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Bratton considers that the artificial intelligence is defined by its ability to act upon its world and its ability to act is construed by what and how it can sense that world and itself within it. Food delivery as a new urban infrastructure has to sense the city and act upon it. How to make the food delivery guys work more efficiently through technical means is the key problem.  

With a large amount of food delivery guys, they could act as the sensor of the whole city. Like the driverless cars, the delivery guys would provide the data like their driving speed, order, their workload, rider status to the system to find out how to allocate the right work to the right food delivery guy in the most efficient way. 

However, the sensing and the thinking systems are located not only just in the valuable subjects and objects rolling around but also are built into the fabric of the city in various mosaics. Because how a sentient city thinks is inextricable from how a sentient city senses. The length of time that merchants give out meals is related to categories, time periods of the day, weather, and other factors. The time of delivery is also hard to predict since it would relate to which floor the user is on, whether it is in the midday rush hour, whether there is an elevator, etc.

The platforms are not able to perfect the sensing system with the real-time sensor, instead, they tried hard in perfecting their thinking system to make themselves telepathists. They tried to use machine learning tools to make use of the historical data of the arrival of riders to the store, the time for waiting for meals and fetching meals and take full account of the influence of external factors such as weather. They built a prediction model that comprehensively reflects the meal capacity, and modify the characteristics of the real-time dimension to obtain accurate meal delivery time estimation. Though there would not be real-time data that is more accurate, there would be a large database for the model to act like the telepathist to allocate the work efficiently. In the case of Meituan, it has established the self-learning mechanism of the scheduling model and constantly adjusted the relevant parameters in the estimation model according to the estimation deviation, which acts as a telepathic filter. Through this work, it used the scheduling model to estimate the delivery behaviors of the riders (time of meal picking and delivery). The average deviation was less than 4 minutes, and the confidence rate of 10 minutes reached more than 90%, which effectively improved the delivery effect and user satisfaction.

Although a completely accurate reading of the city is impossible, we could still map the sensing we have to make the city work with more efficiency.

 

 

Today, a nascent movement of civic hackers, artists, and entrepreneurs have begun to find their own uses and their own designs for smart cities. While lots of the technology giants building smart cities are mostly paying more attention to technology, not people, mostly focused on cost-effectiveness and efficiency, mostly ignoring the creative process of harnessing technology at the grassroots, Townsend mentioned that truly applications of new information technologies have almost always come from the bottom up. He reckoned that the grassroots are more willing to use new technology and to innovate.

In Chapter 4 , Townsend used the web map called “Dodgeball” as an example to show us a new form of mobile social application which is called crowdsourcing today. This reminds me of Dianping, which is a platform that focus on the communication and aggregation of urban consumption experience. All the information that posted on Dianping is generated by its users and the information also serves the users.  Dianping  combined with the geographical position and netizens personalized consumer demand, offer anywhere at any time of catering, shopping, leisure and life service areas such as business information, consumer preference and consumption evaluation of the interactive platform via internet. It has become a necessary tool for people’s life in urban areas especially among the young people.

On the platforms like Dianping, people could exchange their information about their favorite restaurants and their recommend dishes. Instead of making people stuck in the world of Internet, it has stimulated offline consumption. People would be willing to drive across the city or even travel to another city to find the food that posted on Dianping. Urban economists believe that cities thrive because they create opportunities for people to interact for commerce and entertainment. But it takes someone who intuitively understands cities to create a new way of doing that for the whole world to use. Jan Jacobs’s book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, glorified how good streets create opportunities for people to meet by chance. Mumford described the city as a fundamentally communicative space, rich in information. Thus, apps like Dianping are acting as engines to amplify that serendipitious potential, by constantly prodding us to get up to make new friends.

However, Townsent mentioned that there is a challenge that people would be blocked out side the smart cities. Nothing works until they connect, register and log in. We might all come across the problem that we have give our information like phone number, Wechat ID to get access to the apps. Moreover, we have to give up our privacy to get the service from those apps. For example, if we turn off the positioning, I would not get the information in the area of my position. Though lots of people would be unhappy about that, they would still turn it on to get the service. This would threat people’s right of privacy.

In conclusion, though we are experiencing the convenience of the development of smart cities that generated by crowdsourcing apps like Dianping,  we need to build a systematic evaluation of social sustainability into the planning of new smart-city service. Once we have a sense of the risks, mitigating measures can be designed.

