Design. Start. Code.

The Futurist

The Future of Austin Is a Smart City

an interview with

Christine Freundl page 43

Welcome to 2015!

As we come down from the high of the holidays, a logical question becomes: “What’s next?” Most tech-

nology predictors report the same list of trends to watch out for in the year ahead. We’re told to look

forward to new innovations in 3-D printing, med tech, wearable tech, transportation, digital wallets, and

even greater use of our spare capacity through disruptive services.

I can’t help but reflect back to a scene ten years ago when I was watching the nightly news with my

grandmother (who passed only a few short months later). As the anchor wished us a good night, my

grandmother turned to me and asked, “What’s Google?” I had to smile that she’d waited until the end of

the program to ask me, but then it occurred to me that she’d probably been waiting for the reporter to

explain. As I started to tell her what Google was, I realized that the world we were living in must have

seemed beyond reach to her.

Paradoxically, my grandmother was one of few women to work directly with computers during World

War II. She had been a costume jewelry designer, but during the war she put her drawing skills to work

as a draftswoman. My grandmother drew the blueprints for radioactive bombs for Emerson Radio in

NYC. After the war, she continued as a draftswoman, but no longer designed weapons.

My grandmother’s conception of a “computer” was a system the size of a large conference room. I’m

sure you’ve seen photos of those early-era machines with rudimentary controls. She could never have

imagined that one day a computer might sit on her desk at home. She certainly never imagined such a

thing as Google.

2015 is particularly significant for me because I’m becoming a mother. My daughter arrives in a month

or so and I can’t help but wonder what she’ll witness during her lifetime. Surely there will be a day when

I turn to her daughter and ask about whatever replaces Google.

In this issue, Velma invites you to jump into the future. Let’s go beyond 2015 and instead look into our

predictions for 2025 and beyond. What will Austin look like in ten or twenty years? What types of ser-

vices and technologies might we use?

Let’s go back to the future!

JessJessica Lowry

Founder, Velma Magazine

Page 3

Meet the Velma

Staff

danielle selbyDesign team & Cover ArtistDanielle is a recent transplant to Austin and is originally

from Abilene. She’s an artist and designer at Pasadya, where

she creates illustrations, abstract fine artwork, murals, and

logos; she brings these skills to Velma as well and is to credit

for the staff sketches featured here. She’s also a photog-

rapher, specializing in photos of “loving families, beautiful

people, and simplistic scenery.” Danielle is a proud owner of

a socially awkward Boston terrier and an accomplished bak-

er of lemon meringue pies. Danielle finds Velma a refreshing

addition to her life and enjoys being surrounded “by bright,

supportive individuals who are both generous and coura-

geous to share their skills and experiences with others who

are excited to learn.”@DanieSelby

Jessica Lowryfounder

Jessica Lowry grew up in Toronto, Canada and is founder

of Clave, LLC, the force behind Key to the Street, SheHack-

sATX, SheDesignsATX, and now, Velma Magazine. Her knack

for thinking outside the box and passion for broadening the

perspective of others by creating communities that help con-

quer fear has inspired these creations and powers Jessica’s

collaborative aspirations. She has lived on three different

continents but settled in Austin two years ago and can often

be found unwinding at barre3, walking around Town Lake,

or at Barton Springs Pool. She believes that Velma “will show

women (and men) a world devoid of fear and enriched by

courage,” believing in the spirit of the magazine because “ev-

eryone deserves the chance to live their best lives possible.”@jeslowry

Page 4

virginia honigDesign teamVirginia Honig is an aspiring service designer who grew up

in South Carolina and spent her summers swimming in the

Texas Hill Country. Virginia recently moved back to Austin

to set up shop within the greater design community, as she

finishes her thesis for the graduate service design program

at SCAD. She has a knack for working with her hands and

listening to other people. She finds joy in conducting hu-

man-centered research, building prototypes out of ideas,

and making sure user experiences are full of delight. Virginia

has a weakness for fine wine, spanish olives, and a block of

salty cheese. Even though she has to stick to a tight budget

as a grad student, she won't deny that she will splurge, and

when that happens it tends to be food related. @DesignObserve

jennifer aldorettaDesign team

Jennifer has one of the best job titles ever, and as Co-

Groover and CEO of Groove, she makes tools that educate

and empower women to take control of their reproductive

health and fertility. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Jenni-

fer has lived in Austin for a little more than a year and can be

found riding her bike all around town, often in search of kale

and/or dark chocolate. Jennifer is featured in the first issue

of Velma and believes in the mission of the magazine be-

cause, in her own words, “I think it will help inspire the next

generation of change-makers.”@JAldoretta

Velma Staff

Page 5

kelly hitchcockeditorial team

Kelly, a technical writer at CSID specializing in APIs and

SDKs, hails from Kansas City but has called Austin home for

more than three years. She is an accomplished writer cur-

rently working on her third fiction novel. When not word-

smithing technical documentation, short stories, and poetry,

Kelly heads to the gym to stay sane. Her indulgences include

watching mass amounts of football on the weekends and

ordering the house wine at Winebelly. She believes in Velma

because “the women in tech scene in Austin needs more light

and less heat. I know too many local female developers and

other tech professionals that it’s silly for them to feel alone.”@KellyHitchcock

Velma Staff

valle hanseneditorial teamValle is a Senior UX Researcher who asks people questions

about the Internet and then tries to figure out how to make

it a better experience for them. Valle grew up in New Jersey

but has called Austin home for more than four years. She

has a knack for controlling her face, a weakness for pretzels,

and a guilty pleasure in watching Tommy Lee Jones. Valle

believes in Velma because “Women in tech are few. There

should be spaces for women in tech (and everywhere) to feel

heard / empowered / supported / proud / nervous / scared /

frustrated / humble / hilarious / awesome without having to

scream too loud or look too hard. Thanks, Velma.”@ValleTown

Page 6

nicholle shaverCommunications teamNicholle is from Orange County, CA, and has called Austin home

for two years. As Event Manager at Capital Factory, Austin’s en-

trepreneurial center of gravity, Nicholle coordinates the pre-plan-

ning and on-site execution of 40+ events a month, including

hackathons, meetups, VIP receptions, and, most notably, a visit

from the President and White House staff in 2013. Nicholle has

a prolific sweet tooth, indulges in all things Star Wars– and Harry Potter–related, and aspires to be able to do a cartwheel someday.

For Nicholle, Velma is about “breaking down barriers, providing a

community to spark positive conversation, and helping make big

things happen. Velma provides a platform for women to voice their

opinion, offer resources that might otherwise not be available,

pursue an idea, ask for tips or help, and so much more.”@NicholleJ

Velma Staff

claire jordan dunneditorial team

Claire, a native Austinite who returned after spending a

year in London, is a Digital Producer helping organizations

build meaningful relationships with their audiences through

engaging social media experiences. Claire is an academical-

ly inclined teen media junkie, having previously composed

extensive research on Gossip Girl and is currently conduct-

ing a close read of Pretty Little Liars without a shred of guilt.

She’s also an aspiring mixologist and the loving caretaker of

a scruffy little shelter mutt. Claire’s involvement with Velma

stems from her belief that “the techie female Austinite’s

voice is clear and strong—it’s just needed the perfect avenue

for amplification.”@ClaireJordanATX Communications

Internship

Page 6

Are you a student looking for real-world experience?

Each internship runs for six months and requires a time commitment of 10–15 hours per month. If you’d like to apply, please send an email with cover letter, portfolio, and

resume to staff@velmamagazine.com.

Join Velma’s internship program!

Design Internship

Do you love creating original designs using Photoshop, Illustrator, and

InDesign? If so, you’ll be able to assist Velma’s design team in layout

and design of our magazine. Candidates must have a strong portfolio of

previous layout work and must be able to prove proficiency in InDe-

sign to do quick, accurate styles. We’re looking for talented, creative,

inspiring individuals!

