This document discusses concepts related to smart cities and their information modeling. It begins by defining a smart city and outlining some of its key components. It then provides examples of concepts that could be included in an information model for city systems, such as organizations, alerts, incidents, assets, and locations. It also discusses existing standards that could be leveraged for modeling these concepts and provides examples of their current use. Finally, it presents an approach for developing a semantic model called SCRIBE that is aligned with standards, customizable for different city needs, and extensible.
The document reviews several standards for smart cities from organizations like ISO, ITU, and BSI. It summarizes 6 standards and specifications in detail, including the ISO 37120 standard for measuring city services and quality of life, ISO/DIS 37101 for planning and managing smart city initiatives, and technical reports from ITU on smart sustainable cities and key performance indicators. It also mentions other standards from BIS on smart city terminology, overview documents, and planning guidelines. The document concludes that while metrics are becoming standardized, a comprehensive map of all possible smart city interventions is still needed.
Møte mellom NTNU Smart Sustainable Cities og Gjøvik kommune & eiendomsutviklere, 12.01.2018
Overview of ICT/Computer Science projects and large-scale approaches to understand and build Smart Cities.
Collection Methodology for Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable C...ITU
These indicators have been developed to provide cities with a consistent and standardised method to collect
data and measure performance and progress to:
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
becoming a smarter city
becoming a more sustainable city
The indicators will enable cities to measure their progress over time, compare their performance to other
cities and through analysis and sharing allow for the dissemination of best practices and set standards for
progress in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the city level.
For more information visit: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/ssc/united/Pages/default.aspx
This document presents a smart-city implementation reference model. It begins with background on the author and an agenda. It then discusses why an implementation reference model is needed given the complexity of a smart city as a socio-technical system. The reference model applies principles of enterprise architecture, including common capabilities, views across various domains and stakeholders, and a platform-based approach. The goal is to provide best practices and reusable solutions to help cities implement smart technologies and services in a standardized yet flexible manner.
The document reviews several standards for smart cities from organizations like ISO, ITU, and BSI. It summarizes 6 standards and specifications in detail, including the ISO 37120 standard for measuring city services and quality of life, ISO/DIS 37101 for planning and managing smart city initiatives, and technical reports from ITU on smart sustainable cities and key performance indicators. It also mentions other standards from BIS on smart city terminology, overview documents, and planning guidelines. The document concludes that while metrics are becoming standardized, a comprehensive map of all possible smart city interventions is still needed.
Møte mellom NTNU Smart Sustainable Cities og Gjøvik kommune & eiendomsutviklere, 12.01.2018
Overview of ICT/Computer Science projects and large-scale approaches to understand and build Smart Cities.
Collection Methodology for Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable C...ITU
These indicators have been developed to provide cities with a consistent and standardised method to collect
data and measure performance and progress to:
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
becoming a smarter city
becoming a more sustainable city
The indicators will enable cities to measure their progress over time, compare their performance to other
cities and through analysis and sharing allow for the dissemination of best practices and set standards for
progress in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the city level.
For more information visit: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/ssc/united/Pages/default.aspx
This document presents a smart-city implementation reference model. It begins with background on the author and an agenda. It then discusses why an implementation reference model is needed given the complexity of a smart city as a socio-technical system. The reference model applies principles of enterprise architecture, including common capabilities, views across various domains and stakeholders, and a platform-based approach. The goal is to provide best practices and reusable solutions to help cities implement smart technologies and services in a standardized yet flexible manner.
Smart Cities are all about collaboration, sharing and transparency. They need true openness of data. It is not just governments opening up their data for everyone in public platforms. It is individual citizens and privately-owned companies offering their data to the government or government departments sharing their data with one another. That is the true meaning of ‘Open Data’, which goes beyond the traditional definitions. Because Smart Cities eat the ‘status quo’ for breakfast. They change at the speed of light, together with their environment. They are the cities of the future.
Smart City Strategy Platform innovation, data-driven applications and partici...Robin Effing
Presentation at the 2nd International Workshop SISC-DISES in Nice (france). Cities increasingly face challenges regarding participation and collaboration in order to become a “smart city”. The world’s best cities to live in are not the ones with the most advanced technological layers but cities that create an atmosphere where citizens, companies and government together build a vital and sustainable innovation platform. A platform strategy enables cities to engage the most important stakeholders. As a result, quadruple helix innovation contributes to a smarter city. Furthermore, we believe that an open technological infrastructure such as FIWARE is a key enabler for sharing big data from IoT services. In this presentation we present smart city cases from Enschede, Hamburg and Berlin. Furthermore, we show results from our own research projects comprising urban platforms, data visualizations and real-time city dashboards.
