The term MESH Cities describes the information feedback systems created in 21st Century cities when mobile communications networks, smart city infrastructure, ubiquitous computing, and social networks overlap. Some urban designers speculate that the user feedback these systems allow will improve the livability of modern cities. The term owes it genesis to a number of theorists who have explored the affect communications networks have on the use and design of cities. A partial list includes Teilhard de Chardin’s Noosphere, Buckminster Fuller’s synergetics, Christine Boyer’s, Agoric Systems, Adam Greenfield’s, Urban Operating System, R. Ouellette’s Virtual Metropolis, and others.
MESH is an acronym for
MESH: M=Mobile, E=Efficient, S=Subtle, H=Heuristics
MOBILE: Mobile devices and the networks that support them provide the bottom-up, real-time information conduit to supply feedback about a city, its users, and its systems. MIT’s SENSEable City Lab graph of the real-time use of mobile devices in Rome for the 2006 Venice Biennale provides a graphic example of the process.
EFFICIENT: Sustainability achieved through the efficient use of resources. Information that is accurate and definitive allows for effective monitoring and management of energy use, or traffic flows, etc..
SUBTLE: This is the component of MESH Cities critical to the day-to-day use and enjoyment of modern cities. Any system adopted by city managers must not overwhelm city users or seem arbitrary. The more invisible and non-intrusive a system is the better it will serve its goals. For example, the more effective and anticipatory a transit system the less intrusive it is to its riders. Behind that relative invisibility, however, is an interweaving of technologies and algorithms that optimize transit ease-of-use.
HEURISTICS: Heuristics-based continuous improvement is an essential part of the mesh city. It is a self-reflexive process not considered in the normative smart cities discussions. MESH Cities use adaptive, citizen-focused, self-forming networks to learn and inform new design solutions. An example is seen in the exponential speed of city building, especially in emerging economies, where legacy infrastructure does not impede the adoption of new solutions.
The MESH Cities model assumes continuous improvement in keeping with the design heuristics defined by business and design theorists like Roger Martin and Jakob Nielsen.