Velma is looking for a smart, fast-thinking intern well versed in current

tech trends and eager to learn the ways of Velma’s editorial team. You’ll

be reporting to Velma’s lead editor, who shepherds our monthly arti-

cle production strategy. Most of your time will be spent assisting the

editors and following up with writers. You’ll be expected to perform at

a high level with short turnarounds—and love it!

Journalism Internship

Support Velma’s communications team by researching inquiries and

responding to comments from fans via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest,

YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, and emails, assisting with special events,

and working with the Velma editorial team. Duties will also include

administration for the communications team lead, in addition to main-

taining contact lists and behavior analytics tracking.

CommunicationsInternship

Nancy GiordanoPhotos by: Danie Selby

RIFFing on the Future

About Nancy Giordano, Founder of Play Big, Inc.

& TedxAustin Lead Curator

@nancygiordano

Nancy has spent her career building,

shaping, and reviving many of the coun-

try’s most prestigious brands. As a brand

futurist, she sees the powerful possibilities

that exist at the intersection of cultural, de-

mographic, and values trends.

Page 8

RIFFing on the Future

Page 10

Written by: Nancy Giordano

January is always filled with an “applied futurist’s” favorite

things: blank Moleskines waiting for new mind maps, optimis-

tic plans ready to be executed with early determination, and

lots and lots of forecasts about how it’s gonna go. It all makes

me unusually happy.

But then, as the weeks progress, I find a new grumpiness seep

in. Why aren’t we making more progress? I worry. Why can’t

others see what I see? I bluster. Why are we talking more

than doing?

While I’m curious to read every one of these lists and fore-

casts, I’m drawn these days beyond what we see and am

paying more attention to how we look ahead. What are our

sources of insight? Are we taking the time to synthesize all

this information, and can we see how it’s all increasingly

interconnected? Are we able to hold new information with

both wonder and healthy doses of concern or skepticism?

Most important, are we able to apply these insights and

awarenesses with conviction and purpose?

Most of my work as a brand futurist deals with helping execs

at large enterprises and industry groups manage complexity,

ambiguity, and fast-moving shifts. As such, we are always

looking for ways to better share what we see and feel. We

really want business and civic leaders to more readily accept

the new as normal…and therefore find the motivation (read:

courage) to build new, fresh, truly innovative solutions on top

of these pretty clear shifts. If these folks want to survive—

and thrive—they need to play bigger.

That was the motivation behind the unique blog Play Big, Inc.,

launched last fall.

“It’s become clear that updating one’s understanding of the future takes more than simple exposure to a new idea.”

Page 9

RIFFing on the Future

Page 11

Our new undertaking, CulturalAcupuncture.com, is intentionally designed to accelerate understanding.

We figured if we shared what we see in daily “slow drip” observations, thematically linked each week

then synthesized and shared each Sunday, we would be better able to infiltrate current resistance and

the dismissal of shifts as outlier trendiness—I mean, could we have imagined that Airbnb would become

valued at $10 billion and larger than Wyndham? Or that gluten-free options would end up on practical-

ly every single restaurant menu in the country?

It’s become clear that updating one’s understanding of the future takes more than simple exposure to a

new idea. It often requires the capacity to hold two or more (often competitive) narratives about what

this all means—and an ability to see the drivers behind what’s happening. Are “flipped classrooms” and

personal computing improving education? Is drinking juice good for you or bad? Will artificial intelli-

gence help us see what we had no idea was possible or take over our choices someday?

To help us wade through these kinds of broad and often conflicting debates, the team at Play Big, Inc.,

has started playing with a simple tool that helps us make distinctions and actively invites us to hold

more than one black-versus-white feeling on an issue. We also want a way to be able to see how topics

are interrelated and to help us get clearer about what we believe and where we want to put our ener-

gies. We call this a RIFF Model, and it closely parallels the classic strategic SWOT (Strengths, Weak-

nesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis.

In the RIFF map, each quadrant captures how we feel when introduced to new information about the

future—specifically:

Page 10

RIFFing on the Future

Nearly every audience we speak to or exec team we work

with feels overwhelmed and generally concerned by the pace

of change and the impact these shifts are having on their

long-standing business models and strategic frameworks.

They want to protect what they believe they’ve built into a

success story, and are subsequently less able to see all the

brand-new opportunities being presented to them.

Encouragingly, most technologists and entrepreneurs feel

the opposite. They are flooded with opportunities and ideas.

(Small plea: please tell me someone is working on “the Pando-

ra of restaurants”? I so want this…and more!)

Can using this kind of model bridge the gap between fear and

possibility? Can it help us make sense of a society in which

education and poverty levels overall continue to improve

while middle-class salaries and our physical health contin-

ue to erode? What are we each uniquely drawn to see…and

therefore hopefully address? I haven’t spent much time with

this just yet, but here are some concepts I’ve started to pay

more attention to:

I’m relieved that:• poverty levels around the world are dropping

• technology is becoming more and more accessible to all

• the web is making education more open across boundaries

• we can now easily find others any- and everywhere who

share our ideas, can help us solve a problem, and join us in

getting things done

I’m inspired that:• increasing amounts of data and algorithmic science will un-

lock all kinds of new insights and improve our understanding

of how the world really works

• new forms of community and collaborative support are

being created each day—from co-working and cohousing to

platforms that help us dine, learn, discover, and grow together

• we are beginning to better see the connections between

things and think “systemically”

• new tools are being created that allow us each to be agents

of change and creation, which will change the structures of all

institutions

Nancy GiordanoPhoto by: Danie Selby

Riffing on the Future

I’m frustrated that:• we expect someone else to take care of “it”

• we often think tactically and rush to solutions, as opposed to considering long-term strategy

• we aren’t better at sharing what we know

• we keep Kim Kardashian on magazine covers (really?!!)

I’m frightened that:• the new economy will require very new tools and approaches and that most institutions—in education,

business, and government—are moving really slowly

• we are depleting resources so thoughtlessly

• loneliness and depression are becoming invisible epidemics among all ages in our society

• most individuals don’t recognize their own potential and power to impact all around them in meaningful

ways

As this new year opens, I invite you to consider your own RIFF on the future. I believe it will help you see

what uniquely motivates and inspires you—and hopefully help you balance optimism with a burning drive to

act.

The world needs us all to play as big as possible. Thank you for all you’re already doing! I wish you a bright,

beautiful, and truly happy 2015!

Page 12

OUR DESIRED FUTURE

It’s never too early to get excited about and start planning for ÆtherFest, Texas’ premier three-day Retro-Futurist convention held annually in San Antonio. Covering a wide range of topics, from literature to film, from steampunk to cyberpunk, the fes-tival is jam-packed with panels, workshops, live music, and fun. Don’t miss out on the 2015 event! Visit http://www.aetherfest.org/ to learn more.

Revved up thinking about technology and life in the not-too-distant future?

OUR DESIRED FUTURE

Sharlene LeurigPhoto by: Danie Selby

Linking to the Past and Connecting with Water

Written by: Sharlene Leurig

Page 14

It was swimming with my dad that hooked me.

At eighty-two, he was finally showing me the

town where he grew up, a little border town

called Del Rio right on the Rio Grande. Those

waters baptized my father, welcoming him to

the great congregation of Texas. He came to Del

Rio in 1940, packed alongside his sister and par-

ents, with only his father’s ambitions to make

something of himself.

Del Rio was still a new city, the stonework of

the church and the courthouse still a declared

intention of civility. It was what Texas always

remained in my dad’s heart, even after years

of living within its placeless suburbs: a place

where bridge parties and Bible classes could

easily be shed for sorties into the wild and old

land. That was how my dad learned to be Texan:

by climbing Mustang grapevines and searching

for crawfish in the irrigation canals fed by San

Felipe Springs.

