It's easy to be excited by the promise of new technology, and bold, transformative "smart city" projects. Often that promise is made by companies who offer to pull municipalities into the future, at a speed that leaves local government and leadership behind.

But Pamela Robinson, director of Ryerson's School of Urban and Regional Planning, and Future Cities Canada Fellow, says local government still has a role to play in smart city projects.

And Jonathan Dewar, executive director of the First Nations Informations Governance Centre, says there's a price to pay when marginalized communities don't have access to the data being collected about them, or any say in how it's gathered.