# Wise City Life
> Digital Placemaking, Wayfinding Wiser Practices Across Technologies, Cities, and Communities
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Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).
## Pages
### About The Practice
URL: https://www.wisecitylife.com/about/
Last updated: 2026-07-23T16:08:37.000Z
Wise City Life is a practice, not a consultancy. We integrate technology with community wisdom through methods developed over 30 years of work, failure, and learning.

What we've discovered: wisdom matters more than intelligence. Community matters more than technology. What endures matters more than what's new.

We engage selectively with organizations ready for transformation, not those seeking vendors.

## Origins

The seed was planted on a Brooklyn bike lane in 2008 — the recognition that how we shape physical places matters more to humanity's future than any digital product, and that our digital and physical worlds were developing in dangerous isolation from each other.

This recognition became "digital placemaking" in 2010 at Project for Public Spaces— a counter intuitive new practice mindfully integrating technology to strengthen communities rather than extract from them. This work focused on building the first civic mapping platforms in support of offline local in-person organizing and participatory placemaking methods. We co-led online/offline campaigns in cities across the world. We learned what works by doing the work.

This practice has survived every tech hype cycle: Web 2.0, blogs, Segway, VR, social media saturation, crypto, Web3, blockchain, metaverse, and currently "AI". Each time watching organizations make predictable heedless technosolutionist mistakes (the belief that "smart" technology alone will solve complex human problems) and sometimes helping them avoid those mistakes. What survives is worth trusting.

## Transformations

Selected work Daniel led across 30 years of practice, as founder of Wise City Life, and in prior roles where he bore responsibility for outcomes.

### **Australian Government Smart Cities Masterclasses**

The Australian Government recognized the risk that their "smart cities" funding would produce frivolous tech purchases instead of community benefit, and risk political and electoral backlash. Cities Leadership Institute hired Wise City Life specifically for a different perspective.

Daniel led masterclasses across four cities—Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne—helping officials shift from tech-centered approaches to community-centered governance. 

The measurable shift: officials left with clearer frameworks for evaluating technology against real community governance needs, and renewed confidence to push back on vendor hype.

One participant's summary: "I came in thinking it was all about tech. I left thinking it's anything but."

They sought deeper context and wisdom over hype. That's what we practice.

### PhotoShelter

In a prior role as VP Product, Daniel led a growth-stage SaaS company through an existential product crisis—stalled pipeline, board pressure, enterprise customers threatening to leave. The CEO needed someone to diagnose the dysfunction and turn it around.

Daniel rebuilt their software development lifecycle: introduced Lean Startup and dual-track methods, restructured cross-functional teams around outcomes instead of features, unblocked their critical group collaboration feature, and navigated ethical AI integration for computer vision.

Velocity increased 50% within months. Team morale restored. Enterprise deals closed. Multiple 6 figure accounts of annual recurring revenue (ARR) protected and new revenue streams opened up.

A stalled company became a shipping company. That's the work an operator like Daniel does.

### **Digital Placemaking: Building a Practice, Not Just a Project**

At Project for Public Spaces, Daniel created the digital placemaking program – addressing a question no one had answered well: how do you mindfully create digital technology for community participation without undermining what makes places and democracy actually work — people meeting face-to-face, building trust, knowing each other?

Daniel developed the first community asset mapping tools adapted from Kenyan open source software and the digital strategies integration with in-person local placemaking campaigns in over a dozen cities, helped found NYC's participatory budgeting initiative as a steering committee member and led its software efforts using these new tools and methods. All of this work spread to multiple cities including New York, Stockholm, Warsaw, San Antonio, Cali, and Sydney, among others, and actively influenced other organizations' (e.g. OpenPlans, Neighborland) products and approaches.

One program became a field. One set of tools became shared infrastructure. This is what Daniel means by mindful multiplier effects — building wiser ecosystems, not just delivering projects.

## About the Practitioner

![Daniel Latorre, Founder of Wise City Life](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2025/04/2024vL1-1_result.webp) [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellatorre/?ref=wisecitylife.com) 

Hi, I'm Daniel Onren Latorre. I've spent 30 years across technology, urban planning, and social impact — building products, leading teams, and learning what actually works when you're trying to make technology serve communities rather than extract from them.