By the time he took me there, the cantinas were

long closed, and the Rio Grande announced

About Sharlene Leurig

@sleurig

Sharlene directs the Sustainable Water

Infrastructure Program at Ceres, a national

nonprofit helping institutional investors to

integrate sustainability into the capital mar-

kets. With Ceres, she works with water service

providers to build business models that are

resilient to weather extremes, climate change, and

resource depletion.Sharlene LeurigPhoto by: Danie Selby

Our Desired Future

itself with the green and white blockades

of the Border Patrol. But the waters of San

Felipe Springs were still there, 40 million

gallons a day flowing out from the edge of

the Chihuahuan Desert. Like all springs and

all rivers in Texas, their source is the water

belowground, replenished by rain that may

have fallen anytime from a few days ago to

thousands of years ago. Most of the water

in Texas is hidden belowground—some 400

times the amount that flows through our

rivers and lakes. In an era of drought and

population explosion, that groundwater has

become the next big commodity.

Texas, like most states west of the Missis-

sippi, pumps water faster than nature can

replenish it. Yes, oil tycoons like T. Boone

Pickens have accelerated this through big

water export deals designed to bring water

from rural well fields to Texas cities. How-

ever, the planned depletion of our aquifers

ticks along, driven by thousands of new

wells drilled each year for homes, ranches,

and farms. With the exception of the Ed-

wards Aquifer (the source of the springs in

Austin, San Marcos, and New Braunfels),

every major aquifer in Texas faces long-term

depletion.

We mine our aquifers in the way a wealthy

family might mine its trust fund, thinking

only of today and nothing of the future.

The end result is that the rivers of Texas,

which for thousands of years have been fed

by the accumulated rains of millennia, may

stop flowing altogether. The horror of it is

that this outcome of degraded rivers and

depleted aquifers is what we Texans say

we want, in the form of bottom-up water

management targets called “Desired Future

Conditions.”

“We mine our aquifers in the way a wealthy family might mine its trust fund, thinking only of today and nothing of the future.”

Sharlene LeurigPhoto by: Danie Selby

Our Desired Future

As I swam in San Felipe Springs with my dad, I

thought of the waters that have stopped flow-

ing since my dad was a child, and of the small

Texas farming towns that have already turned

to dust bowls. How many people know these

stories? How many of us understand the future

we are designing?

Since that swim, I’ve been fixated on the idea

of becoming a “ghost of Christmas future” for

Texans. I want to help them see the dry holes

in the ground where water once flowed, and

understand that the water belowground is the

same as the water above, that the more straws

we stick into the ground to suck out the water

below, the less there will be for tubing and mid-

night swims, power generation, plastic manu-

facturing, orange crops, cattle ranching, fishing,

kayaking, drinking—all the things flowing rivers

give us.

What grew from that fixation is Our Desired

Future, a multimedia project meant to inspire

Texans to keep water flowing for future gen-

erations. The series tells the stories of Texans

and their experiences with water through

essays, photography, audio clips, and videos. I

wanted this project to be democratic and truly

representative of Texans. It was critical that

it be web-based, so it could be immediately

accessible by anyone with a web connection,

something that a kid in a border town finds on

her school’s computer as easily as a rancher in

West Texas finds on his iPad.

The story carries people through the beauty

of the imagery, but is totally rooted in science

and policy. I’ve been fortunate to work with

Sarah Wilson (an unbelievably talented pho-

tographer), female hackers at SheHacksATX,

hydrogeology students at UT Austin, profes-

sional hydrologists, water lawyers, groundwa-

Photo by: Danie SelbyPage 16

Water renewal is just one of the ways futurists consider long-term environmental change.

Jae Rhim Lee’s remarkable work in sustainable burial is nothing short of innovative.

Check out her TED talk on the future of sustainable burial.

Page 17

Our Desired Future

Page 18

ter regulators, animators, and editors

to construct a multidimensional story.

As a result, our narrative is wonderfully

diverse—we’ve talked to farmers who

are pumping 35 million gallons of water

a day to grow crops in West Texas,

people living on only the rainwater they

can catch on their roof, sport fishers

and shrimpers in the Gulf, a guy travel-

ing the entire 1,900-mile course of the

Rio Grande. There are so many people

whose lives are connected by water.

Our Desired Future is just one of the

media projects on water in Texas that

have emerged in the past few years.

Last year South by Southwest pre-

miered Yakona, an impressionistic

feature-length film about San Marcos

Springs. Written on Water: An Ogalla-la Chronicle, a short documentary on

the impending demise of the Ogallala

Aquifer in the Texas Panhandle, will be

released next year. I’m inspired by the

people I’ve met who are able to look

beyond their projects and their brands

to collaborate in the name of the waters

that remain, and the people who de-

pend on them.

If I’ve learned anything in the last two

years of working on this project, it’s

that if there is any way for us to solve

this, it is through people realizing how

much we depend on one another for our

water. Some of the water we use here in

Austin starts hundreds of miles west on

ranches near San Angelo—for Texans to

have sustainable water, we have to re-

ward sustainable practices across entire

groundwater basins and watersheds, lit-

erally thousands of square miles. It’s an

overwhelming proposition, and one that

many people think is impossible. The

people who don’t believe we can work

on this together would say that we don’t

need rivers, that we can just build de-

salination plants and pipelines to bring

water to where it’s needed. But I know

after swimming with my dad that there

are some things that only a flowing river

can give us—a deep connection to one

another, to our past, and to our future.

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The Internet of Things:The Future of Wearable Tech

About Jen Quinlan,Vice President of Marketing

at Rithmio, Inc.

@QuirkyInsider

Jen brings a decade of interactive and software

experience serving Fortune 500 brands across

startup and agency roles. Prior to working at Rith-

mio, Jen served as the Vice President of Marketing

and Innovation at Mutual Mobile, an emerging tech

agency, where she was responsible for marketing, in-

novation, and new business programs. Jen is passion-

ate about wearable technology and strives to facilitate

dialogue about building better wearable tech products

that are useful and usable for people.

Jen QuinlanPhoto by: Danie Selby

Written by: Jen Quinlan

I have a confession to make. Despite my

specialization in wearable technology, I

haven’t worn my FitBit in months. I’m not

the only one.

Many people found the first wave of

wearables came up short. Entry-level price

points were high, form factors were clunky,

and accuracy left a lot to be desired. It’s no

wonder there was a 30 percent return rate

and high product abandonment after six

months.

Companies have found that getting wear-

ables right is a tall order. To be truly useful,

usable, and desirable for people, wearable

tech products will see vast improvements

in the coming years. Here are a few ways

they’ll get better:

The Internet of Things

Jen QuinlanPhoto by: Danie Selby

“Between conductive fabrics and sensor-clad smart garments, wearables will intertwine so closely with fashion we won’t be able to distinguish them.”

The Internet of Things

InvisibleMoore’s Law contends that as compo-

nents get smaller, products gain effi-

ciency and become more powerful. In

other words, you can think of current

wearables as a boombox on your wrist.

Between conductive fabrics and sen-

sor-clad smart garments, wearables will

intertwine so closely with fashion we

won’t be able to distinguish them.

Companies like AiQ Clothing and Hexo-

skin are already paving the way with

biometric garments that measure your

body’s vitals. Future wearables could

be more hidden by adding a thin film

inside your favorite jewelry to measure

vitals and activity levels, and even let

you know when you’ve been typing at a

keyboard too long.

PersonalizedFrom wedding bands to Invisalign, ob-

jects worn on the body 24/7 are highly

personal. Unless the product addresses

a critical medical need—like using a

hearing aid for hearing problems—it

is unlikely that a single wearable will

be desirable enough to be worn all the

time.

Take a note from companies like Cuff

or Misfit that employ a personalized

approach to wearable tech. Their tech-

nology nestles inside an array of jewelry

you can choose from and wear each day.

