Local government already faces many challenges to transform public services and they are under increasing pressure to do more with less.
While the current situation facing local authorities is tough - possibly tougher than has been previously experienced - there is an opportunity to explore a new landscape utilising the huge talent and expertise, which exists in the sector.
It is predicted that 75% of the world’s population, an estimate of nine billion people, will live in cities by 2050. To meet the challenge of this major societal change, cities all across the world have created Smart or Future City programmes to adapt to this change.
As a founder of a web science company and an independent Smart City specialist I am focused on projects that will deliver the foundational strategies and technologies, which will allow Smart Cities to take advantage of this huge opportunity. However, this will require a new approach to the delivery of local services and require a change of role for local government.
I have profiled a number of different Smart City models being created across the UK and there are similarities with the International Smart City models but there are also a few differences. This has prompted me to focus my energies into the development of the emerging standards work being led by the British Standards Institute.
While each Smart City needs to be able to develop its own response to the needs of its citizens, it is vital that there is at least an overarching framework that all Smart Cities use to deliver their vision. Without this standards work we will see the local government landscape slide into a series of Smart City silos.
At the heart of each Smart City will not be a set of local services, but the citizen. The evolution of this new model will be dependent on a connected approach towards technology. As a cloud specialist I am concerned that vendor lock in will emerge as a key problem for our Smart Cities. To offer an alternative Open Platform approach I have loaded a set of services on the latest G-Cloud framework, which we use for our Internet of Things (IoT) work in the private sector.
Smart City data is jointly owned by the City and its Citizens and this will require a step change in current Smart City thinking. Data is the key resource that will make our cities Smart and Big Data technologies will enable city leaders to deliver the connected economy vision. However, a different approach to the way in which data is used and managed will be required to ensure that technology vendors respect the data on Smart City platforms. The vendor should perform a ‘curation’ role rather than the traditional ‘ownership’ role adopted by vendors of Big Data platforms.
The opportunities for local economies to develop sustainable growth can be spearheaded by local government, transforming local services in the heart of a Smart City. In my work with city leaders across the UK I am impressed by the collaborative way in which this is being approached. There are many cities that have not benefitted by large cash injections, but are using their limited resources effectively to deliver on their vision.
While the measures of success for Smart Cities have yet to be developed, citizens will either adopt or ignore what is being built, so the real benchmark will be how well the Smart City has enabled the citizen.
Jacqui Taylor is founder and CEO of FlyingBinary