My career spans the full arc of the commercial internet — from building Citibank's first online credit card applications in 1996 through leading a startup's pivot between decentralized social networking protocols in 2023\. Along the way, I've led product and digital strategy across sectors that rarely talk to each other: SaaS platforms (PhotoShelter), K-12 education publishing (Scholastic), cultural production for video games (Rockstar Games), global brand marketing (McCann/Intel), civic technology and participatory democracy (Project for Public Spaces, OpenPlans, Participatory Budgeting NYC), and next-generation distributed social apps (Planetary/Nos). That cross-sector range — combined with hands-on technical roots, people-centered design and creative innovation research methods, AI experience in computer vision, and millions in funding secured — is what sharpens the pattern recognition behind the practice. I've seen enough cycles to know what's signal and what's noise.

I'm a Zen practitioner, and a contemplative grounding in digital dharma shapes how I approach technology and leadership. Mentored by a critical anthropologist and linguist, *context* mindfulness has been central to all my work. My Colombian-Norwegian-Ameican background made me pluralistic and international from birth. I've spoken at the UN, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and universities across four continents on digital placemaking, participatory democracy, and social impact product leadership.

Through this practice — and through socially-engaged art — I've worked with organizations across sectors to develop approaches to responsible technology and placemaking that actually hold up over time. Now I'm building a community of practice to carry this work further.

## Current Availability

If you're leading a mission-driven organization through digital challenges —or seeking to deepen your own practice in this work — I welcome a conversation about what's possible. 

I'm selectively available for:

****Fractional Product Leadership** — VP Product and Head of Product engagements with organizations navigating digital transformation, product-market challenges, or technology strategy decisions that require senior operator experience, not just advice.

****Strategic Advisory** — Ongoing advisory relationships for leaders and organizations seeking wiser ways across technology, community, and social impact.

****Transformation Partnerships** — Focused engagements addressing specific digital placemaking, product strategy, or organizational change challenges through Wise City Life's practice.

Reach out to discuss fit and timing: [connect on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellatorre/?ref=wisecitylife.com), or...

[Schedule a brief conversation ](https://meetings.hubspot.com/daniel-latorre?ref=wclabout) 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/01/Daniel-Latorre-bicycle-waterfront-NYC-IMG_3912-web.webp)
### Mission
URL: https://www.wisecitylife.com/mission/
Last updated: 2025-04-21T21:07:57.000Z
### Wisdom doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker, meme, or soundbite. So, let’s pause, take a deep breath, and think about who we’re here for.

Wise City Life exists for many purposes, here are some important reasons:

Leading the transition to wise ways in our urbanizing the planet.

Cultivating mindful and compassionate communities of practice, deeply rooted in humanity’s multicultural essence, engaged wisdom practices, and emerging practices that honor our mind-body interconnectedness.

Reestablishing kinship between individuals and their places.

Leading responsible and harmonious use of technology in our rapidly urbanizing world.

Transitioning away from oppressive systems and reviving a variety of wisdom practices to create communities that fully embody their place and people.

Grounding wise transitions through place-led strategies that balance social, economic, and environmental values.

Applying wise media ecology approaches that seamlessly blend online and offline experiences, centered on people and place, not tech.

Empowering time-tested communities of practice who share aligned missions, visions, and values, to collaboratively navigate and overcome existential challenges posed by technocratic systems. Our focus lies in fostering ethical forms of Placemaking and promoting our world’s Indigenous wisdom practices, as we believe in their potential to help humanity renew wisdom.

## Vision

We envision a world of neighborhoods, towns, cities, and regions, where wisdom, deeply rooted in the interconnectedness of all life, forms the core of our global communities of practice.

This wisdom, transcending the confines of technocratic modernism, fosters a profound understanding of our mind-bodies, and our intimate connection with the land.

Our multicultural communities, having moved outside of whiteness, lead the way in fostering harmony across cultures, genders, and sexes, transitioning away from antiquated patriarchal norms.

Education and governance, no longer bound by imbalanced narrow disciplines and over-specialization, now prioritize people-centered and place-led well-being, integrating engaged wisdom practices with the latest mind-body science.

We use technology judiciously, always mindful of its impact on people and planet, and continuously strive to dismantle oppressive systems, practicing rich intersectionality and preserving renewed wisdom traditions for future generations.

## Values

#### ****Egoless Engagement:**

We value setting aside personal pride and self-importance in favor of open, honest, and humble participation. We prioritize collective responsibilities over individual pursuits. We recognize the limits of our knowledge, making room for wisdom that transcends mere intellect. We listen attentively, respond mindfully, and foster a culture of mutual understanding. This supports agile adaptation to changing circumstances, taking responsibility for our actions, and always striving to serve the greater good.