Wearables are now a part of the jewelry

legacy, and should be thought of as both

tech gadget and fashion statement.

EfficientAlternative forms of energy to power

wearables are on the rise. In December

2014, Tommy Hilfiger launched clothing

with solar cells to charge devices. We’ve

seen kinetic energy–powered gadgets

from AMPY to Austin’s own Every-

where Energy. A personal favorite is

the Peltier Ring by Sean Hodgins, which

leverages body heat to power small LED

lights on a ring. While energy advance-

ments require more polish to achieve

commercial viability, they’ll be on your

wrist sooner than you think.

AccurateFrom your kids’ GPA to your own body’s

BMI, our culture is getting more da-

ta-oriented across many aspects of life.

Approximations of how many steps you

walked will no longer suffice as people

demand accurate data from their devic-

es—including wearables.

Page 22

We have yet to see industry standards

emerge to set wearable tech manufactur-

er guidelines and advocate on consumers’

behalf. I anticipate advocacy boards will

be formed to evaluate devices and require

brands to deliver accuracy percentage guar-

antees. Imagine a label on a Jawbone UP24

box with a “99.5% accurate gesture tracking”

guarantee.

SecureMarketers salivate at the prospect of push-

ing wearables that advertise to you around

the clock. As ad revenues dwindle in tradi-

tional media formats, next-generation devic-

es offer brands a new opportunity to target

people like we’ve never seen before.

Savvy consumers will demand the ability

to set specific permission settings on their

devices to structure who, what, where, and

when they can be found and disturbed.

Picture smartwatch settings that configure

push notifications from only your partner,

child’s school, and mother between nine to

five Monday through Friday.

Consumers will also need to play an active

role in keeping their body’s data private.

Optimal experiences for wearables will be

contingent consumers being well-informed

and demanding certain settings or privacy.

SentientIn Spike Jonze’s movie Her, Samantha ex-

plains how she works as: “Intuition...What

makes me me is my ability to grow through

my experiences. Basically, in every moment

I’m evolving, just like you.”

Even Furbies back in 1998 could learn new

things, so why is it that $150 activity trackers

can’t currently learn new activities like jump-

ing rope, lifting a kettlebell, or salsa dancing?

Our interests evolve. Our wearables need to

be able to evolve, too. The single-feature pe-

The Internet of Things

Jen QuinlanPhoto by: Danie Selby

Page 23

The Internet of Things

dometers of today’s activity-tracking market

won’t sustain for much longer.

MultipointThe wearable tech conversation will quickly

shift from discussion of your one, sole wear-

able to the intricate system of sensors on

your body at any point in time. Already we are

wearing an activity tracker and have a smart-

phone in our purses; both of these devices are

gathering motion-sensing data through the

accelerometer and gyroscope inside. Technol-

ogists are working on ways to derive meaning

from multiple sensors on the body at one time,

to give us a holistic view of how our bodies are

moving or performing across multiple devices

and sensors.

SeamlessI’m excited to see what happens when wear-

ables converge with connected homes to drive

efficiencies without having to tap a button on

a screen. Imagine approaching your home’s

door with groceries in hand, and the heartbeat

signature via your wearable signals the door’s

smart lock to unlock. Then, while crossing your

living room, a sensor in your wrist wearable

notices your core body temperature is above

average and automatically interacts with your

Nest thermostat to trigger the air-condition-

ing. Your wearable might also include a sensor

to detect hydration levels, and trigger your

smart refrigerator to pour a glass of water for

you as you enter the kitchen to unload your

groceries.

While it is premature to predict specific fea-

tures or form factors that will prevail in the

future, wearable tech presents a fascinating

field to study. Opportunities abound not only

for highly personalized wearable experiences

but also for breakthrough medical advance-

ments and—unfortunately—unsurmounted

marketing nuisances. One thing’s for sure:

Innovations like these are only in their infancy,

and like the technologies before them, they’ll

evolve with user adoption to make products

that are useful, usable, and desirable for every-

one.

Want to watch the future of wearable tech unfold?Check out some of these leading edge companies making wearable tech fashionable and useful:

AiQ Clothing Hexoskin Cuff Misfit

And don’t miss out on the Central Texas World Future Society meetups on the third Tuesday of every month!

Page 24

Arduino Wearables: Customize Your Clothing with Colored Lights!

ASK VELMA

Kassandra is a developer, crafter, and gamer

living in Austin, TX. Her days are spent at

RetailMeNot, where she slings JavaScript

and tries to make developer processes

easier. Her nights and weekends are spent

slinging more JavaScript, teaching for Girl

Develop It!, and re-learning how to roller

skate. She’s an unrepentant JS addict, and

is especially interested in JS robotics/hard-

ware.

About Kassandra Perch

@nodebotanist

Photos courtesy of Kassandra Perch

Page 25Page 24

Arduino Wearables

Written by: Kassandra Perch

Everyone has their own personal fashion

style—colors they like, their favorite cloth,

and so on. Thanks to the Maker move-

ment and the availability and ease-of-use

of microcontrollers today, we can now

sew electronics into clothing that we can

change at will. In this tutorial, I’m going to

show you how to sew individually address-

able RGB (Red, Green, Blue) LEDs into

cloth and teach you the basics of program-

ming them.

You can use this skill in many ways. For

instance, I have a skirt, shoes, and a bean-

ie that contain RGB LEDs that react to

both environmental data, such as light

and movement, and Internet data, such as

favorites from Twitter.

Supplies You’ll Need

You’ll need a few things to get started. You

can get all of these items online at Adafruit

or SparkFun.

Individually addressable RGB LEDs:

These aren’t just normal RGB LEDs. Unlike

their regular RGB counterparts, individu-

ally addressable LEDs only use three pins

for as many LEDs as you would like to use.

Normal RGB LEDs use three analog pins

and one ground or power pin for each in-

dividual LED. Adafruit has their own brand

of these called the NeoPixel. My favorite

kind to use for sewing are the Flora RGB

Smart NeoPixel version 2. I’ll use four

in this project, and if you’re going to use

more than that, you’re going to need to

take power into consideration.

Arduino board: I’m going to use the Ardu-

ino Micro, but almost any Arduino-com-

patible board should do. However, be

careful when picking a board: While size

is definitely a consideration, some small

Arduinos do not possess the processing

speed or RAM needed to control multiple

NeoPixels. With a quick Google search,

you can usually find out more about using

individually addressable LEDs with any

specific Arduino model. If you can get a

board without headers, we can sew into

the pins and not have to worry about

soldering onto headers or incorporating a

breadboard into our design.

“Thanks to the Maker movement and the availability and ease-of-use of microcontrollers today, we can now sew electronics into clothing that we can change at will.”

Page 26

Page 28

Arduino Wearables

Conductive thread: This special thread

conducts electricity and is a great way

to incorporate circuits into fabric. I like

two-ply (I find three-ply stiffer and more

difficult to sew with) but use what’s right

for you. One bobbin of thread should be

more than enough for a small wearables

project like this.

3.7V Coin Cell battery holder with on/off

switch: This is my preferred way to power

my wearables projects: It’s small and fairly

cheap, and works well. You could also

invest in a rechargeable lithium polymer

battery if you’re willing to spend a little

more.

Sewing needle: One with a long eye is

nice, as conductive thread is a little thick-

er than normal sewing thread.

Garment to enhance with LEDs: I like

skirts for these because movement makes

the lights look amazing, but work with

what suits you. Just be thoughtful: If you

pick something like shoes, you’ll need to

consider additional aspects like water-

proofing. You don’t necessarily need to

use a garment of clothing, either. Back-

packs, purses, and scarves work well, or

you could even make yourself a pin or

bracelet.

Small piece of fabric and regular thread:

This is to sew a pocket for the battery

pack. If you’re using an Arduino board

with headers on a breadboard, make sure

the pocket is large enough for that, too.

