A few things the Symbol Research team are reading. Complex Insight is curated by Phillip Trotter (www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-trotter) from Symbol Research
The goal of the present thematic series is to showcase some of the most relevant contributions submitted to the ‘Telecom Italia Big Data Challenge 2014’ and to provide a discussion venue about recent advances in the appplication of mobile phone and social media data to the study of individual and collective behaviors. Particular attention is devoted to data-driven studies aimed at understanding city dynamics. These studies include: modeling individual and collective traffic patterns and automatically identifying areas with traffic congestion, creating high-resolution population estimates for Milan inhabitants, clustering urban dynamics of migrants and visitors traveling to a city for business or tourism, and investigating the relationship between urban communication and urban happiness.
Making big data work: smart, sustainable, and safe cities Bruno Lepri, Fabrizio Antonelli, Fabio Pianesi and Alex Pentland
Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group (blog) New Louisville Open Data Policy Insists Open By Default is the Future Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group (blog) On Tuesday, October 15, 2013, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced the signing of an open...
Phillip Trotter's insight:
Interesting to see cities beginning to adopt open data policies as default. Recent open data competitions in places like New York are helping create awareness of the possibilities of using openly available data, mobile etc for innovative apps and improved city planning and governance. Looking forward to see what Louisville's decision generates.
Tom Vander Ark is an education advocate, advisor, and author of Getting Smart: How Personal Digital Learning is Changing the World. Tom is Founder and Executive Editor of Getting Smart and a partner in Learn Capital.
Phillip Trotter's insight:
Tom Vander Ark makes 7 observations on early smart city adoption. Worth a quick read.
Get into a cab and it's safe to assume the driver knows the ins, outs, shortcuts and potential traffic tie-ups between you and your destination. That kind of knowledge comes from years of experience, and IBM is taking a similar tact that blends real-time data and historical information into a new breed of traffic prediction.
IBM is testing the new traffic-management technology in a pilot program in Lyon, France, that’s designed to provide the city’s transportation engineers with “real-time decision support” so they can proactively reduce congestion. Called Decision Support System Optimizer (DSSO), the technology uses IBM’s Data Expansion Algorithm to combine old and new data to predict future traffic flow. Over time the system “learns” from successful outcomes to fine-tune future recommendations. Click on the title or image to learn more.
One of our favourite sensor companies had a big announcement last week/ Wireless sensor networks platform provider Libelium has launched Waspmote Plug & Sense! a new line of Libelium encapsulated wireless sensor devices allowing system integrators to implement scalable, modular wireless sensor networks and reduce installation time from days to hours. “We have reduced the complexity of installation with a solution that provides low-cost maintenance and a high degree of scalability, ensuring the shortest time to market for system integrators and end users.” Waspmote Plug & Sense! models are pre-configured to create such widely applicable services as Smart Cities, Smart Parking, Smart Agriculture, Air Quality, Smart Security, Ambient Control and, Radiation Control, out of the box. Unlike other platforms, Waspmote Plug & Sense! sensor nodes are ready for deployment anywhere in the world, in terms of available radio frequencies (2.4GHz, 868/900Mhz) and certification (CE, FCC, IC). Plug & Sense are set to send information to Meshlium, the sensor gateway that uploads data to the Cloud, making the data accessible from anywhere and easy to integrate into third-party applications. Cilck on the image or title to learn more.
City of Ottawa's planned move to Drupal as an open-source system for its website also provides an opportunity to increase the number of data sets available in the catalogue, particularly those that change often, such as schedules, As a resul tthe citiy is planning another open-data contest as the city looks to improve the way it offers raw information that developers can use to make helpful apps. The city's website is expected to relaunch in November, and a gallery is to be added to help people find third-party apps created from municipal data, Click on the image or the title to learn more.
Video from the movies and shakers dinner on Smart Cities in London in September 2012. The inital talk and comments on smart cities repeat common info on smart cities and do not add much new to the discussion. However The panel discussion gets interesting after 30 minutes with Malcom Smith's comments regarding city challenges and disadvantage (33 mins) are worth noting. Stephane Quere's comments on combining IT, vision and governance and the importance of partnership between the city, city's leadership (mayjor) and private partnerships are essential to the success of smart city initiatives. David Partridge and Merrick Cockell comments on Manchester illustrate both the requirements and challenges and need for collaboration across local authorities. For me Adrian Wyatts's comments (39.30 onwards) on scale of the smart city opportunities and and key actions were the highlight. He believes the key points for smart cities orbit around:
- Land acquisition (mayors and local goverment important)
- Master planning and a move from form and design to sustainable code of practise,
- Construction: move to BIM/ modular building techniques based on just in time techniques from aerospace.
- Finance - short term needs long term view,
- Estate management - need to understand more than just a building but also food. water, waste, energy, social , transport etc.