#### Diversity and Inclusion:

We value and embrace the diversity of identity, experience, and perspective. We commit to equitable treatment, access, and opportunity for people regardless of racial or ethnic background. We foster a culture of belonging where individuals of all backgrounds feel welcomed, accepted, and heard.

#### Equity and Justice:

We seek input from people with a variety of racial identities when making decisions that impact them. We work to counter unconscious bias and eliminate systemic barriers facing groups based on race or ethnicity. We promote allyship and understanding between groups.

#### Collaboration and Learning:

We support people with a broad and diverse range, fostered by diverse social practices, holistic interdisciplinarity, and cross-cultural collaborations. We dismantle silo mentalities by nurturing holistic place-grounded visions and promoting communication and cooperation across different cultures of all kinds. We prioritize continuous learning and adaptation, recognizing that intersectionality is a complex and evolving concept.

#### Community and Sustainability:

We center communities and those most impacted in the co-creation of solutions. We challenge injustice while upholding nonviolence. We embrace alternative economic models that are sustainable, cooperative, and just.

#### Compassion and Interconnection:

We value relationships, compassion, care, and interconnection with all life. We foster continuous learning and reflection to drive change. We collaborate across differences to spark innovation.

#### Ethical Medium Creation and Use:

We create and use all media and mediums ethically to amplify diverse narratives. We approach challenges with creativity, optimism, courage, and moral imagination.

#### Wisdom and Innovation:

We put the needs of people and planet, their complex contexts, and aspirations first in all technosocial endeavors. We practice critical political choice, radical representation, and consent in the creation and use of all technology. We support participatory, open, decentralized technology and reformed democratic governance. We fortify the Commons; resist enclosure and privatization of public domains. We promote inclusive community processes; decentering narrow experts and technocrats. We apply a wisdom lens always: question underlying assumptions, imagine holistic outcomes. We ensure accessibility, sustainability, regeneration in technology application.

#### Practices Over Theories:

Democracy is a community practice, it's hands-on collaboration. We value shared care and multi-generational practices. We maintain a learning community of practice at the core for the ongoing, endless development of wisdom practices. 

### If you want to learn more, we’d love for you to get in touch with us directly.

[Contact Us](mailto:hello@thewisecity.org?subject=Wiser%20paths)
### Navigate Technology with Wisdom
URL: https://www.wisecitylife.com/services/
Last updated: 2026-02-26T23:11:39.000Z
****The Challenge:** You're pressured to "digitally transform," but more than 80% of tech-centered implementations fail to serve your community's actual needs, go unused, drain your budget — and often cause knowable harms you didn't anticipate.   
  
Or, you're doing amazing community-centric work but get derailed due to underestimating the significance of strategy and framing in civic tech communications and engagement.  
  
****The Root Cause:** organizations treat technology as the solution rather than as one element within a larger transformation that is 75% cultural and systems change. They buy tools when they need transformed practices. This pattern is most noticeable with each innovation cycle: 1990s dotcom websites, early 2000s blogging, 2010s social media, and now with "AI" focus on automation.   
  
The cycle repeats: technology-first focus forced onto old systems with negative ROI, instead of life-centered transformation & strategy focus with appropriate validated technology configuration.

Separating realities into digital and physical, online and offline, contributes to a dysfunctional world, despite the marketing claims of “smart”, “social”, and "intelligent" technologies. 

Every digital product has embodied place-based factors and effects. 

Are you beginning with real-life experiences of those involved in creating, supporting, and using your offerings? Are you beginning with shared purpose and clear outcomes? Or distracted by a vendor's feature list?

## How We Work

Wise City Life brings 3 decades of innovation experience into collaborative practice with organizations ready to do the deeper work. Engagements range from focused discovery sprints to ongoing strategic partnerships, shaped by what the situation actually requires.

****Unstick Stalled Product Efforts**  
Your product team is shipping features but missing outcomes. Timelines slip, stakeholders lose confidence, and the gap between what you're building and what your community needs keeps widening.  
  
We diagnose what's actually stuck — often it's not the technology — and introduce Lean Startup and dual-track methods that restore velocity and strategic clarity. We've turned around product organizations in months, not years.  
  