Skills You’ll Need

Very basic sewing: The basic through

stitch works just fine for this project.

No need to get too fancy, as conductive

thread can be fragile.

Through-hole soldering: We’ll attach the

battery pack to the Arduino by soldering.

However, if your Arduino has headers, a

barrel connector, or even a JST connec-

tor, you could use these instead to avoid

soldering. Just be sure to buy a battery

holder with your connector on it.

Some C programming: Arduinos are pro-

grammed in C, a very low-level language.

If you’ve programmed before, you should

be able to grasp the programming we’ll

use in this project by following along.

Getting Started

Gather all your supplies and think about

your design, taking the following into

consideration: Can I sew in my microcon-

troller, or does it need a breadboard or

soldering? Where will the batteries go?

Can I put a pocket there? Can I access the

battery pack easily from the pocket, so I

can turn this project off and on? Will the

LEDs on the outside be visible? Where do

I want my LEDs?

This is important because while conduc-

tive thread can conduct electricity, it

doesn’t work so great over large distanc-

es. If you have large distances (more than

a few inches) between your LEDs, consid-

er doubling up on thread.

When placing your LEDs, you want to ar-

range them in a specific way; you want the

OUT pin of the first to point toward the

Page 27

Arduino Wearables

IN pin of the next. You should also put the

+ and - pins on the same side of each LED

relative to each other. This is crucial to

allowing you to sew your circuits without

crossing threads.

Once I’ve decided on a design, what I like

to do next is assemble a “rough draft”:

I pin the microcontroller, battery pack

pocket, and LEDs to the garment, then

pick it up and move it around. Does it

stretch a bunch? That might be an issue

for the not-so-stretchy thread. Does it

fail to move like you think it should? Try

adjusting your arrangement early on, as it

will be much harder to do so later.

Another consideration is your thread sew-

ing paths. You’ll need to provide power,

ground, and signal to the LEDs, and they

absolutely must not cross. Keep this in

mind while positioning your components.

The diagram below shows what our circuit

will look like to a degree to assist in your

planning.

Start Sewing

There are usually large holes on micro-

controllers intended to be used to mount

the microcontroller to a surface. I like to

take normal sewing thread and use these

to place my microcontroller before sew-

ing my circuit. If your controller doesn’t

have these holes, you can use a piece of

double-sided tape on the back to hold it in

place while you sew your circuit.

Next we’ll sew the ground. I usually tie a

knot through the GND pinhole of the mi-

crocontroller, then sew it the fabric three

Page 28

to four times. Make sure your stitches are

tight, as contact is important. Then start

working your way through the fabric to

the pinhole of the first addressable LED in

the chain. Loop through the pinhole three

to four times, making sure it’ll stay in con-

tact. Then, without tying off, start working

toward the GND pin in the next LED in the

chain. Repeat these steps until you reach

the end, then tie off and cut your thread. I

like to use clear nail polish on the knot, as

you need to cut the tail as short as possi-

ble in order to prevent it from wandering

and touching another thread, and nail

polish works kind of like glue.

The 5V/power side is done the same way,

starting at the 5V pin of your Arduino

(3.3v is fine if you lack a 5V pin) and work-

ing toward the + pin of each RGB LED in

the chain. Just like the GND side, do not

tie off and cut the thread between each

LED; they should be connected by one

continuous chain of thread.

The signal is done slightly differently—

you’ll notice the last two pins on each LED

are marked IN and OUT. Start by sewing

into any digital or analog output pin on

your Arduino (I use pin 3 in this example),

then sew to the IN pin of the first LED.

Loop through these three to four times

as usual, then tie off and cut the thread.

Next, restart at the OUT pin of the first

LED, and work your way to the IN pin of

the next LED. Repeat to the end of the

chain, leaving the OUT pin of the last LED

unsewn.

Programming Your LEDs

First, if you haven’t already, download and

install the Arduino IDE from http://www.

arduino.cc/en/Main/Software. You’ll also

want to check out the FastLED library at

fastled.io. It’s a great way to get started

with addressable RGB LEDs.

Download the library using their link, and

place the folder in your Arduino Libraries

folder. On OS X, this is in your home folder

under Documents / Arduino / Libraries;

on Windows it’s under “My Documents”

in Arduino / Libraries. Then, if Arduino is

open, close it out and and reopen.

When you go to the file menu in the IDE,

click on “Examples” and a submenu should

pop up. In it will be an option for “Fas-

tLED.” Click there, and under the many

examples that pop up, select “Cylon.”

We’re going to need to make a few chang-

es to this to work with our LEDs. First, on

line 4, change NUM_LEDS to reflect the

number of LEDs you have sewn in. Then,

Arduino Wearables

Page 29

Arduino Wearables

on line 9, change the DATA_PIN from 6 to

3.

Next open the “Tools” menu, choose

“Board,” and make sure you’ve chosen

your model of Arduino. Then, under

“Tools,” choose “Serial Port.” Look at the

list, and remember what’s in it. Close the

menu and use a USB connection to con-

nect your Arduino to the computer. Now

go back to the Serial Port list and you’ll

see a new entry. Go ahead and select it. (If

there are two, one starting with cu. and

one starting with tty., select either.)

Hit “Upload,” and your lights should start

animating!

What’s Next?

There are lots of great examples and doc-

umentation for FastLED—your next steps

will be to start digging around and trying

out new functions!

You can also try making new garments

with other microcontrollers: The Spark

Core/Photon and Electric Imp are particu-

larly interesting, WiFi-connected choices

you can explore.

And finally—enjoy your new wardrobe!

Page 30 Page 30

Visit Adafruit’s NeoPixel Uberguide to learn more about the products and process outlined in Kassandra’s tutorial.

Also be sure to check out local Maker groups to learn more about the Maker movement in Austin and get inspired! (We’ve got a list of ones Velma recommends on page 56.)

Want to dive deeper into the world of wearable LEDs that you can build yourself?

Page 3

Jessica LowryPhoto by: Michael Mallard

Imagine Designing the Future of Austin Streets Using Your Phone

About Jessica Lowry, CEO & founder of Clave, LLC

@jeslowry

Founder & CEO of Clave, LLC

Jess has worked in software for over ten

years and specialises in UX design and re-

search. Her passion for service design and

civic tech led her to start her own company in

2012.

Written by: Jessica Lowry

Every summer when I was a kid, my dad packed us into

the car and drove my older sister and me from Toron-

to, Canada, to Long Island, New York. Our 542-mile

road trip was the highlight of my entire year. My sister

always wanted the front seat, and I was blissful in the

back taking up the entire row with my pillows, Game

Boy, Walkman, and easy access to the cooler stored

behind my dad in the driver’s seat. It was heaven.

I think what I liked the most about our annual road

trip was observing what was new and what remained

untouched. Small towns throughout southern Ontario

and New York State were these quaint places of per-

manence. Every year we stopped in Elmira, NY, which

was roughly our halfway point. We’d eat at the same

Pizza Hut and get ice cream at the same mom-and-pop

shop. But once we neared New York City, everything

changed. As a really small kid I knew we were entering

the city limits because my dad made a point of check-

ing that the car doors were locked. In Queens we’d

pass abandoned cars that had been stripped for parts

and set on fire. It was like witnessing scenes from an

apocalyptic movie as we rolled through each borough.

And then, like the sky clearing from a storm, we’d enter

Long Island and all of its sprawling suburbs. Everything

lacked charm and character. There was so much space

and so little imagination. And then, finally, we’d make it

all the way to the end of Long Island where we’d stay at

the beach and every day I’d imagine myself in a Calvin

Klein perfume commercial.

Leaving Toronto was almost as fun as returning to it.

I was your typical city kid, knowing each and every

street in my neighborhood. My friends and I rode our

bikes like warriors hunting for new places to explore.

