COURSE NUMBER:

MBA277.1

COURSE TITLE:

Tech and the City: How to get Urban Innovation Right

UNITS OF CREDIT:

3

INSTRUCTOR:

Molly Turner

E-MAIL ADDRESS:

mollysturner@gmail.com

CLASS FORMAT: 

Lectures, live cases with high profile guest speakers, interactive discussions, one group exercise, a field trip

PREREQUISITE(S): 

None

REQUIRED READINGS: 

Timely news articles and a few carefully selected chapters from books on urban history and tech innovation, such as Jane Jacobs’ “Death and Life of Great American Cities,” Evgeny Morozov’s “To Save Everything: Click Here,” and Anthony Townsend’s “Smart Cities”.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: 

Class participation, 3 brief memos (2-4 pages), a group project and presentation

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: 

This course will help you be a more successful and impactful urban innovator. Today some of the most transformative and fastest growing companies are “disrupting” urban life. At their best, these companies make smarter cities. At their worst, they make inequitable cities. This course will critically examine how new technologies and business models are impacting cities and will identify the approaches that produce not only the best business outcomes, but also the most equitable and sustainable outcomes.

Throughout, we will address some of today’s most challenging questions, such as:

· Are driverless cars actually good for cities?

· Should companies ask for regulatory forgiveness or permission?

· Can we measure the impacts Airbnb is having on housing markets?

· Will Uber’s lobbying strategy prevail?

· Should Y Combinator experiment with universal basic income in Oakland?

· Will Sidewalk Labs’ city of the future ever get built?

To begin, you will get a crash course on the history of cities, learn from the biggest mistakes of our urbanist past, and develop the tools to thoughtfully assess today’s urban innovations. Then, the bulk of the course will consist of topical guest lectures. You will hear from the world’s most cutting edge practitioners - high profile founders, government officials and journalists - about what kind of technologies and business strategies are working and not working in cities around the world. Finally, you will apply everything you’ve learned by proposing a solution to a tough urban innovation challenge of your choosing.

CAREER FIELD:

If you want to work for or start your own tech company, this course will teach you how to be a more civic-minded entrepreneur. If you want to work in the public sector, this course will teach you how to be a more entrepreneurial civil servant. At the very least, this course will teach you to be a more critical consumer.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Molly Turner is an urban planner and tech policy pioneer. As an early employee of Airbnb, she founded the company’s public policy team in 2011 and co-authored some of the world’s first “sharing economy” regulations. As Airbnb’s Global Head of Civic Partnerships, Turner directed the company’s partnerships with governments around the world, including its international disaster response program and its 2015 business launch in Cuba.

Today, Turner is a leading voice on urban innovation as a member of the Aspen Institute’s Center for Urban Innovation Working Group on Innovation and Regulation and as a board member of the urban policy think tank SPUR, and the urban ventures accelerator Tumml. She is also an advisor to several early stage tech companies.

Before Airbnb, Turner worked for the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, the UNESCO World Heritage Center, and a sustainable tourism consulting firm. Turner holds a Master in Urban Planning from Harvard University and a BA from Dartmouth College.