**Typical engagements: Fractional VP Product, product strategy sprint, development lifecycle transformation*

****Build Your Team's Capacity to Evaluate Technology**  
Your team is fielding vendor pitches, AI hype, and pressure to adopt tools they can't properly assess. Decisions get made on demos and promises rather than community fit and organizational readiness.  
  
We provide talks, workshops, and masterclass trainings that give your people a lasting framework for evaluating any technology through a community-centered lens — so they stop buying what's sold and start choosing what serves.  
  
**Typical engagements: Half-day to multi-day workshops, keynotes, masterclass series*

****Design Campaigns That Increase Real Participation**   
Your engagement numbers look fine on paper but the same voices keep showing up. Digital outreach feels disconnected from what's happening on the ground. The community you need to reach isn't the community you're reaching. You focused on sustainable design, but forgot to build community support and got backlash.  
  
We design integrated "online-offline" engagement strategies and media campaigns that meet people where they are — increasing the quality and diversity of participation and movement building, not just vanity metrics.  
  
**Typical engagements: Campaign framing, strategy, and design, stakeholder engagement planning, community-centered communications*

****Ongoing Strategic Counsel**  
You're navigating complex digital-physical challenges and need a thinking partner who's seen these patterns across sectors — someone who will tell you what's actually happening, not what you want to hear  
  
Regular 1-on-1 advisory sessions provide ongoing access to 30 years of cross-sector pattern recognition in digital transformation, product strategy, community technology, and mindful leadership.  
  
**Typical engagements: Monthly advisory retainer with private channel access*

It all begins with a brief conversation — what's my situation, what challenges am I navigating, and what transformation am I seeking?

[Schedule a brief conversation](https://meetings.hubspot.com/daniel-latorre?ref=wisecitylife.com)

*Digital placemaking is the strategic integration of technology to support, enhance, or accelerate* [placemaking practices](https://www.placemakingx.org/faq?ref=wisecitylife.com#1)*. It’s an integrated offline+online approach strengthening pluralistic community connections through a collaborative process that shapes public spaces to benefit everyone, mindful of the ecologies, cultures, and sustainable economics that define and support its endless evolution.*
### Privacy Policy
URL: https://www.wisecitylife.com/privacy-policy/
Last updated: 2025-04-13T06:55:11.000Z
### Last updated: April 12, 2025

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

We use Your Personal data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

## Interpretation and Definitions

## Interpretation

The words of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions. The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

## Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

- **Account** means a unique account created for You to access our Service or parts of our Service.
- **Affiliate** means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with a party, where “control” means ownership of 50% or more of the shares, equity interest or other securities entitled to vote for election of directors or other managing authority.
- **Company** (referred to as either “the Company”, “We”, “Us” or “Our” in this Agreement) refers to The Wise City, LLC dba Wise City Life, 47-20 Center Boulevard. #1513 LIC, NY 11109.
- **Cookies** are small files that are placed on Your computer, mobile device or any other device by a website, containing the details of Your browsing history on that website among its many uses.
- **Country** refers to: New York, United States
- **Device** means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cellphone or a digital tablet.
- **Personal Data** is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.
- **Service** refers to the Website.
- **Service Provider** means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Company. It refers to third-party companies or individuals employed by the Company to facilitate the Service, to provide the Service on behalf of the Company, to perform services related to the Service or to assist the Company in analyzing how the Service is used.
- **Third-party Social Media Service** refers to any website or any social network website through which a User can log in or create an account to use the Service.
- **Usage Data** refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
- **Website** refers to The Wise City, accessible from \[thewisecity.org\]
- **You** means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.

## Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

## Types of Data Collected

### Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

- Email address
- First name and last name
- Phone number
- Address, State, Province, ZIP/Postal code, City
- Usage Data

### Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.

### Tracking Technologies and Cookies

We follow a policy of data minimization, which means we use as little tracking as possible. 

We may use Cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on Our Service and store certain information. Tracking technologies used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze Our Service. The technologies We use may include:

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Cookies can be “Persistent” or “Session” Cookies. Persistent Cookies remain on Your personal computer or mobile device when You go offline, while Session Cookies are deleted as soon as You close Your web browser.

We use both Session and Persistent Cookies for the purposes set out below:

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For more information about the cookies we use and your choices regarding cookies, please visit our Cookies Policy or the Cookies section of our Privacy Policy.

## Use of Your Personal Data

The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

- **To provide and maintain our Service**, including to monitor the usage of our Service.
- **To manage Your Account:** to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user.
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- **To manage Your requests:** To attend and manage Your requests to Us.
- **For business transfers:** We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred.
- **For other purposes**: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.

