion. Design, experimentation, community involvement, cultural adaptations into different parts of the planet, and much more will be required to create services which work effectively in the real world. Another interesting dimension of this area is that it is essentially a multi-disciplinary endeavour. Technology acts in this area as a bonding element for each of the services which it underpins, so many other groups of professionals are required in order to create meaningful services. Although this area has computer science and sensing at its core, it also requires interventions from various branches of engineering, architecture, social sciences, environmental sciences, emergency services, city planners, and many more, ultimately citizens themselves (as they are the best to indicate which services they need). Hence this area is a fascinating opportunity for society to grow in a more organic way with a more democratized and decentralized way of using progress for common good.