By the time we were teenagers we ran out of new plac-

The Future of Austin Streets

Image courtesy of: CLAVE, LLC Page 33

Page 35

The Future of Austin Streets

Jessica LowryPhoto by: Michael Mallard

es and headed downtown.

In my career working in software and online services

I have been able to use these early honed anthropo-

logical skills. I fell into user experience (UX) like you

might stumble upon a good book. I’d been working in

a supportive role on software projects for nearly five

years when I found myself asking questions about

why certain design decisions were being made and

how design affects the users’ ability to enjoy an ex-

perience. These days I observe people just like way

back when I watched the world unfold in the back-

seat of my dad’s car, but now I’m no longer satisfied

being a bystander.

One of my favorite UX research tools is rapid pa-

per-prototyping. When I first start working with

clients, I like to form a mental model of their ex-

pectations. Before we get into technology, I need

to understand what image they imagine. Sketching

allows us to collaborate on ideas without getting

stuck on terminology, technology, or financial con-

straints. We use pictures to guide us to a shared

understanding. And it’s at that point I can start to

conceptualize a software solution that matches

my client’s needs and expectations. I used this

technique as the inspiration for Key to the Street,

a service that capitalizes on the power of images

to collect city planning research data. My theory is

that if you can get over language and focus instead

on imagining an ideal future for city streets, it’s

possible to implement change in the right way.

When I moved to Austin in 2012, I experienced a

culture shock. I’ve never lived in a place where I

needed a car; I’ve always explored on foot. Walk-

ing gives me a tactile relationship to a place. I’m

The Future of Austin Streets

able to develop connections and form a

map in my head. It’s how I learn to navigate

on instinct and make sense of my sur-

roundings. For me, the places I live become

characters with distinct personalities.

Highways are not places, but rather routes

that connect places. A highway cutting

through a city is like a moat encircling a

castle. The barriers created by car-centric

urban design interrupt the natural flow

of daily life. Highways within cities create

more congestion than they solve because

the purpose of a highway is to connect vast

distances (not short commutes). Public

transportation, on the other hand, provides

“My theory is that if you can get over language and focus instead on imag-ining an ideal future for city streets, it’s possible to implement change in the right way. “

Jessica LowryPhoto by: Michael Mallard

Check out this product demo of Jess’s app, Key to the Street, to find out how to come up with new ideas to redesign our streets!

Want to help Jess bring the streets of Austin back to the people?

adequate speed and service for local commuting.

When I look around Austin, all I see are opportunities for better flow. A more human-centered ap-

proach will transform Austin into a place to explore and know intimately. When you travel on I-35,

you could be anywhere, but when you’re walking on 6th Street, you know you’re in Austin.

I designed Key to the Street as a tool for unlocking Austin’s distinct personality. As a web-based

prototyping service, it provides everyone with the ability to sketch and share their improvement

ideas. The reporting and data collected by Key to the Street allows city planners to make incremental

decisions that they can validate in real time. This is a radical departure from the traditional model

that takes six months or more and costs tens of thousand of dollars to execute.

Anyone can participate at any stage of the idea generation process. Users take photos of a street or

Page 36

space they think needs to be redesigned and collaborate online in order to build upon ideas. The

ability to collaborate is one of the major differences between a service like Key to the Street and

311. Text-based services require all users to use the same language to participate; however, too

often, industry lingo and acronyms confuse non-specialists and create a barrier for participation.

Currently, if you want to share your ideas for the future of Austin, you need to look up a meeting

time with an appropriate group at the City of Austin and hope for an opportunity to address the

room. Or perhaps you’re given Post-it notes to share feedback of proposed solutions presented on

a bristol board. But what about all the people outside that room? How can ideas flourish if they’re

restricted to a particular community planning meeting? What about all the people who can’t afford

the luxury of attending an Imagine Austin workshop because they have to work, take care of their

families, or both?

For me, the future of Austin is a walkable place that is continually striving to improve and innovate

every street to welcome everybody. And I think tools like Key to the Street are the way we’ll collab-

orate on the future of Austin together.

The Future of Austin Streets

Jessica LowryPhotos by: Michael Mallard

Try barre3 barre3, a global network of studios and the innovative leader of the white-hot, ballet barre fitness movement, is taking over central Texas!

Early fall 2014, the Circle C location joins thriving Downtown and Hill Country Galleria studios, pro-

viding Austinites with even more options for accessing the company’s beloved combination of yoga,

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body. Clearly barre3’s bright, bold, and boundless workout style and whole-health approach to fitness

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Based on the importance of a balanced lifestyle, barre3 classes are designed to be accessible and trans-

form the body through a focus on strength, grace, and whole-body wellness. Founded by renowned

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tions is offered for every posture, allowing all fitness levels to maximize the workout while remaining

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The new Circle C location is conveniently located in South Austin (5700 W. Slaughter Lane). barre3

Austin Downtown is located in the heart of the city steps from the infamous Hike and Bike trail. For

those living in west Austin, the barre3 Hill Country Galleria studio is across from Iron Cactus in the

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ness advocates, striving to make fitness accessible to all. barre3 clients can take classes at any of the

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Spring Awakening: Emerging from America’s Winter with Smart City Planning

Rebecca Ryan

Part futurist, part economist, and

always engaging, Rebecca is one of

America’s most influential thought

leaders, helping cities and com-

panies think around the corner to

what’s next.

@ngcrebeccaPhoto courtesy of Rebecca Ryan

Page 39

Page 40

Written by: Rebecca Ryan

As we look to our own futures and those of

the coming generations, we’ve got to keep

in mind that our actions and decisions now

shape the course our community takes

down the road. To gain some insight into

what lies ahead for us, and to understand

more behind the concept of the “smart city”

(see Velma’s feature interview with city

planner Christine Freundl), Velma spoke

with economist and futurist Rebecca Ryan,

founder of Next Generation Consulting and

author of some truly insightful books on the

future of our country and our communities.

Rebecca describes America as seasonal;

we go through cycles of winters, springs,

summers, and falls each with their own

unique and consistent qualities. Each season

lasts about twenty years, and winter is the

hardest part of the cycle. In her latest book,

ReGENERATION: A Manifesto for America’s Next Leaders, she writes, “Seasons are na-

ture’s cycle of regeneration, a reminder that

there’s an order to things, there are things

that are larger than me. Larger than you.”

Rebecca says, not surprisingly, that even

though technology advancements have ex-

ceeded anyone’s expectations, America has

been suffering through a period of winter—

one of survival and a bit of fear—for more

than ten years now. And in order to get to

spring—a period of promise and hope—we

as a community need to confront some

harsh realities and make decisions for the

future. “Americans alive during this winter

have a noble task: to think and work and act

not for ourselves (because many of us may

not be alive when spring comes again). We

must act with the wisdom and grace to do

our best for our children, and theirs.”

While this sentiment rings true, it’s often

difficult to look beyond our own circum-

stances and situations and put future gener-

ations’ welfare before our own comfort and

consistency. Rebecca, though, is confident

that with we have what it takes to make it to

Spring Awakening

“Americans alive during this winter have a noble task: to think and work and act not for ourselves...”

Page 40

a spring filled with warmth, promise, and

community.

One of the most important ways we can

begin to emerge from this dark, cold

winter, Rebecca suggests, starts at the city

level: by electing local leaders and policy-

makers who will work for the future, lever-

age new technologies to help with problem

solving, and make our cities smarter and

more adaptable.

So what makes a smart city? According to

Rebecca, there are three key components

to successful urban planning of the future.

1. Interdisciplinary

The best cities are going to be those that

don’t consider city-planning departments

to be discrete units operating separately

in the same building. Rather, they’ll be the

ones who take a multifaceted, interdis-

ciplinary approach to solving repetitive

problems. Combining the resources, brains,

and perspectives of a multitude of depart-

ments and skill sets will prevent narrow-fo-

cused, one-sided patterns and decisions.

