https://hubski.com/pub?id=150236 Not as sourced as you might want to, but still. Is the TED talk worth watching?
Well, it's interesting to hear as a layperson, but as you're much better versed in urban planning than myself, I really couldn't say. The guy goes into the excitement that has been generated by the idea and it does seem like the interest is coming from places that scrutinize these kinds of ideas. I do think that the reach exceeds the grasp, but the idea of integrating systems within a compact framework is certainly attractive and if that framework can be realized, then coming up with ways of plugging into that framework seems more doable than not.
This is mostly an engineering problem, which I don't know that much about, but what I do know is that the problem they're attempting with a couple of people and crowdsourced fund will never be enough to tackle all the problems I could think of in a couple of minutes. It's an interesting technology, don't get me wrong, but this is no way of approaching it.