 

Online delivery people are the new infrastructure of modern urban life. This is the official announcement from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China. We could see that food delivery people have become important parts of the infrastructure.

It is the pandemic that brought this new infrastructure suddenly and painfully to our awareness. According to Edwards, infrastructures are largely responsible for the sense of stability of life in many dimensions. What we could see during the pandemic was the food delivery guys acting as the vessel of the city to bring convenience to the ordinary, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. With their sense of mission, they have played an indispensable role in bringing cities that have been hit with the pause button by Covid-19 back to life.

Infrustructures possesses the power to shape human time, shaping the preconditions under which we experience time’s structure and its passage. Edwards used telegraph as an example, by demonstrating its ability to create a sense of simultaneity across huge distance. Nowadays,  the apps, like Meituan and Eleme, also create a sense of simultaneity between the users and the shops. For the two sides could hear from each other’s feedbacks.

Not only the infrastructures based on the scale of historical time,  but they also exists on large social and economical scales. Food delivery apps are based on the big electronic business companies like Meituan and Elema. They may connect with millions and even billions of individuals and corporate users, who may employ them on a daily basis for a lifetime or more. From the meso scale, food delivery could be seen as a sociotechnical institution, which is a new system of digital convergence. This new system brings us an efficient real-time logistics distribution network, coupled with the operation and deployment of garlic infrastructure supported by advanced technologies such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. 

Additionaly, from the micro scale, the user innovation shaped the social role of the food delivery people. Rather than assume that users are powerless pawns of domination corporations or technical systems, technology studies should adopt a “user heuristic.” In the past, the food delivery people were not under the strict control of the algorithm because the users did not have the requirements of time. By accepting the users’ feedbacks, the company would make the servi better for the users, like using the rating system for both of the shops and the delivery guys. Currently, there would also be an ethical discussion on the algorithm that used for the efficiency of food delivery. The companies would make adjustment to their system in order to make this infrastructure more friendly for those who act significant role in it.

In conclusion, as a new infrustructure, food delivery would accelerate the pace of modernity to make people’s life more convenient by updating its technology and inspired by its users’ feedbacks.

Speaking of informal street food, they could be considered as the soul of a city, “yanhuoqi(烟火气)” preserved in the fast pace of life. Many people keep coming because of the low prices, while others would search for good food in street food stalls because they would keep some of their local cuisines, which are the secret recipes. 

Nowadays, there are lots of street food stalls that have been transferred into formal food trucks. They sell the food that comes from the companies that signed agreements with the government and their menus are fixed. This would lead to a problem that if the food trucks sell the same things that could be bought at convenience stores, how would they survive in the competition with the ever-increasing convenience stores in the big cities?

Firstly, the food categories of the convenience stores are much more than the food trucks on the street. Baozi, mantou and jianbing could also be found in convenience stores. In the meantime, the food in the convenience stores actually looks more formal and clean than the food sold in the food trucks. The food price of formal food trucks would not be as cheap as the price of informal street food. This would make the competitiveness of the price would loose during the battle between the food trucks and the convenience stores.

Secondly, as convenience stores become more common, there is even a new breed of convenience store aficionados. They don’t just think of convenience stores as little canteens to solve their eating problems, they think of exploring convenience stores as a fun activity. It’s not that different from clocking in hot spots and web celebrity restaurants. On Weibo, there are even a lot of high-quality strategies made by consumers, which are specialized in punching convenience stores and checking the delicious food in convenience stores. However, those formalized street food trucks are not that attractive to the consumers, because the food there is not attractive enough for young people to post photos on their social media.

Moreover, young people who are born after the strict city management would no longer experience the culture of informal street food, they are the loyal consumers of the convenience stores, which means there would not be any nostalgia if the street food is completely formalized or disappear eventually.

In conclusion, if the government considers city management is a one-size-fits-all approach, that would be completely lazy. It is of great significance to protect the diversity of street food and help the urban poor to solve the problems of finding clean food sources and provide them with suitable places to set up a street food stall. So that the urban poor will survive from the trend of the convenience stores.

 

 

The conflicts between “chengguan” and street vendors have erupted one after another, revealing a cruel reality: even when street stalls are banned in various places, many “chengguan” and street vendors still have not found a way to coexist harmoniously.

In the eyes of many city managers, street vendors are all the objects that need to be “eliminated”, rather than individuals who need to be “protected”. Conflicts are almost inevitable in the process of “law enforcement” between “chengguan” and street vendors. “Chengguan”‘s law enforcement has been criticized not only for its “bullying” image, but also because it ignores the actual needs of citizens.