Smart Cities - everything a smart city should haveDiksha Gupta
The document discusses concepts related to smart cities, including definitions of smart cities and their aims. It outlines various components and indicators that can be used to evaluate smart cities, such as smart economy, governance, energy, mobility, environment, and living. It also provides examples of smart initiatives in areas like transportation, land use, energy efficiency, and urban development from cities in India, Brazil, and Mexico.
Working towards Sustainable Software for Science (an NSF and community view)Daniel S. Katz
This document discusses challenges and opportunities for developing sustainable software for science. It notes that software is increasingly important for science but current practices and incentives do not support long-term sustainability. The document summarizes discussions from the Working Towards Sustainable Software for Science conference, which identified key issues around developing sustainable software, best practices, policies around credit and careers, and building supportive communities. It proposes that better measuring contributions to software could help address incentives, career paths, and sustainability of software over the long term.
Jim Spohrer provided closing remarks at the end of the IESS 2.2 event on February 18, 2022. He thanked the organizers and recommended the book "Humankind: A Hopeful History" by Rutger Bregman. Spohrer then listed questions related to evaluating real-world service systems and improvements, and encouraged applying for the ISSIP Excellence in Service Innovation Award for papers that can concisely answer these questions. Finally, Spohrer asked participants to share their most innovative service experience from 2021 and discussed how service innovations create win-win outcomes.
IoTMeetupGuildford#1: SOCIOTAL EU - Rob Van Kranenburg (Resonance Design)MicheleNati
The document discusses the vision for a "Smart UK" and "Smart Europe" enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT). It describes how IoT connects various networks from body area networks to city-wide networks. Both the UK and German governments see potential in IoT and are investing in its development. However, for Europe to truly lead in IoT, more coordination is needed across engineering communities, research, and industry. A key step is building an EU platform that aligns technology with decision-making systems to help address issues like health, transportation, and climate change through open infrastructures.
Big data and smart cities are closely related. Smart cities use big data and data analytics to optimize resource management, address issues like population growth and global warming, and manage tight budgets. Some examples of smart city projects utilizing big data include using sensors to manage intermittent bus lanes, powering electric buses through electric roads, and building green data centers to reduce energy usage. While mega smart cities promise advanced technology and services, they also face challenges of large budgets, construction delays, and defining success. Overall, big data and smart technologies have potential to improve city operations when applied strategically to address specific issues.
The document discusses smart cities and smart ICT. It describes the Center for E-Governance at Danube University Krems and their research projects related to government processes, stakeholders, and ICT. Their projects include work with the City of Vienna on open government and open data, and with the Austrian Chancellery on e-democracy, open government data standards, and the workplace of the future.
Data Technology and Smart Cities - Guest lecture Sustainable Facility ManagementDirk Ahlers
Introduction Guest lecture in the Sustainable Facility Management about use cases and options of using Smart City Data Technology in facility management
Understanding Smart Cities as Social MachinesDirk Ahlers
Presentation at the 4th International Workshop on the Theory and Practice of Social Machines SOCM2016 at WWW2016.
Paper is here:
http://www2016.net/proceedings/companion/p759.pdf
More details: http://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~there/
The document discusses Japan's "Super City" initiative to promote smart cities. It provides background on Tak Nagumo, Executive Director of the Smart City Institute Japan, which aims to conduct research and training to advance smart cities. It then outlines Japan's "Society 5.0" vision for using technologies like AI, IoT and robotics to address social challenges. The "Super City" initiative seeks to create model smart cities by implementing multiple digital solutions across areas like healthcare, logistics, education and more.
Conference at Tongi University - Shanghai: Smart City for developing and eme...Isam Shahrour
The conference of professor Isam Shahrour presented the urban challenges of emerging and developing countries, the concept of the Smart City and how this concept could help in facing the challenges of these countries. It also presents the implementation of the Smart City concept through the construction of the SunRise Smart City demonstrator.