2. Data-Driven

Smart cities will take the planning out of

the hands of interest groups and opin-

ion-based propositions, and instead look

to Big Data and new technologies for real

answers to solve the real problems. Using

facts and statistics to make decisions rath-

er than the interests of a small but loud and

powerful subset means a smarter, more

sustainable city.

3. Collective (Impact)

Complex social problems need to be

solved, and the way they’re being ap-

proached by

our leaders has historically been much

too isolated and fragmented to make any

real progress. By combining resources in

government, business, and community, and

leveraging technological advancements,

lasting change to social problems is possi-

ble.

When asked where our own Austin stands

within this concept of a “smart city” work-

ing toward interdisciplinary, data-driven,

collective problem solving, Rebecca is

eager to praise some of our community’s

leaders for their forward-thinking, innova-

tive practices and processes—leaders like

Christine Freundl, who, rather than being

caught in a cycle of making the same wrong

decisions for the same wrong reasons, look

to new ways of solving complex problems

leveraging technological and human re-

sources.

While there’s still room for improvement,

with time, Austin will likely emerge as a

leader in smart cities and help America

thaw into the hopefulness and promise of

our next spring.

Spring Awakening

Page 41

Pick up her latest book, ReGENERATION: A Manifesto for America’s Next Leaders (2013), and find out what’s next for America.

Want to hear more from Rebecca?

Page 42

The Future of Austin Is a Smart CityChristine Freundl

Photo by: Danie Selby

Technology providers aren’t the only ones thinking about the future; cities

have to constantly think about future growth and how human interactions

with the city will evolve. Velma sat down with city planner Christine Freundl

to chat about Austin’s future as a smart city.

CHRISTINE: I got out of architec-

ture school and I ran down my really

awesome unpaid internship for as

long [as] I could be there because I

was doing awesome stuff. I took a

job at a firm where the principal was

a developer and [then] an architect,

so he really pushed the developer

side of it. So we were making some

really inferior buildings—7-Elevens,

Starbucks (which are not necessarily

always bad buildings, but we were

doing it in the worst way possible)—

land jumping, leapfrogging, just per-

petuating sprawl. I would go in and

try to have conversations with him

about how [we] could be more con-

servative about what we were doing,

with more conservation and sustain-

ability, and I would just hit a brick

wall every time. I ended up quitting

that job, and that experience pushed

me into urban design as opposed to

architecture because I knew whatev-

er we were doing, we could be doing

it a lot better.

I went back to graduate school and

really enjoyed urban design; I was

in this really cool graduate program

in downtown Detroit. Our senior

year we worked directly with under-

served communities in Detroit to

provide urban design services, and

my thesis project was on this really

underserved poor community in

Detroit that was trying to create a

tourist economy through crafts and

urban gardening and urban farming.

We worked with them to create a

master plan for how we could take all

these handmade crafts—this dying

VELMA: Tell us a little about what you’ve done throughout your career to bring cities into the future.

Smart City

Christine Freundl, Project Coordinator at City of AustinSpecialties: Architecture, Urban Design, Community Planning, Community WorkshopsConnect on LinkedIn

Page 44

Smart City

industry, something that people

could do and [already] had in De-

troit—and turn it into an economy

full of craft-natured tourism for their

community so it could help teach

people skills and at the same time

bring some revenue into the com-

munity. Shortly after that, I decided

that I didn’t want to work in Detroit

anymore because I didn’t think peo-

ple were really on track yet for doing

what needed to get done, so I started

looking around the United States,

and Austin was one of the few places

that was actually doing urban design

and had resources dedicated to it.

“Smart cities are smart because they realize that there isn’t just one discipline that goes into building a city and that there has to be a conversation between all of them.”

Christine FreundlPhoto by Danie Selby

VELMA: How did you get your start with the city?

CHRISTINE: I came to work for the

city in the urban design division,

which Austin is very lucky to have.

There are very few cities in the Unit-

ed States that even have a division

like this that is design professionals

devoted to just city building. I took

over the transit-oriented develop-

ment program, so I helped oversee all

of the development that was going in

along the Red Line stations for Cap-

ital Metro. Once I finished there, I—

actually recently—moved over to the

economic development department

and I’m now a project coordinator on

the Mueller redevelopment.

Page 44 Page 45

Smart City

CHRISTINE: As project coordinator for Mueller,

we have a public-private partnership between the

city of Austin and Catellus. The city owns the land

and they hold it for Catellus, and as the market

allows, Catellus takes the land down, and then the

city builds it for them tax free. As the land devel-

ops out, we collect the increased revenue off of

the land so it comes back to the city. Long story

short, there’s an entire master-plan design guide-

book that makes Mueller different from the rest

of the city. In that design book, we had to make

almost 120 deviations from city code because you

just couldn’t build that type of development per

what’s existing in the city right now. So the city

has its own design book and it essentially has its

own code. Departmentally, we work directly with

Catellus, the private development community...to

implement that plan.

VELMA: What are you doing in your current role in the Austin city government?

Austin was one of the few

places

that was actually

doing urban

design and had resources

dedicated

to it.

VELMA: What do you mean when you say “smart city”? What does that term mean to you?

CHRISTINE: Smart cities are smart because they

realize that there isn’t just one discipline that

goes into building a city and that there has to be

a conversation between all of them. For instance,

Mueller can’t exist unless there is some sort of

coordination and discussion going on interdepart-

mentally by the development community. If it was

just one department—our department—trying to

implement this, it would never work. Smart cities

understand that it’s [a] multidisciplinary effort.

Smart City

Page 47

CHRISTINE: Austin has made leaps and bounds forward, but I think it’s still a fact that cities

move slow. They’re big. They’re large. They’re not nimble or quick. In being big and large it

takes a long time for change because it’s the difference between trying to get a squirrel to

move in a different direction and an elephant; the elephant takes a lot more effort to move but

when it does, it’s usually a very big change. I think Austin’s still suffering a little bit from the

mistakes we made twenty to thirty years ago, and it takes a long time to make those changes

for the future. We’re just now benefiting from changes that happened ten years ago. Mueller’s

design book and master plan was written twelve years ago, so…

VELMA: Where does Austin fall short of that “smart city” mark, in your opinion?

VELMA: What types of existing technology will transform Austin into a smart city?

CHRISTINE: One of the projects that I used to work on for the city was the Downtown Way-

finding project. It hasn’t been implemented yet, but it’s a really fascinating project, and one

of the things that I discovered is that there are vast amounts of information out there being

collected on all these different things, but there’s not a good way to share them. You have the

county collecting information on crime, ped[estrian] crashes, bicycle crashes. You have the

city collecting data on how many people are using an intersection, but when it comes down to

the county getting with the city to improve the intersection, there’s not a good way for them

to share that information because it’s all being collected by different sources. I think a smart

city of the future will understand, will try and figure out a way to make that more accessible,

not just interagency but also to the public.

VELMA: What technology do we need that doesn’t exist yet to become a smart city?

CHRISTINE: People are so fascinated with city building now, not like they used to be. I think it

really has moved into the tech age with apps that you can start looking [at] a street differently

and start collecting information. There are concierge apps, so when you get to a city, you don’t

need to have a tour guide to get around. There are historical tours. What would be great in

the future is more of the consolidation of information I talked about before. If there’s a com-

prehensive way to explore the city that brings all these different resources together, I think

that would be fascinating.

CHRISTINE: It’s been around forev-

er, but GIS (geographic information

system) is so fascinating with what

it can do now and the breadth of the

many people who are using it. When

it first came out, you could do topog-

raphy, have some political boundar-

ies and rivers, and that was all great

geodata. But now, in that Downtown

Wayfinding program we were figur-

ing out that transportation could ac-

tually use geospatial data to pinpoint

where the [street] signs are, and that

connects with 311, and 311 could

tell them to send a crew out, just

from the geospatial data of someone

looking at a pole and seeing that the

light on the pole is out. It just makes

the city more usable for people.