We may share Your personal information in the following situations:

- **With Service Providers:** We may share Your personal information with Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, to contact You.
- **For business transfers:** We may share or transfer Your personal information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
- **With Affiliates:** We may share Your information with Our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. Affiliates include Our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that We control or that are under common control with Us.
- **With business partners:** We may share Your information with Our business partners to offer You certain products, services or promotions.
- **With other users:** when You share personal information or otherwise interact in the public areas with other users, such information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside. If You interact with other users or register through a Third-Party Social Media Service, Your contacts on the Third-Party Social Media Service may see Your name, profile, pictures and description of Your activity. Similarly, other users will be able to view descriptions of Your activity, communicate with You and view Your profile.
- **With Your consent**: We may disclose Your personal information for any other purpose with Your consent.

## Retention of Your Personal Data

The Company will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

The Company will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of Our Service, or We are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

## Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company’s operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. It means that this information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of Your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from Your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by Your submission of such information represents Your agreement to that transfer.

The Company will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of Your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of Your data and other personal information.

## Delete Your Personal Data

You have the right to delete or request that We assist in deleting the Personal Data that We have collected about You.

Our Service may give You the ability to delete certain information about You from within the Service.

You may update, amend, or delete Your information at any time by signing in to Your Account, if you have one, and visiting the account settings section that allows you to manage Your personal information. You may also contact Us to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that You have provided to Us.

Please note, however, that We may need to retain certain information when we have a legal obligation or lawful basis to do so.

## Disclosure of Your Personal Data

### Business Transactions

If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

### Law enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may be required to disclose Your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

### Other legal requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

- Comply with a legal obligation
- Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
- Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
- Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
- Protect against legal liability

## Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot guarantee its absolute security.

## Children’s Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13\. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13\. If You are a parent or guardian and You are aware that Your child has provided Us with Personal Data, please contact Us. If We become aware that We have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, We take steps to remove that information from Our servers.

If We need to rely on consent as a legal basis for processing Your information and Your country requires consent from a parent, We may require Your parent’s consent before We collect and use that information.

## Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third party link, You will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

## Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let You know via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

## Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact us:

- By email: privacy@thewisecity.org
### Selected Work
URL: https://www.wisecitylife.com/work/
Last updated: 2026-07-13T19:45:23.000Z
A selection of place-centered approaches to technology with community wisdom, since founding this practice in 2012: products, public engagement campaigns, and civic service design across cities and institutions.

Selected clients & collaborators

![Participatory Budgeting Project](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/pbp.webp) ![Project for Public Spaces](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/pps.webp) ![Pratt Disaster Resilience Network](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/pratt-disaster-resilience-network.webp) ![The High Line](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/highline-logo.svg) ![AIGA New York](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/aigany.png) 

…and programs including the U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program.

## Projects

![Partial map from the first complete service blueprint of PBP's participatory budgeting process](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/PBP_Participatory-Budgeting-Service-Blueprint.jpg) 

### PBP & Consul Madrid

Product, UX, and digital transformation innovation strategy for the [Participatory Budgeting Project](https://www.participatorybudgeting.org/?ref=wisecitylife.com) in its NYC pilot adaption of Consul, community participation software developed in Madrid. The holistic Wise City approach also helped PBP clarify its business model & mission around digital. Iterative work years after being a founding member of the steering committee that started PB in NYC.

![Declare Home concept screens created at Tribeca Hacks Data/Docs Chicago](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/declare-home-concept-4-wide.jpg) 

### Declare Home

Design research, product strategy & management, for an app aimed at helping grassroots organizers collaborate easily to build every-day resilience. Connected to the documentary film [*Cooked: Survival by Zip Code*](https://kartemquin.org/film/cooked-survival-by-zip-code/?ref=wisecitylife.com) by Judith Helfand, inspired in part by Eric Klinenberg's work on the spatial-social determinants of health and need for better public social infrastructure.

![Digital placemaking engagement along the 15km Corredor Verde rail corridor in Cali](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/corredor-verde-de-cali.jpg) 

### Corredor Verde de Cali

Community engagement strategy and placemaking project management (for [Project for Public Spaces](https://www.pps.org/?ref=wisecitylife.com)) on the Corredor Verde de Cali project, a 15 kilometer transit corridor and linear chain of parks in Cali, Colombia — the largest public space and transit-oriented development project in the city's history.

