Nov 18, 2022Every year, RFID Journal hosts the RFID Journal Awards at our RFID Journal LIVE! conference and exhibition. A call for entries for next year's awards was recently announced (see Call for Entries for 18th Annual RFID Journal Awards), and we're still accepting submissions. As such, I wouldn't normally promote other organizations' awards in this space. However, I read something this morning that I feel warrants an exception.
Seoul, the capital city of the Republic of Korea, has been named the Smart City of 2022 as part of the World Smart City Awards, presented annually by the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), which acknowledge outstanding initiatives and projects in the innovation and urban transformation industry. The jury comprised the Barcelona City Council, UN-Habitat, the World Bank, the EC Mission on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities, and Smart City Expo World Congress.
Seoul was chosen for its Smart Seoul platform, through which the Korean city promotes digital inclusion policies to ensure communication, mobility, education, safety and technology utilization, while providing digital services tailored to the socially vulnerable. "It is a great honor to be selected as winner city at these prestigious awards," said Yosik Kang, the president of the Seoul Digital Foundation, adding, "We hope this can give strength to the citizens of Seoul who are struggling after the Itaewon crowd crush." In that tragic incident last month, at least 158 people were killed and nearly 200 others were injured during a Halloween celebration.
In addition to Seoul's win, the Ukrainian city Kyiv has received a special City Award for its use of digital services to save lives with regard to Russia's invasion of that nation, necessitated by the atrocities and war crimes committed by Vladimir Putin's military. Kyiv's mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, took part in the Smart City Expo World Congress to explain how a commitment to digitalization has allowed the Ukrainian people to be more resilient during the ongoing war, thanks to apps that notify citizens of air raids and shelter locations, which has helped to save many innocent lives.
Other winners included TerraGo Technologies, for its maintenance and implementation of a public lighting network in Chicago, Ill.; the DIGI-V traffic digitization initiative in Wiesbaden, Germany, developed by Yunex Traffic; Dublin, Ireland, for its drone development project; Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for its HackShield youth cybersecurity game; the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs, for an artificial intelligence project enabling inclusive pavements in Atlanta, Ga.; Buenos Aires, Argentina, for its Ciudad 3D project, promoting sustainable urban development; Bruges, Belgium, for its Smart City Data Platform; AutoSafety Uganda, an initiative to reduce accidents and pollution, developed by Wanyama Autosafety Initiatives; and the Empowering Cities through Data project, from India's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Kyiv and Seoul have each faced heartbreaking losses of late, and those in both cities have my sincere condolences. Although the number of deaths in Seoul do not approach the thousands killed in Ukraine, that in no way minimizes the grief those in Korea are experiencing as it deals with the aftermath of the crowd crush. While it's true that awards cannot make up for lost lives, it's gratifying to see an organization honoring both cities (and the others noted above) for their efforts to promote smart technologies. If only people and governments were as smart, the world might be a better, safer place.
Rich Handley has been the managing editor of RFID Journal since 2005. Outside the RFID world, Rich has authored, edited or contributed to numerous books about pop culture. You can contact Rich via email.