Managing Complexities of Smart Cities TOGAF wayUday K Bhatt
This document discusses managing the complexities of smart cities using TOGAF. It outlines the key characteristics, responsibilities, enablers, and principles of smart cities. These include areas like smart economy, environment, mobility, and living. It describes the many data producers and consumers involved and the scope of smart cities. The document also discusses organizing bodies for smart cities and presents examples of reference architectures. It covers compliance standards, components from example architectures, and references further reading.
The document discusses smart city initiatives in Estonia, particularly in Tartu. It outlines the goals of the Tartu Smart City Lab to develop smart mobile and web solutions for cities. The Lab aims to increase competitiveness of ICT companies and help technical infrastructure companies adopt new technologies. Tartu serves as a test site for developing and testing new e-services that can then be exported. The document lists focus areas and partners involved in smart city pilots and presents a vision for Tartu to be a leading smart city solutions developer and exporter by 2020. It proposes the creation of a Baltic Sea Region Urban Forum to foster cooperation between cities, businesses and other organizations on smart city practices and innovations.
The document discusses investigating new business models for agent-based systems within sustainable design. It provides biographies for Dr. Alan Martin Redmond and Dr. Alain Zarli. It then discusses the need to reduce energy emissions and integrate renewables into the grid. Various frameworks and case studies are presented regarding internet of things, new business models, and using agent-based systems for applications like online energy and cost analysis. The summary concludes that Europe has the capability to lead in smart grids but needs more integrated systems, and collaboration with China on smart cities will require more web service applications.
Challenges in Replication and Scaling of PEDs – Technical and Organisational ...Dirk Ahlers
Presentation at: NordicEdge 2021 Smart City Research Symposium | Workshop: Positive Energy Districts as vehicle towards smart and sustainable cities | 22.09.2021
Dirk Ahlers, Annemie Wyckmans
NTNU – Smart Sustainable Cities Group
A Smart City will only become a reality when citizens are engaged in the transformation process through an open and innovating ecosystem. TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange Solution is an integrated platform, based on liquid data that aggregates real-time data from multiple sources along with citizen open data sets, delivers insights and intelligence that municipalities can use to make well-informed, city-level decisions.
Smart Cities are all about collaboration, sharing and transparency. They need true openness of data. It is not just governments opening up their data for everyone in public platforms. It is individual citizens and privately-owned companies offering their data to the government or government departments sharing their data with one another. That is the true meaning of ‘Open Data’, which goes beyond the traditional definitions. Because Smart Cities eat the ‘status quo’ for breakfast. They change at the speed of light, together with their environment. They are the cities of the future.
Smart City Strategy Platform innovation, data-driven applications and partici...Robin Effing
Presentation at the 2nd International Workshop SISC-DISES in Nice (france). Cities increasingly face challenges regarding participation and collaboration in order to become a “smart city”. The world’s best cities to live in are not the ones with the most advanced technological layers but cities that create an atmosphere where citizens, companies and government together build a vital and sustainable innovation platform. A platform strategy enables cities to engage the most important stakeholders. As a result, quadruple helix innovation contributes to a smarter city. Furthermore, we believe that an open technological infrastructure such as FIWARE is a key enabler for sharing big data from IoT services. In this presentation we present smart city cases from Enschede, Hamburg and Berlin. Furthermore, we show results from our own research projects comprising urban platforms, data visualizations and real-time city dashboards.
Smart Cities - everything a smart city should haveDiksha Gupta
The document discusses concepts related to smart cities, including definitions of smart cities and their aims. It outlines various components and indicators that can be used to evaluate smart cities, such as smart economy, governance, energy, mobility, environment, and living. It also provides examples of smart initiatives in areas like transportation, land use, energy efficiency, and urban development from cities in India, Brazil, and Mexico.
Working towards Sustainable Software for Science (an NSF and community view)Daniel S. Katz
This document discusses challenges and opportunities for developing sustainable software for science. It notes that software is increasingly important for science but current practices and incentives do not support long-term sustainability. The document summarizes discussions from the Working Towards Sustainable Software for Science conference, which identified key issues around developing sustainable software, best practices, policies around credit and careers, and building supportive communities. It proposes that better measuring contributions to software could help address incentives, career paths, and sustainability of software over the long term.
