Grounding activity in people-centered smart territories by enhancing community awareness

Contemporary life can seem rushed and overloaded. We argue this may be due not to merely having too much to do, but rather with experiencing fragmentation and inadequate meaning in one's own activity. We suggest that a design approach to this challenge is to enhance awareness of significant and persistent activity, and the themes, values, places, and motivations that unifies it and gives it greater meaning. Specifically, we suggest that people-centered smart territories can enhance community awareness by reminding people of placed-based history, heritage, current issues and discussions, and plans for the future in the community through a smart social grid of community information services.