![Community asset and visioning workshop in the Rockaways for AIGA/NY Design/Relief](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/design-relief.jpg) 

### AIGA/NY Design/Relief

Community strategy for a community-centered & place-based design project in the Rockaways of New York City. An [AIGA/NY](https://aigany.org/events/design-relief-an-aigany-initiative/?ref=wisecitylife.com) NEA ArtPlace-funded project to demonstrate how graphic design can contribute to the practice of creative placemaking.

![Participatory workshop informing the Our Miami Public Space Challenge campaign](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/our-miami-1.webp) 

### Our Miami Public Space Challenge

Public engagement, campaign strategy, and capacity building for [The Miami Foundation's](https://miamifoundation.org/?ref=wisecitylife.com) mission to increase attachment to place. An online and offline crowdsourcing project for Project for Public Spaces and with IOBY. First of its kind to combine philanthropy and crowdfunding in place-led prioritization and placemaking investment.

![Crisis wayfinding signage deployed across the Rockaways after Hurricane Sandy (photo by Lucky Tran)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/45/42/4542a51b-1672-4a6d-8cf2-987646e9bc01/content/images/2026/07/wayfinding-sandy.jpg) 

### Crisis Wayfinding Post-Hurricane

Agile service design for Hurricane Sandy recovery — designing, producing, and deploying wayfinding for communities in the Rockaways grappling with survival and recovery amidst minimal city social services. A project with Not An Alternative and Pratt Disaster Resilience Network. Socially Engaged Art Practice artfacts now in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

## Selected Talks & Workshops

From the White House and the United Nations to biennale keynotes and national smart-cities programs — a selection from 30+ invited talks, workshops, and courses across 11 countries on four continents.

Government & Policy

- "Strategies & Innovations for Outreach" — Community-Led Participatory Budgeting in the U.S., Office of Science & Technology Policy, The White House, Washington D.C. 2014
- Civic-technology masterclasses for the Australian Government's Smart Cities and Suburbs Program, with Cities Leadership Institute — Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne 2017
- "Digital Placemaking & Moving to Place-Based Governance" — Moscow Higher School of Economics & Moscow City Planning Department 2014

International Institutions

- "Digital Placemaking Community Strategies for the Corredor Verde" — UN-Habitat World Urban Forum, Medellín 2014
- "Authentic Digital Engagement" — UN-Habitat Building Cities Through Social Media, United Nations Headquarters, New York 2012
- "Mission 2062" workshop on cultural institutions in civic engagement — British Council, La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris 2012
- "Collaboratively Drafting a Tech for Engagement Manifesto" — Knight Foundation Technology for Engagement Summit at MIT, Cambridge 2012

Teaching & Academy

- "Digital Placemaking," Crowdsource City course — Columbia University GSAPP, New York 2011
- Urban Interaction Design studio course — University of New South Wales Built Environment, Sydney 2017
- Digital Placemaking masters mini-course, three editions — Moscow School of Social & Economic Sciences 2015–2017

Keynotes & Field Conferences

- Digital Placemaking keynote — Digital Publics Symposium, Media Architecture Biennale, Sydney 2016
- Keynote on Internet of Things & Digital Placemaking — Professional Lighting Design Convention (PLDC), Rome 2015
- "A Manifesto for Standard Place-Led Metrics" workshops — Placemaking Week, Amsterdam 2017
- "From Smart Cities to Wise Cities" — Ashoka Future Forum, Washington D.C. 2013
- Community capacity for #smartcity, #datajustice & #humanrights panel — RightsCon, Toronto 2018
- "Smart City vs Wise City: Tech Politics & Digital Placemaking" — American Planning Association New York Technology Committee 2021

Working on a challenges like these? The next step is a brief conversation.

[Schedule a brief conversation](https://meetings.hubspot.com/daniel-latorre?ref=wisecitylife.com)
## Posts
### Cards For Hyper Times
URL: https://www.wisecitylife.com/cards-for-hyper-times/
Last updated: 2026-02-28T23:44:46.000Z
I'm in the outlining stage now, and the tool that's proving most valuable isn't any software. It's a stack of thick paper index cards held together with a spring steel binder clip.

Writers have organized books this way for generations. The practice goes by different names — the notecard method, carding, the Zettelkasten tradition — but the principle is the same: constrained physical cards you can hold, shuffle, spread across a table, and rearrange with your hands. Joan Didion worked this way. Twyla Tharp describes filling physical boxes for each creative project. Screenwriters card their scripts on corkboards before writing a word of dialogue. The method endures because it works at the speed of reflective thought without the overhead of screens.