Jim Spohrer provided closing remarks at the end of the IESS 2.2 event on February 18, 2022. He thanked the organizers and recommended the book "Humankind: A Hopeful History" by Rutger Bregman. Spohrer then listed questions related to evaluating real-world service systems and improvements, and encouraged applying for the ISSIP Excellence in Service Innovation Award for papers that can concisely answer these questions. Finally, Spohrer asked participants to share their most innovative service experience from 2021 and discussed how service innovations create win-win outcomes.
IoTMeetupGuildford#1: SOCIOTAL EU - Rob Van Kranenburg (Resonance Design)MicheleNati
The document discusses the vision for a "Smart UK" and "Smart Europe" enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT). It describes how IoT connects various networks from body area networks to city-wide networks. Both the UK and German governments see potential in IoT and are investing in its development. However, for Europe to truly lead in IoT, more coordination is needed across engineering communities, research, and industry. A key step is building an EU platform that aligns technology with decision-making systems to help address issues like health, transportation, and climate change through open infrastructures.
Big data and smart cities are closely related. Smart cities use big data and data analytics to optimize resource management, address issues like population growth and global warming, and manage tight budgets. Some examples of smart city projects utilizing big data include using sensors to manage intermittent bus lanes, powering electric buses through electric roads, and building green data centers to reduce energy usage. While mega smart cities promise advanced technology and services, they also face challenges of large budgets, construction delays, and defining success. Overall, big data and smart technologies have potential to improve city operations when applied strategically to address specific issues.
The document discusses smart cities and smart ICT. It describes the Center for E-Governance at Danube University Krems and their research projects related to government processes, stakeholders, and ICT. Their projects include work with the City of Vienna on open government and open data, and with the Austrian Chancellery on e-democracy, open government data standards, and the workplace of the future.
Data Technology and Smart Cities - Guest lecture Sustainable Facility ManagementDirk Ahlers
Introduction Guest lecture in the Sustainable Facility Management about use cases and options of using Smart City Data Technology in facility management
Understanding Smart Cities as Social MachinesDirk Ahlers
Presentation at the 4th International Workshop on the Theory and Practice of Social Machines SOCM2016 at WWW2016.
Paper is here:
http://www2016.net/proceedings/companion/p759.pdf
More details: http://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~there/
The document discusses Japan's "Super City" initiative to promote smart cities. It provides background on Tak Nagumo, Executive Director of the Smart City Institute Japan, which aims to conduct research and training to advance smart cities. It then outlines Japan's "Society 5.0" vision for using technologies like AI, IoT and robotics to address social challenges. The "Super City" initiative seeks to create model smart cities by implementing multiple digital solutions across areas like healthcare, logistics, education and more.
Conference at Tongi University - Shanghai: Smart City for developing and eme...Isam Shahrour
The conference of professor Isam Shahrour presented the urban challenges of emerging and developing countries, the concept of the Smart City and how this concept could help in facing the challenges of these countries. It also presents the implementation of the Smart City concept through the construction of the SunRise Smart City demonstrator.
Managing Complexities of Smart Cities TOGAF wayUday K Bhatt
This document discusses managing the complexities of smart cities using TOGAF. It outlines the key characteristics, responsibilities, enablers, and principles of smart cities. These include areas like smart economy, environment, mobility, and living. It describes the many data producers and consumers involved and the scope of smart cities. The document also discusses organizing bodies for smart cities and presents examples of reference architectures. It covers compliance standards, components from example architectures, and references further reading.
The document discusses smart city initiatives in Estonia, particularly in Tartu. It outlines the goals of the Tartu Smart City Lab to develop smart mobile and web solutions for cities. The Lab aims to increase competitiveness of ICT companies and help technical infrastructure companies adopt new technologies. Tartu serves as a test site for developing and testing new e-services that can then be exported. The document lists focus areas and partners involved in smart city pilots and presents a vision for Tartu to be a leading smart city solutions developer and exporter by 2020. It proposes the creation of a Baltic Sea Region Urban Forum to foster cooperation between cities, businesses and other organizations on smart city practices and innovations.
The document discusses investigating new business models for agent-based systems within sustainable design. It provides biographies for Dr. Alan Martin Redmond and Dr. Alain Zarli. It then discusses the need to reduce energy emissions and integrate renewables into the grid. Various frameworks and case studies are presented regarding internet of things, new business models, and using agent-based systems for applications like online energy and cost analysis. The summary concludes that Europe has the capability to lead in smart grids but needs more integrated systems, and collaboration with China on smart cities will require more web service applications.