At last week's Smart City World Expo in Barcelona, Jong-Sung Hwang, former CIO of the Seoul metropolitan government, informed of the city's attempt to capture real-time traffic data. For years the city invested millions of dollars in sensors embedded into the road infrastructure.
"But we failed again and again," said Hwang. "It cost a lot ... but the traffic information was not correct so could not be used." In 2012, however, the city's 25,000 taxis introduced a touchcard payment system using GPS technology, effectively giving Seoul the real-time traffic information it had long craved at a fraction of the cost. "A smart city can now use smart technology and solve problems without changing the city infrastructure", said Hwang.
Phillip Trotter's insight:
Good article on how smart cities can be implemented using technologies that are increasingly being deployed for related developments.
‘Smart cities’ is a term that has gained traction in academia, business and government to describe cities that, on the one hand, are increasingly composed of and monitored by pervasive and ubiquitous computing and, on the other, whose economy and governance is being driven by innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, enacted by smart people. This paper focuses on the former and how cities are being instrumented with digital devices and infrastructure that produce ‘big data’ which enable real-time analysis of city life, new modes of technocratic urban governance, and a re-imagining of cities. The paper details a number of projects that seek to produce a real-time analysis of the city and provides a critical reflection on the implications of big data and smart urbanism.
The term ‘smart city’ has been variously defined within the literature, but can broadly be divided into two distinct but related understandings as to what makes a city ‘smart’. On the one hand, the notion of a ‘smart city’ refers to the increasing extent to which urban places are composed of ‘everyware’ (Greenfield 2006); that is, pervasive and ubiquitous computing and digitally instrumented devices built into the very fabric of urban environments (e.g., fixed and wireless telecoms networks, digitally controlled utility services and transport infrastructure, sensor and camera networks, building management systems, and so on) that are used to monitor, manage and regulate city flows and processes, often in real-time, and mobile computing (e.g., smart phones) used by many urban citizens to engage with and navigate the city which themselves produce data about their users (such as location and activity). Connecting up, integrating and analysing the information produced by these various forms of everyware, it is argued, provides a more cohesive and smart understanding of the city that enhances efficiency and sustainability (Hancke et al., 2013, Townsend 2013) and provides rich seams of data that can used to better depict, model and predict urban processes and simulate the likely outcomes of future urban development (Schaffers et al., 2011; Batty et al., 2012). Everyware thus works to make a city knowable and controllable in new, more fine-grained, dynamic and interconnected ways that “improve[s] the performance and delivery of public services while supporting access and participation” (Allwinkle and Cruickshank 2011: 2). It also provides the supporting infrastructure for business activity and growth and stimulates new forms of entrepreneurship, especially with respect to the service and knowledge economy.
While initial focus will likely be apps for in car entertainment and information services, the open sourcing of the API's adds a lot of potential for smart telematics apps that better help with traffic management, environmental reporting etc as well. Be worth tracking this.
I'm very interested in this. There are a ton of solutions that really fit well for an in-car experience. The key for the App developers is to make compelling Apps that make sense and work well from within the car. I love that this will result in Apps that let me better engage, use, and understand my particular vehicle, it's location, and what can be done with it. I'm glad Ford has taken a open approach and not start with some closed
As we plan for the future of our planet, it is imperative that we consider the effects of development on both the environment and human populations. A city is only truly sustainable if it uses natural resources efficiently while still fully meeting the needs of its inhabitants and a decent standard of living.
Recently, the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) launched its “State of the World’s Cities Report 2012/2013” which addresses the prosperity of cities. According to the report, the first step to achieving prosperity is to define the goal: What does prosperity mean in 2012? This is a difficult question to answer given the vast disparity of living conditions throughout the world. Additionally, it is imperative that the definition of prosperity today consider the needs of future generations. To this end, UN-Habitat developed a “City Prosperity Index,” which translates the five dimensions of prosperity identified by UN-Habitiat—productivity, infrastructure development, quality of life, equity and social inclusion, environmental sustainability—into measurable indicators (see page 15 of the report).
This definition of the prosperous city is consistent with the principles of a smart, sustainable and just city... further reading at the article link
There are natural parallels between the Smart Grid and smart cities in terms of concepts and deployments. Both rely on ICT technologies and M2M (machine to machine) communications applications to enable devices and systems to be remotely monitored...
Sharing knowledge and best practice on open data, internet of things and smart cities.. If you are tracking Smart City related developments then this is a great site for info, examples and updates. Click on the image or the title for more info.
Snagged this from the excellent Digital Cities Scoop team. In many cases, Smart cities are linked to the idea of ‘data’. For instance, Open data and sensor data provide the foundation for making cities smarter by enabling new services and acting as a feedback loop for improving existing services. However, data itself does not constitute value. Data must go through a platform that enables value added services. Good article - click on the image or the title to learn more.
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Interesting results of Telecom Italia's 2014 Bid Data Challenge - if smart cities are of interest - worth reading.