When it comes to the conflict between “chengguan” and street vendors, people are used to considering street vendors as “weak” since this group of people are usually poor migrants whose life depends on the small street stall that they own. In fact, stripped of their professional identity, “chengguan” are just “weak” in real life, and on-the-spot law enforcement is just a way of working in exchange for survival. The problem is that there is a real contradiction between the two “weak” ways of living: if the “chengguan” are active in their duties, the street vendors cannot survive; If the street vendors occupy the road at will, it means that the “chengguan” are neglecting their duties.

I have seen an interview with a “chengguan,” he tole the reporter that he would allow the street vendors to set up their stalls after his work is done so that he would have no duty to execute his power to ask them to go away. When he was asked if he would buy food from the street stalls, surprisingly, his answer was no because he could not afford them. It is unbelievable that the individual who seems to hold power in their hand, was actually an even more vulnerable one.

Why “chengguan” are facing this kind of issue?

Firstly, there are some problems left from history. The earliest urban management team was established in 1997. Before the establishment of urban management, the departments like city image  were in charge. Also, the supervision of the society in that period ability is weak, for instance, the actions they took were very rough, which makes hitting things is often seen on the streets. As a descendant of these departments, the way of law enforcement was old as well. After the strengthening of social supervision, lots of the departments were not willing to continue this tiring and dirty job, which caused the “chengguan” to take over all the negative aspects in city management.

Secondly, the law enforcement environment of “chengguan” is poor, and there is still no progress in developing the means of law enforcement up to now. “Chengguan” have no other means of law enforcement to restrain illegal traders, for instance, they can neither revoke their licenses like the industry and commerce department, nor have personal control like the police. In the process of imposing a fine, there is a great chance to encounter resistance and non-cooperation. This would led them into fight. What is more, during their work of law enforcement, the crowd would gather to see what is happening. The preconceived stereotypes of “chengguan” would hinder their proper work.

In conclusion, most “chengguan” are normal people who earn their living by maintaining the city image. People should not just simply consider them as the “strong” and “evil” ones.

What is Street Stall Economy?

Street stall economy refers to an economic form formed by obtaining income sources by setting up street stalls. As a marginal economy of a city that run mostly by the migrant workers, it has always been a key factor affecting the city’s appearance and environment. However, the street stall economy has its unique advantages, which can relieve the employment pressure to a certain extent under the background of the financial crisis.

After Chinese Central Civilization Office declares that road markets and itinerant vendors will not be included in the evaluation and assessment of civilized cities in 2020 in order to recover the economy after the pandemic, lots of people who lost job during pandemic got the chance to go on the street as a street vendor. It has boosted the real economy, because the space opened for the street vendors are usually located near the large shopping malls. This makes lots of people to go out and enjoy their time in real stores.

Like India, China is now at a moment reckoning between the digital delivery age and the street vendor age. The digital delivery is popular because people are not willing or do not have time to go out. And food delivery was extremely needed during the pandemic because lots of people were not able to go out.

I have seen a video that shoot by a delivery guy that he found that the orders online will decline especially at night after the establishment of the street stall economy, because lots of people are going out for dinner instead of staying at home. People would prefer to go out especially after months of lockdown.

What is more, according to Street Vendors in the Global Urban Economy,  running a street vendor has low skill requirements. It is easier for a person with low skills and little capital to take to street vending. While the food delivery has more pressure because of the harsh time limitation and the rate system, the street food vendor might be more appealing to the migrant workers when choosing a way of making a living a big city. After the establishment of the Street Stall Economy, more people would prefer being  street vendors instead of doing food delivery since it will provide them the freedom to choose the categories that they sell. They deem it a new chance to make fortune, while the food delivery is a dead-end job, because people would be trapped in that kind of algorithm system.

However, the civic authorities in the most metropolitan cities all over the world treats the street vendors as “intruders” and the urban elites view them as eyesores that blotch the urban scenario. It is hard for those street vendors to stay in specific locations for a long time because of the Urban environmental management. What is more, when this novelty wears off, people will return to their old way of life again.

In conclusion, I think though there might be influence on the food delivery industry,  street stall economy will not conflict the food delivery industry in a large scale. This is because the limited location and the strict regulations will prevent lots of migrant workers from becoming street vendors.