Challenges in Replication and Scaling of PEDs – Technical and Organisational ...Dirk Ahlers
Presentation at: NordicEdge 2021 Smart City Research Symposium | Workshop: Positive Energy Districts as vehicle towards smart and sustainable cities | 22.09.2021
Dirk Ahlers, Annemie Wyckmans
NTNU – Smart Sustainable Cities Group
A Smart City will only become a reality when citizens are engaged in the transformation process through an open and innovating ecosystem. TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange Solution is an integrated platform, based on liquid data that aggregates real-time data from multiple sources along with citizen open data sets, delivers insights and intelligence that municipalities can use to make well-informed, city-level decisions.
FIWARE: an open standard platform for smart citiesJuanjo Hierro
This presentation gives you an overview about how FIWARE can be used to materialize the concept of Smart Cities. FIWARE is not only focused in enabling a more efficient management of city services but it goes a step beyond as to help the transformation of cities into ICT platforms enabling the creation of innovative smart applications which ultimately will lead to local economy growth and the well-being of citizens.
IOT is Here - Where Do Service Providers Stand in the Age of IOT?Dr. Mazlan Abbas
The document discusses the challenges and opportunities for telecommunications service providers in embracing the Internet of Things (IoT). It notes that while telecoms have traditionally focused on connectivity, IoT requires end-to-end solutions across devices, networks, platforms and applications. The document outlines a path for telecoms to evolve from basic connectivity players to full IoT service providers and suggests approaches like sensing-as-a-service to encourage adoption, innovation and stakeholder collaboration in building IoT ecosystems.
Design London in partnership with Living Labs Global invite you to a one day symposium on how innovation in services and mobility contribute to creating sustainable cities. The event coincides with the launch of a new publication “Connected Cities: Your 256 Billion Euro Dividend”. This is the first practical guide to the market for innovation in services and mobility in cities, showcasing how cities are exploiting digital technologies to enhance their sustainability and to transform the nature, value and effectiveness of public services.
Manuel Martinez, will showcase Ferrovial's vision on "Smart Cities and Service Innovation in Cities"
This conference was held at the Imperial College London, on March 9th 2010
More info at:
http://www.livinglabs-global.com/Events_2010_Well-Connected-City.aspx
A brief introduction to the Eurotech Group and Eurotech’s M2M Field-to-Application Building Blocks for Smart City Applications
M2M Applications and Use Cases: Industrial Air Conditioning System Monitoring, Environmental Monitoring, Retail Shop Performance Measurement, Retail Energy and Asset Management, Elderly Living Project, Taxi Queue Optimization, Parking Management, Cool Chain Monitoring and Fleet Management Optimization
Ibm Cloud platform and LoRa IoT in smart cityMike Chang
This document discusses IBM's cloud and cognitive IoT solutions. It highlights that IBM Cloud provides a highly secure, scalable and open platform for innovating with IoT. It also describes IBM's end-to-end IoT ecosystem that helps companies build and deploy IoT solutions from chip to cloud. Finally, it promotes IBM Bluemix as an innovation platform that provides the tools, services and runtimes needed to develop cognitive and IoT applications.
This document provides an overview of Cisco's proposed strategy to enter the smart city market. It discusses Cisco's mission, vision and objectives for its smart city initiatives. Some key points:
- Cisco's mission is to pioneer Internet of Everything (IoE) technologies to ensure citizen safety and increase energy efficiency in cities. Its vision is to be an industry leader in helping develop smart cities worldwide.
- Cisco sees opportunities to leverage its expertise in networking and partnerships to provide smart city solutions involving infrastructure, applications and technology. This could help cities improve services while reducing costs.
- The document outlines various strategies Cisco could take, such as expanding its partner network, acquiring emerging technology firms, and developing new business lines around smart
This document provides an introduction to Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities. It discusses Kevin Ashton who coined the term "Internet of Things" and his vision for using data to increase efficiency. Key enabling technologies for IoT like cheap sensors, bandwidth, processing and wireless coverage are outlined. Examples of IoT applications in various sectors like manufacturing, transportation, agriculture and smart cities are provided. The document also discusses challenges in making sense of the large amounts of data generated by IoT devices and the importance of a citizen-centric approach to building smart cities by leveraging crowdsourcing and citizen engagement.
