“The National Building Museum (NBM) is launching a year-long initiative that will gather and analyze data on how new technologies are shaping cities. Dubbed Intelligent Cities, the goal is to make technology and data more useful to urban planners, professionals in design and building, and the public, enhancing perception of the built environment that we live in. Emphasis will be placed on the interrelationship between information sets, described on www.nbm.org as the “connections between the size of our homes and the energy we consume as a nation, walkable neighborhoods and our health, and where we work and our infrastructure.” In line with this relational approach, the first advertisement for the project will explore the connection between home size, household residents and energy consumption, pointing out that while energy efficiency has increased over the last several decades, the benefits are offset by the combination of increased square footage and smaller families.

Intelligent Cities will begin with a six-month national public campaign through advertisements in TIME magazine and TIME.com. Public polling questions will be posted on www.nbm.org and via social media through March 2011, followed by research and consultation by the Museum and an advisory committee. A public forum will be held in June 2011, and the initiative will culminate with a publication scheduled for the fall of 2011 that will summarize the ideas and suggestions produced from the public outreach and forum.”

To read more about the Intelligent Cities Project go to: http://www.nbm.org/intelligentcities/

To take the first set of survey questions go to: http://www.nbm.org/intelligentcities/topics/home/poll-1.html