Beasley: How will smart city infrastructure reflect KC’s aspirations?

By Tommy Felts | July 14, 2016
Coty Beasley

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Reality is often stranger than fiction, and even harder to predict. Will our cities march toward the dizzying New, New York of Futurama’s 30th century; the harsh, crowded streets of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner; or even the consumerist, transhumanist society of Warren Ellis’…

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Google Fiber hops to new, pricier plans for businesses

By Tommy Felts | July 12, 2016

All good things — or in this case inexpensive things — must come to an end. Google Fiber will soon nix early-access pricing for its gigabit business service and will more than double its costs for new customers in August. Google Fiber — which first arrived in Kansas City in 2012 with residential service —…

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Virtual reality hackathon to visualize next-generation ed tech tools

By Tommy Felts | July 7, 2016
virtual reality KCVR

Move over, gamers, virtual reality isn’t just for you anymore. Kansas City will soon host its first-ever virtual reality hackathon, and it’s all about classroom education. The Kansas City Virtual Reality club — which brings together the area’s virtual reality enthusiasts — is challenging virtual- and augmented-reality aficionados to create applications that can help educators…

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Joshua Montgomery: KC poised to be IoT-powered smart city leader

By Tommy Felts | July 5, 2016
Joshua Montgomery

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Most of the people I ask about the Internet of Things — or IoT — respond with visions of network-connected light bulbs or water sensors for their basements. They talk about fitness trackers or connected thermostats that help reduce energy costs. To me,…

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