Connecting the Next Billion Devices to the Internet - Standards and ProtocolsSteve Ray
This document discusses standards and protocols that enable interoperability for connecting devices to the internet of things. It notes that while there are many choices for communication protocols, interoperability requires agreement on information exchange standards. The talk will cover existing information exchange standards and technologies that can be used with the standards. It emphasizes that every API or protocol standard should have an accompanying information model that defines relevant concepts to provide necessary context and metadata. Semantic web technologies like ontologies, RDF, and SPARQL can help integrate data from different sources by mapping terms and relationships between standards. This approach supports interoperability across distributed, loosely coupled smart city systems.
DIGITAL TWIN FOR ENHANCING ASSETS INTEGRITY VALUEiQHub
A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical asset that can provide insights through integrated data. The presenter discusses a user-focused and value-driven approach to digital twins, focusing on use cases and incremental value. They provide examples from Arup studies on flood forecasting, water quality prediction, and sewer optimization. The key is developing specific digital twins based on available data and user needs, not technology.
OASIS PMRM overview and tools #EIC2014: Sabo and JanssenJames Bryce Clark
OASIS Privacy Management Reference Model TC (#PMRM) presentation about #standards for #privacy policy implementation, enforcement and modelling methods: by Gershon Janssen and John Sabo at #EIC2014 (European Identity Conference) in Munich, May 2014. Source: https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/pmrm/201405/msg00004.html
The Data Driven University - Automating Data Governance and Stewardship in Au...Pieter De Leenheer
The document discusses implementing data governance and stewardship programs at universities. It provides examples of programs at Stanford University, George Washington University, and in the Flanders region of Belgium. The key aspects covered are:
- Establishing a data governance framework with roles, processes, asset definitions. and oversight council.
- Implementing data stewardship activities like data quality management, metadata development, and reference data management.
- Stanford's program established foundations for institutional research through data quality and context definitions.
- George Washington runs a centralized program managed by the IT governance office.
- The Flanders program provides research information and services across universities through consistent definitions, roles and collaborative workflows.
The document discusses the Internet of Things ecosystem and how to unlock business value from connected devices. It defines IoT and provides projections on growth. It outlines the complex IoT ecosystem and stakeholders involved. It presents a business value framework focused on financial metrics, operating metrics, and relationships. Common value drivers of cost reduction and risk management are discussed. Strategies to unlock more value through revenue generation and innovation are suggested, including focusing on product/customer lifecycles. Overcoming security and privacy challenges is also addressed.
The Direct Project aims to create standards and services to enable secure and meaningful health information exchange over the internet. Current methods of exchanging health data, like fax and unsecured email, are slow, inconvenient, and lack security. The Direct Project has over 60 organizational members and 200 participants working on standards development, implementation, security, and testing to support nationwide health information exchange. The project will be piloted with various provider organizations to evaluate the specifications in real-world settings.
Supporting your CMMC initiatives with Sumo LogicCloudHesive
Organizations in the defense industrial base face challenges in meeting new CMMC cybersecurity requirements due to limited in-house technical capabilities. Leveraging cloud service providers and third-party solutions can help address these challenges by outsourcing infrastructure and providing managed security services. Continuous monitoring of events using a platform like Sumo Logic is important for demonstrating ongoing compliance by assessing the current state, reviewing history, and prioritizing incident response.
This document discusses NIST's Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) program and its 2018 Smart and Secure Cities and Communities Challenge (SC3). The GCTC aims to establish replicable models for deploying Internet of Things solutions in cities to address issues like emergency response and renewable energy. It has involved over 200 action clusters across 160+ cities. The 2018 SC3, run jointly with DHS, will focus on addressing cybersecurity, privacy, and trustworthiness concerns in smart city projects through demonstrations by teams of cities and innovators over 12 months.
TUDOR is a research and technological organization in Luxembourg that focuses on service science and innovation. One of its departments, Service Science and Innovation, conducts research on topics related to service systems governance and enterprise architecture. This includes developing digital models and reference frameworks to help ensure service systems comply with regulations and standards over their lifecycles. As an example, the department is researching how to model the finance sector in Luxembourg as a service system and develop tools to measure its compliance with various laws and best practices.
