This article is written by Shireen Santosham, former chief innovation officer, Office of Mayor Liccardo, San José, CA.

This article was selected by What Works Cities as a winner in Apolitical's 2020 American Public Servant Writing Competition.

As San José’s chief innovation officer for the past three years, I’ve witnessed the nuanced ways that technology is shaping cities.

Over the past half-century, technology has transformed San José from a sleepy agricultural town into the largest city in Silicon Valley and arguably the most influential tech centre in the world. Our city benefits from incredible diversity: 40% of our residents were born outside of the US and more than half speak a language other than English. And, like the canary in the coalmine, San José reflects challenges that the rest of the country will face — particularly with regards to how technology is going to shape how we live and work in urban centres.

On many issues stuck in gridlock on the national level, such as privacy, digital inclusion, and autonomous vehicle regulation, San José is forging its own path. As a result, I am frequently approached by policymakers, journalists and tech executives who ask me for the "city hall perspective" on how tech is changing our lives. Here are three ways I see technology impacting cities, and what San José is doing about them.

1. ‘Innovation’ too often comes at the cost of inclusion and equality

Technology opened a wealth of opportunity to San José. Adjusted for inflation, the median San José household income in 1959 was roughly $61,000. Today, it is over $117,000 (for reference, the national median is just over $63,000). Yet, like many tech-dependent US cities, these benefits are increasingly pooled among the top few percent of wage earners.

According to recent research, in the Bay Area, the top 90th percentile of wage earners now make more than seven times the bottom 10th percentile.

The digital divide is a tangible example of how this inequity impacts local communities, often hitting hardest on those who already face barriers to opportunity. In San José, we found, shockingly, that 95,000 residents still lack internet access at home. This sobering statistic encompasses 55% of our low-income population, over a third of Latinx families, and almost half of African-American families in the city.

It is clear that Silicon Valley needs tech leadership that better represents our diverse communities

We found this situation unacceptable in the heart of Silicon Valley, so we established the Digital Inclusion Partnership, a $24 million fund that will be dispersed through community grants to bring internet connectivity, device access, and digital literacy to all San José residents. Resources for this program are privately funded through the city’s telecom agreements that will deploy 5G technology throughout the city. We are excited to be leading the largest municipal grantmaking fund nationwide dedicated to closing the digital divide — although it is only one aspect of the inequity faced by cities, digital inclusion is essential to ensure that everyone can access 21st century opportunities and services.

2. Our innovators must reflect the communities we live in

In Silicon Valley, 26% of people are Latinx, yet representation among company executives hovers at less than 3%. Similarly concerning, while studies have found that firms with at least one woman founder perform significantly better than VC (venture capital) firms with only male founders, VC firms with women founders only received just 2.2% of investment dollars in the US in 2018.

It is clear that Silicon Valley needs tech leadership that better represents our diverse communities. This means we must provide on-ramps for local entrepreneurs, people who understand the needs of their communities best yet often face barriers to accessing job opportunities or seed funding.

In San José, we are exploring multiple ways to attract and nurture innovation at home. One favourite example is to apply local talent to city challenges. We host an annual competition to use tech to solve public problems in San José. The first year, a husband and wife duo took home the prize for building a drone in their living room that paints over graffiti. This year, the public challenges include developing a resources app for residents experiencing homelessness and improving translation of information on city services into Spanish and Vietnamese. Programs like these harness new channels to engage our local community, fostering a more creative and diverse innovation ecosystem.

3. There is an urgent need for safe and ethical usage of data

In 2019, LinkedIn bought Lynda.com, an online learning portal used in libraries across the country. The acquisition is an exciting opportunity for e-learning, but many libraries, including in San José, are concerned with the privacy implications of the arrangement. Library patrons must now create a LinkedIn profile and consent to the LinkedIn user agreement and privacy policy to access the content, giving LinkedIn insight into potentially millions of users on Lynda.

The LinkedIn purchase raises questions around privacy and user choice in city services, particularly as the private sector offers more services that have traditionally been provided by the public sector. San José is leading a privacy and user-centric approach to data management. We are the first city in California to adopt a set of privacy principles, which will soon become a comprehensive privacy policy governing the use of digital data across all city services.

In 2019 alone, more than 100 ransomware attacks were reported against state and local governments, and more than half (53%) of organisations report a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills

But beyond placing guardrails for managing data internally, we must also work to keep bad actors out. In 2019 alone, more than 100 ransomware attacks were reported against state and local governments, and more than half (53%) of organisations report a "problematic shortage" of cybersecurity skills. To strengthen our cybersecurity hygiene in San José, we’ve hired a chief information officer to oversee the protection of city data. On the national level, we are advocating for cybersecurity legislation to provide funding and training to local governments.

San José is home to an incredible ecosystem of technology companies and talent yet faces troubling inequality. We are exceptionally diverse, yet tech leadership remains painfully homogenous. The national conversation and the private sector often paints over the disparate realities of Silicon Valley, obscuring the practical impact of technology on people in their own backyard. As we learn to wield the opportunities of data and technology, we must keep our communities at the heart of our conversations. — Shireen Santosham

(Picture Credit: Death to the stock photo)