This document discusses challenges for smart city marketplaces. It notes that while many cities have formally adopted smart city strategies, investment tends to focus on peripheral applications like lighting and communications that are lower risk rather than more abstract solutions. Cities are also cautious and doing digital transformation slowly due to concerns about costs, infrastructure capacity, and data management roles being unclear. No single ecosystem actor has the right profile to take on operational responsibilities after individual projects are complete due to needs for quick returns, unique operational requirements, and trust beyond individual consortiums. The Open & Agile Smart Cities initiative aims to help address these challenges through infrastructure development, capacity building, certification, and solutions sharing under a practical umbrella working with existing and new partners.

1. Challenges for Smart City
Marketplaces
Perspectives from the ground

3. Smart
mobility
Smart
HEALTH
Smart
government
Smart
environment
Smart
ENERGY
Smart
people
citizens
government
research
business
Quadruple helix

4. 5
ALL HAVE AND NEED DATA
ALWAYS
ANYWHERE

5. Current MIMs
Formally adopted by global community of 120+ cities in 25+ countries
6

6. 10 → 18 → 130
A Global Market for IoT-
enabled Urban Services

7. Post-Synchronicity
Infrastructure
Capacity
Certification
Transactions
8

8. Challenges
Patterns of investment suggest value from peripheral
applications, not abstracted level
o E.g. lighting and comms
o Lower risk
o Tangible output
o Existing budget lines
o Technology exists, yet stand-alone needs hardly emerging
9

9. Challenges
Cities are doing digital transformation ‘with
brakes on’
o Cost of scenario reversal
o Infra, capacity, role as data nexus unclear
o Risk profile
o Ease of use is not an argument
10

10. Challenges
No ecosystem actor has the right profile to pick
up role post-project
o Huge investment, quick returns needed, wrong horse
likely (dead horse very visible)
o Use case champions missing
o Operational uniqueness (not a side gig)
o Trust profile outside of consortium boundaries
11

11. Intermediate frame OASC
Infrastructure buildup
o But selling points needed!
Capacity building
o But role still not entirely defined
Certification of ecosystem
o Limited to procurement and projects
Solutions repository federation (SDG11 GC)
o Working with incumbent and upcoming parties under practical umbrella
o Not transactional
12

12. Thank you!
Reach out to us:
www.oascities.org
Twitter: @oascities
Dr. Davor Meersman
CEO
davor@oascities.org