A New Generation of Practical Web-based Tools for Sustainability ProfessionalsSustainable Brands
In the grand scheme of things, sustainability teams -- wherever they exist -- are very recent additions to companies' formal organizational structures. As such, many of them are facing the disadvantage of no pre-existing commonly-accepted best practices or tools to use in their work. Sustainability professionals are often overwhelmed by the distance they have to cover between setting high-level goals and figuring out what specific steps they can take to make meaningful progress. This workshop, led by a thought leader with a few decades of experience in the field, former Leader of the Sustainability Transformation & Sustainability Strategy practice at Deloitte, will reveal a new wave of practical tools aiming to help automate common sustainability-team workflows.
This document discusses streaming data processing and the adoption of scalable frameworks and platforms for handling streaming or near real-time analysis and processing over the next few years. These platforms will be driven by the needs of large-scale location-aware mobile, social and sensor applications, similar to how Hadoop emerged from large-scale web applications. The document also references forecasts of over 50 billion intelligent devices by 2015 and 275 exabytes of data per day being sent across the internet by 2020, indicating challenges around data of extreme size and the need for rapid processing.
Security & Compliance in the Cloud [2019]Tudor Damian
Almost every business decision requires executives and managers to balance risk and reward, and efficiency in that process is essential to an enterprise’s success. Too often though, IT risk (business risk related to the use of IT) is overlooked. While other business risks such as market, credit and operational risks have long been incorporated into the decision-making processes, IT risk has usually been relegated to technical specialists outside the boardroom, despite falling under the same risk category as other business risks: failure to achieve strategic objectives.
With the emergence of the Cloud, IT risk has suffered yet another radical transformation. The past couple of years have also brought along new vulnerabilities, exploits, and attack methods, as well as new data privacy requirements such as the GDPR. While all of these things require significant changes to any existing processes and tools, they mostly require a different approach when catering to people's IT security awareness, especially when moving to the Cloud.
Collaborative Research with UK MOD - an Academic's Experience ((John Fitzgerald)scirexcenter
John Fitzgerald of Newcastle University summarized his experience with collaborative research projects between his university group and the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD). Some key projects included DIRC/DeVito on system dependability methods, Dynamic Coalitions exploring trust in dynamic groups, and Software Systems Dependability examining interface contracts. MOD engagement provided interesting challenges and helped strengthen research networks. Fitzgerald recommended focusing on relationship-building, varied engagement forms like placements and innovation projects, and presenting challenges in public ways to avoid politics.
Decision Matrix for IoT Product DevelopmentAlexey Pyshkin
At first sight, the development of "hardware" products hardly differs from that of IoT devices. Here you can see the methodology of IoT product development based on an IoT framework by Daniel Elizalde. It’s a convenient and simple model that estimates expenses and potential income, evaluates the technological complexity and at the same time is easily understood by the client.
Made by notAnotherOne
Michael Zargham is the founder and CEO of BlockScience and has expertise in decentralized optimization, control theory, game theory and applied math. He discusses how blockchain technology uses a decentralized ledger, consensus protocol and community to coordinate interactions. Coordination can be done centrally through platforms or decentralized through protocols. Applications like ODEM use blockchain, identity, payments and AI to facilitate multi-party coordination by capturing commitments, finding feasible outcomes, validating rules and enforcing commitments. ODEM's marketplace coordinates educators, students and auxiliary providers for on-demand education programs.
How Eduserv are helping local government organisationsEduserv
- Eduserv is a not-for-profit organization focused on providing IT and digital services to public sector clients including local governments.
- They help clients change their approach to engagement and service delivery through digital services, cloud migration, technical and business consultancy with a focus on local government.
- Eduserv assists local governments with digital transformation including moving to cloud models, optimizing business processes, improving citizen engagement, and reinventing to be more digital and customer-centered in their services.
PERICLES presentation on Appraisal - IDCC15 workshopPERICLES_FP7
This presentation was presented during the PERICLES workshop entitled “automated capture of the environment in a sheer curation context”, which took place at the 10th International Digital Curation Conference on the 11 Feb 2015 in London, UK.
