This is the methodology used to produce the article “African smart cities: A critical analysis”

These notes outline the design of the project through iterative interactions with Perplexity. NB. This exercise was carried out before Perplexity Computer became available (which would allowed for simultaneous data capture for all 54 countries).

  1. Perplexity - Context Instructions
    • Prompt

      This space is for a paper I intend to write which will be supported by a comprehensive database. The focus is on a critical analysis of how smart city technology is being deployed and to what ends. Who is funding it? Who owns it? What features and functionalities are being prioritised? To what extent state surveillance is driving the agenda? What real value is being added? I am looking for three major types of evidence: Firstly accurate data on systems, funding, ownership, deployment to populate a database that I will design. Secondly up-to-date news on systems and issues arising. Thirdly critical analysis from academics and policy experts.

  2. Perplexity - Annotated bibliography
    • Prompt

      Could we start by producing an annotated bibliography of key literature that covers all the issues covered in the context instructions.

    • Output
      Smart City Annotated Bibliography
  3. Process bibliography
  4. Identify sources of current news
    • Prompt

      A key part of the evidence I require will come from current news stories. In addition to national press sources I am interested in finding out whether there are any specialist journals or news services that focus on smart city initiatives. For instance when researching digital identity Biometric Update is a trade journal with more current news than any other source. Are there similar sources available in this field? NB when referring to smart cities I am more interested in initiatives taking place in cities that have existed for a long time, NOT new tech projects such as Kenya’s Konza Techno City or Nigeria’s Eko Atlantic.

    • Output
      news-sources.md
  5. Select cities to include in the study
  6. Define analytical categories
    • Prompt

      I need to break my evidence down into a set of comparable categories, Included in this will be a checklist of potential features - eg broadband availability, transport, surveillance, etc. can you provide me with a list of all features that can be described elements of a smart city

    • Output
      analytical-categories.md
    • Refined
      research-categories.csv
  7. Define database structure
  8. Produce a continental preview from bibliography
  9. Estimate Perplexity token limitations
    • Prompt

      I am about to ask you, in 20 separate queries, for each city listed in the attached csv, to mine the attached bibliography (which you created in a separate thread in this space) and produce a set of notes that I can use along with other notes (eg a separate set a notes created by mining news sources) to assist my research. Before I start I need to know how many queries I can run in a single thread without token availability affecting your performance.

    • Output
      token-estimate.md
    • Revision
      Decided instead to run one thread per city: bibliographic notes then news notes then analysis
  10. Produce bibliographic notes for a city
  11. Produce news notes for a city
  12. Merge bibliographic and news notes
  13. Produce structured data for a city
  14. Produce analysis for a city
  15. Synthesis report
    • Prompt

      Using the 12 attached country case studies I would like you to produce a critical analysis of smart city initiatives in Africa. Start with an introduction that provides an explanation of the scope of initiatives we have included in these studies and the selection of case studies. Then first deal with the good side of things: real social, economic and environmental benefits. The bulk of the report should then follow: a critique of governance, finance, inclusivity, accountability and surveillance. Finally the conclusion should situate itself in the context of the four African Union instruments (AU Data Policy Framework, AU Digital Transformation Strategy, Continental AI Strategy and African Digital Compact). I will leave the choice of headings and sub-headings up to you. I will add a methodology note at the end which will include an explanation that the sources can be found in a separate document. In other words no citations are necessary here.