With my career steeped in R&D and innovation across many tech bubbles, I'm always testing technology at my own boundaries. Today's "AI" LLM automation is perhaps the shiniest form of distraction, with [many dirty technical and ethical problems](https://www.platformer.news/anthropic-pentagon-authoritarian-ai/?ref=wisecitylife.com). Some may eventually be made cleanly, for intentional, specific, regulated use cases.\*

The existential contrast is high these days. Perhaps that's why, for the real stuff of life — like reflection on our present age — I'm finding the prior technology of spring steel binders and thick paper index cards, with their forced concision, to be the most valuable.

> New doesn't mean better. Most everything today is technology, everything **mediates** in life's interconnected reality. 

Index cards are technology. A pen is technology. A large wood table is technology. The choices we make about which medium to think in shape the thinking itself — this is the core insight of media ecology, and it applies as much to a writer's desk as it does to a city's public spaces.

This is also what I mean when I talk about wise technology choices in cities and organizations. Digital placemaking isn't about digitizing everything. It's about discernment — knowing when a screen serves connection and when it interrupts it, when automation accelerates meaningful work and when it substitutes activity for depth. I try to live that discernment in my own practice, not just advise it.

Long ago, in the early 90s, Timothy Leary said the World Wide Web was the most psychedelic substance he'd ever tried and it's why he stopped using drugs. LLMs aren't the only place "hallucinations" happen. It might be that the majority of any screen-based digital experience — made with whatever intention — is largely a dirty, unmindful mix of mass hallucinations.

It's important to step back and out of this and reconnect. 

"Touch grass", but also touch paper, pens, pencils, books, hands, parks, plazas, streets. Reconnect with how your body and mind are doing. Preferably with others seeking the same regrounding — feeling deeply that there are wiser ways that urgently need our focused attention.

The photo at the top of this post is my current outline, only half filled. Thick note cards in a spring steel binder clip, on a wood table. No screen in sight. And about 200 pages of raw, rough, undeveloped work in a digital notebook. Sometimes the wisest technology decision is a very intentional mix of old and new.

*This is one dispatch from a book I'm slowly crafting about technology, wisdom, and the places where we live. If you'd like to follow the journey, subscribe. More to come as the work develops.*

---

\*Technical aside: regardless of context density, clear boundaries, or outcome-driven orchestration, it seems that anything LLM based is deeply flawed technically... they currently can't even maintain state about an accurate concept of time.
### The Medium is Eating Your Message: What Every Leader Must Understand About Digital Environmental Effects
URL: https://www.wisecitylife.com/the-medium-is-eating-your-message/
Last updated: 2025-04-21T21:26:27.000Z
When Marshall McLuhan famously declared "the medium is the message," he wasn't just being provocative – he was warning us about a blindspot that's become even more critical in our digital age. Today's leaders face a peculiar challenge: the very digital environments we use to make and communicate decisions are profoundly affecting those decisions in ways we rarely notice.

Think of it this way: A fish doesn't notice water until it's out of it. Similarly, most organizations don't recognize how digital environments reshape their thinking until something goes wrong. By then, it's often too late.

Consider how your team makes strategic decisions. You likely use various digital tools - project management software, communication platforms, data analytics dashboards. Each of these isn't just a neutral conduit for information – it's actively shaping how your organization thinks, decides, and acts. The medium isn't just carrying your message; it's transforming it.

This isn't theoretical. I've seen Fortune 500 companies make multimillion-dollar mistakes because their decision-making frameworks didn't account for how digital environments affect human judgment. City governments have implemented "smart" initiatives that backfired because they didn't understand how digital systems would reshape social dynamics. Even prestigious universities have missed opportunities because their traditional analytical methods couldn't grasp how digital environments were changing their fields of study.

The solution isn't to abandon digital tools – that's neither possible nor desirable. Instead, leaders need to develop what I call "media ecological reflexivity" – the ability to recognize and adapt to how digital environments affect organizational thinking and behavior.

This awareness is becoming a critical leadership skill. Those who develop it gain a significant competitive advantage. Those who don't risk making increasingly costly mistakes as our world becomes more digitally mediated.

As someone who has spent over two decades helping organizations navigate this challenge, I've developed frameworks that help leaders see these invisible currents and use them strategically. The first step is recognizing that your organization isn't just using digital technology – it's swimming in it.