Page 48

VELMA: What technology excites you most as a city plan-ner?

Like Christine, Velma’s readers also dream of Austin’s future as a smart,sustainable, forward-thinking city that

leads the West in long-term, strategic urban planning.

Look into Imagine Austin’s events and programs,

so you can help our community build toward a more connected, more sustainable, more creative, and more affordable Austin.

Stop dreaming and start acting! Make getting involved your New Year’s resolution.

Page 48

Smart City

CHRISTINE: Hopefully a lot denser and with a lot better transportation—I

mean public transit. I hope [for] that for Austin. It’s only going to keep grow-

ing and in twenty years I hope to see a city that grew responsibly and under-

stood where it was going early on, accepted that change, and tried to steer it

in a good direction.

Christine FreundlPhoto by Danie Selby

“I think Austin’s still suffering a little bit from the mistakes we made twenty to thirty years ago, and it takes a long time to make those changes for the future.”

VELMA: When you envision Austin twenty years from now, what does it look like to you?

Being a storyteller at heart, I think one of the greatest things about

photography is the way it freezes a single moment in time that will never

occur again.

I seek to capture the beauty that lies just beneath the surface of those

distinctive moments in life. Live life to the fullest, let the moments happen,

and the stories will tell themselves.

Michael Mallard – www.mallardshots.com

Velma’s Featured ContributorMichael Mallard, Photographer

Velma’sBack Pages

Velma features stories about women in Austin working within the tech/startup industry. Velma embodies smart, talented women who aren’t afraid of saying the wrong thing, and our readers are too busy getting things done to notice they’re breaking through barriers.

Since our readers are so busy, Velma provides resources for the following

activities:

connectdiscover

eat & drinkspend

Velma Jobs Board

Velma Magazine helps students on the professional track practice tech-

niques, broaden skills, and advance their job qualifications as a part of the

required coursework. Each internship runs for six months and requires a

time commitment of ten to fifteen hours per month. If you’d like to apply,

please send an email with cover letter, portfolio, and resume to staff@velmamagazine.com

Journalism InternshipVelma is looking for a smart, fast-thinking intern well versed in current

tech trends and eager to learn the ways of Velma’s editorial team. You’ll

be reporting to Velma’s lead editor, who shepherds our monthly article

production strategy. Most of your time will be spent assisting the editors

and following up with writers. You’ll be expected to perform at a high

level with short turnarounds—and love it!

Design InternshipDo you love creating original designs using Photoshop, Illustrator, and

InDesign? If so, you’ll be able to assist Velma’s design team in layout

and design of our magazine. Candidates must have a strong portfolio of

previous layout work and must be able to prove proficiency in InDesign

to do quick, accurate styles. We’re looking for talented, creative, inspiring

individuals!

Communications InternshipSupport Velma’s communications team by researching inquiries and

responding to comments from fans via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest,

YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, and emails; assisting with special events; and

working with the Velma editorial team. Duties will also include admin-

istration for the communications team lead, in addition to maintaining

contact lists and behavior analytics tracking.

Resources - Connect

Page 54

Page 54

Imagine Austin Meetup

Imagine living in a complete community. Imagine Austin envisions that

for all Austinites. This comprehensive plan helps address Austin’s most

pressing issues and guides how our city transforms in the future. The

plan, adopted in 2012, was co-created to reflect Austin’s values and

aspirations. Today, Imagine Austin is being “co-implemented” with contri-

butions throughout the city.

More info: http://www.meetup.com/Imagine-Austin/

The Maker Co-Op

A group of Austin Artists and Makers who find it much more helpful (and

fun) when we team up. Collectively, we craft our high-quality handmade

goods from paintbrushes, pencils, silk screens, sewing machines, hand

tools, and lasers—yes, lasers. Mostly, we’re passionate about our work

and we’re delighted to be sharing it with you.

More info: http://themakercoop.com/

Austin Futurist Meetup

The next three to forty years will undoubtedly bring unprecedented

changes to all aspects of humanity. This group seeks to engage in serious

analysis of what the future might hold.

More info: http://www.meetup.com/Austin-Futurists/

Resources - Discover

Page 56

Central Texas World Future Society

The Central Texas World Future Society is a nonprofit educational and

networking organization. Our members come from all walks of life,

professions, ages, and experiences. We are drawn together by a common

desire to learn how emerging issues, disruptive technologies, ongoing

trends, and current events interact to shape our collective future.

More info: http://www.meetup.com/CentralTexasWorldFutureSociety/

Resources - Discover

Page 56 Page 57

The Silo on 7th

A perfect spot to spend a Sunday afternoon or an evening after work, Silo

on 7th is a relaxed, friendly local spot with a massive bar that can accom-

modate any drink order. Plus, they have the best burgers on the East Side.

Where: 1300 East 7th Street, Austin, TX

More info: http://www.siloonseventh.com/

School House Pub

“The theme is carried out from start to finish creating a really great envi-

ronment!”—Yelp Reviewer

Where: 2207 Manor Road, Austin, TX

More info: http://www.schoolhousepub.com/

Nomad Bar

Geeks Who Drink Trivia every Thursday night!

Where: 1213 Corona Drive, Austin, TX

More info: http://nomadbar.com/

Resources - Eat & Drink

Page 59

Golden Bones Boutique and Salon

Owners Bijou Finney and Kassi have known each other since high school

and started Golden Bones Boutique and Salon in 2012. The shop is your

one-stop for wardrobe styling, hair, and makeup.

Where: 1601 W. Koenig Lane

More info: http://www.goldenbonesatx.com/

Support Velma!

Velma is raising funds to cover the cost of producing monthly issues of

the magazine for distribution via the Apple Store and Google Play. Every

dollar helps us reach our goal of engaging readers on any type of device.

Visit http://www.gofundme.com/velmamagapp to make a donation.

Reading Recommendation

Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Predic-tion by John Brockman (Paperback Price: $11.12)

Do you believe you’re a good forecaster? This fine compilation of essays

written by some of today’s leading thinkers will cause you to reflect

upon—and improve—some of your flawed assumptions.

Buy it on Amazon

Resources - Spend

Soma Vida

Get the mind-body connection where you work. Our coworking commu-

nity has been designed to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and organiza-

tions, offering the best opportunity for workspace, wellness, community,

and business support. We provide the space you need to do what you

love!

More info: http://www.somavida.net/workspace/

Cost: $20 drop-in, $25–$65/month

Page 61

Maker Square

Start a new career in 2015! We focus on teaching proper software

development. As a result, graduates have found jobs writing JavaScript

using Angular, Backbone, and Ember, PHP, Java, Python and Django, as

well as Ruby on Rails. In the first few weeks, you’ll practice test-driven

development and learn how to structure an app. We also teach a heavy

algorithms component and how programming languages work under the

hood.

More info: http://www.makersquare.com/

Cost: $13,880

Falling for Money: 6 Weeks 2 Financial Freedom

A good life means freedom to enjoy little luxuries, freedom from debt,

and the freedom to enjoy retirement. Do you have the wealth you need to

live your good life? In only 6 weeks, Krisstina Wise can teach you a proven

system for achieving financial freedom.

Save big when you use promo code VELMA.

More info: www.krisstina.com/fallingformoneycourse/

Resources - Spend

Page 62

Reading Recommendation

ReGENERATION: A Manifesto for America’s Future Leaders by Rebecca Ryan

(Kindle price: $9.95)

“I wrote ReGeneration because I felt an obligation to explore America’s

previous winters, to draw lessons forward to today, and to lay out some

ideas on how we—Gen Xers and Boomers, Millennials, and Traditional-

ists—can work together to make sure that America comes through this

winter better, stronger.”—Rebecca Ryan

Buy it on Amazon

Page 62

Thanks for reading!velmamagazine.com