Big Data and Smart Cities
Big Data and Smart Cities
What defines Helsinki and other smart cities is their tendency to transparency and openness. Open data available and for free use equals transparency and open governability which in turn makes for an open city. An open city is a smart city.
There are four pillars that define a smart city:
1. Local
2. Sustainable
3. Social
4. Healthy
A smart city is an experienced design with a common goal of making people happy. It is a way of life for the city where it determines how decisions are made and how the city interacts with its citizens. Some of the key elements are decentralisation, hierarchically flattening and increased engagement, this increases the energy at work and allows for crowdsourcing from the citizens who at the end of the day are the users of the city. It is all about optimization of resources and infrastructures with a goal of syncing offer and demand.
However, in order to achieve a highly optimal smart city we need digitally skilled politicians and long term planning and goals. In other words three key things:
1. Roadmapping
2. Easy integration and interfacing. Less bureaucracy.
3. Digital Skills
Anni Sinnemäki, deputy mayor of the city of Helsinki in Finland describes a smart city as a platform where people can work together for a better future.
Helsinki for example publishes as much data as possible through the Helsinki Region Infoshare which is open for everybody to use and build on:
http://www.hri.fi/en/
This resource includes all types and kinds of data and media, from datasheets recording major art exhibitions to vintage photographs of helsinki.
Paris is also a city that strives to be open, connected and sustainable. It also has an open data policy and makes the data open to everyone for use and to build on through:
https://opendata.paris.fr
Hand in hand with innovation comes pain, and somebody needs to suffer this pain, however once we have it everything is better. For example, electric cars need a new system of electric chargers, this is a pain for some people as well as for the first adopters of the electric car who may have difficulty finding a charger. Somebody has to handle this pain. However with time and once an electric charger network has been built everybody will benefit from it.
For all these reasons the data is extremely important to develop urban hubs into a place where the citizen will have a very high quality of life. It is important to remember that data is just that, the real value of data comes from its use.
What defines Helsinki and other smart cities is their tendency to transparency and openness. Open data available and for free use equals transparency and open governability which in turn makes for an open city. An open city is a smart city.
There are four pillars that define a smart city:
1. Local
2. Sustainable
3. Social
4. Healthy
A smart city is an experienced design with a common goal of making people happy. It is a way of life for the city where it determines how decisions are made and how the city interacts with its citizens. Some of the key elements are decentralisation, hierarchically flattening and increased engagement, this increases the energy at work and allows for crowdsourcing from the citizens who at the end of the day are the users of the city. It is all about optimization of resources and infrastructures with a goal of syncing offer and demand.
However, in order to achieve a highly optimal smart city we need digitally skilled politicians and long term planning and goals. In other words three key things:
1. Roadmapping
2. Easy integration and interfacing. Less bureaucracy.
3. Digital Skills
Anni Sinnemäki, deputy mayor of the city of Helsinki in Finland describes a smart city as a platform where people can work together for a better future.
Helsinki for example publishes as much data as possible through the Helsinki Region Infoshare which is open for everybody to use and build on:
http://www.hri.fi/en/
This resource includes all types and kinds of data and media, from datasheets recording major art exhibitions to vintage photographs of helsinki.
Paris is also a city that strives to be open, connected and sustainable. It also has an open data policy and makes the data open to everyone for use and to build on through:
https://opendata.paris.fr
Hand in hand with innovation comes pain, and somebody needs to suffer this pain, however once we have it everything is better. For example, electric cars need a new system of electric chargers, this is a pain for some people as well as for the first adopters of the electric car who may have difficulty finding a charger. Somebody has to handle this pain. However with time and once an electric charger network has been built everybody will benefit from it.
For all these reasons the data is extremely important to develop urban hubs into a place where the citizen will have a very high quality of life. It is important to remember that data is just that, the real value of data comes from its use.
Comments
Post a Comment