Want to learn more about how digital environmental effects might be impacting your organization's decision-making? Let's talk about how we can help your team develop the awareness and tools needed to thrive in today's complex digital landscape.
### Ethical Tech Implementation in Cultural Spaces: A Framework for Community-Centered Decision Making
URL: https://www.wisecitylife.com/ethical-tech-implementation-in-cultural-spaces-a-framework-for-community-centered-decision-making/
Last updated: 2026-02-28T04:13:03.000Z
After working with many cultural institutions, I've discovered that successful technology projects share one key element – they start with community impact rather than technical specifications.

Here's a practical framework you can use tomorrow: Before your next technology decision, gather your team and work through what I call the "Community Impact Stack." Unlike traditional tech stacks that build from infrastructure up, this approach builds from community value down.

_This post is for subscribers only._
### From The Wise City to Wise City Life: Returning to What Matters
URL: https://www.wisecitylife.com/from-the-wise-city-to-wise-city-life-returning-to-what-matters/
Last updated: 2025-04-21T21:22:26.000Z
After twelve years as The Wise City, I'm evolving to **Wise City Life**. This change reflects a profound realization: in my original name, I emphasized the *object* (the city) and the *concept* (wisdom), while missing the most essential element — *life* itself, in all its vibrant, complex reality.

Many of us working in urban spaces have made this same error. From countless architects, urbanists, academics and city journalists, to technocrats like Robert Moses and today's "smart city" evangelists and civic tech advocates, our focus often remains uncritically fixed on technology, infrastructure, and objects — rather than on the living experience they should serve. Working with cyberlibertarian tech (the majority of U.S.-originated digital tech as we know it) especially makes everyone a little more technocratic, like Robert Moses; this is why we must move beyond and create outside of it.

When we center objects rather than life, we create cities designed around cars and tech instead of people. We mistake warehouses of silicon and minerals for "thinking" systems, while neglecting the numberless human intelligence found in our parks, courtrooms, classrooms, and community gatherings.

This is why I've often shared over the past decade (translated in many languages) this timeless quote from Shakespeare in Coriolanus: 

"城市是什么，不就是人民吗？"  
"What is the city but the people?"  
"शहर क्या है लोगों के अलावा?"  
"¿Qué es la ciudad sino la gente?"  
"ما هي المدينة إلا الناس؟"  
"শহর কী জনগণ ছাড়া আর কিছু?"  
"Qu'est-ce que la ville sinon les gens?"  
"Что есть город, как не люди?"  
"O que é a cidade senão as pessoas?"  
"شہر کیا ہے سوائے لوگوں کے؟"  
"Apa itu kota selain manusianya?"  
"Was ist die Stadt anderes als die Menschen?"  
"都市とは人々以外の何であろうか？"  
"Mji ni nini isipokuwa watu?"  
"도시란 사람들이 아니면 무엇인가?"  
"Thành phố là gì nếu không phải là người dân?"  
"Şehir, insanlardan başka nedir?"  
 "เมืองคืออะไรหากไม่ใช่ผู้คน?" 

The true intelligence of cities emerges when people of all varieties socialize, dream, love, and commune in public spaces. It happens when:

- Judges and lawyers ask wiser questions
- Teachers contemplate how to discuss complex ideas
- Doctors listen carefully before delivering consequential news
- People engage in meaningful dialogue with spiritual guides
- Communities gather to debate what new relationships should be supported and which practices need to change

These living moments—not our technological systems—are what constitute the intelligence and wisdom of urban life.

## To Life!

May we return to our senses. May we keep our feet firmly on the ground, turning toward each other to reclaim wisdom and intelligence in ways no algorithm can reduce to data points. May we renew the practice of living together — figuring it out through the continuous practice of communing and caring.

And may we protect what is sacred and wise, while clearly rejecting the narrow, mechanistic notions of intelligence that separate us from the lived experience that matters most.

This is why I've changed this life project's name to **Wise City Life** — because the wisdom we need isn't in the city as object, but in how we live together within it and renew it.

---

*What does this mean for you?* I'll continue building connections and offering services at the intersection of place, community, and technology, but with a sharper focus on how these elements serve human flourishing. Expect more content and events about participatory practices, digital placemaking that centers people, and practical frameworks that value lived experience.

Grateful for all who've been a part of this so far, I invite you to join in on a new journey. The challenges we face in our communities require not only just technologies, but wiser community life.