Simon Waddington (King’s College London) provided an outline of the objectives of the recently started investigation into appraisal. As there exist a number of definitions of appraisal, such as “identifying digital objects of continuing business value”, the question of relevant appraisal criteria and their evaluation was raised, motivated by examples from the PERICLES science and media case studies.
Dr. Daniel J. Clouse has over 14 years of experience in data science and leadership at the Department of Defense. He has led teams in building machine learning systems to improve query compliance, information retrieval, text classification, and more. Dr. Clouse has also served as Technical Director responsible for leading compliance modernization efforts through technology development.
Dr. Daniel J. Clouse has over 14 years of experience in data science and leadership at the Department of Defense. He has led teams in building machine learning systems to improve efficiency in areas like query compliance, information retrieval, and text classification. Dr. Clouse has also served as Technical Director responsible for leading compliance modernization efforts through technology development.
Talk by Sophie Meszaros from Open and Agile Smart Cities at Urban Data Talks #6 event on progress of european work on data spaces for sustainable smart cities and communities.
Similar to Smart Cities that don't go "bump" in the night: delivering interoperable smart city systems using Open Standards (20)
Smart Cities - Why they're not working for us yet.Rick Robinson
My presentation to the April 2016 Eurocities Knowledge Sharing Forum in Rennes. My focus was on describing Smart Cities as an economic and political challenge; and exploring the policy mechanisms that could be used to incentivise private sector investments in business and technology to support local social, economic and environmental outcomes. Further description and supporting evidence for these ideas can be found at https://theurbantechnologist.com/2016/02/01/why-smart-cities-still-arent-working-for-us-after-20-years-and-how-we-can-fix-them/
Smart Cities: why they're not working for us yetRick Robinson
This is my January 2016 presentation to the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development as part of their preparation of a report on Smart Cities. The idea of a “Smart City” (or town, or region, or community) is 20 years old; but it has so far achieved comparatively little. The vast majority of Smart City initiatives to date are pilot projects funded by research and innovation grants: there are very, very few sustainable, repeatable solutions yet. This is partly because Smart Cities is usually discussed as a technology trend not an economic and political imperative; and so it has not won the support of the highest level of political leadership, and the widest level of community and citizen engagement. In a few cases where that level of leadership and engagement does exist, however, some cities have shown that existing policy tools and spending streams - such as procurement practises, planning frameworks and property investment - can be been used to create sustainable projects and programmes that can deliver real change.
Big data, open data and telepathy: building better places to live, work and ...Rick Robinson
A recent presentation on Amey's role in creating smarter, more sustainable, socially mobile cities and communities in partnership with our customers in local government, central government, transport and utilities taking into account Trends and technologies such as platform capitalism, automated/autonomous systems and artificial intelligence.
Open data, kebabs and town planning: how to build Smart Cities as if people m...Rick Robinson
My presentation to the ODI Futures "Scaling Open Smart Cities" event. More background on the ideas and projects in the presentation can be found at http://theurbantechnologist.com/
TEDxBrum: From concrete to telepathy: how to build future cities as if people...Rick Robinson
My presentation from TEDxBrum 2014, bringing together examples from my work for IBM in Smarter Cities with examples of great, innovative projects in Birmingham and around the world. A transcript of the accompanying talk is here: http://theurbantechnologist.com/2014/11/11/from-concrete-to-telepathy-how-to-build-future-cities-as-if-people-mattered/
Riba nbs live rick robinson smart cities 281014Rick Robinson
My presentation on Smart Cities to the RIBA and NBS Live Digital Thinking, Smart Buildings conference on 4th November 2014. The presentation gave examples of technologies that are disrupting the services, infrastructures and economies of cities, and examples of applying those technologies in ways that not only create efficiencies and resilience in cities, but that enable local communities and businesses to create their own innovations.
Smarter cities: design thinking and market forcesRick Robinson
A presentation to the UK Government Office for Science describing the design thinking and awareness of urban design necessary for "Smarter City" technology solutions to improve lives, communities and economies in cities. Includes a set of early "design patterns" for re-applying successful "Smarter City" ideas in new contexts; and a high-level analysis of the market drivers and barriers that are determining the speed at which investment can be unlocked to apply these ideas in cities everywhere.
Smarter Cities briefing for the Technology Strategy Board's Future Cities Cat...Rick Robinson
I recently spent the afternoon briefing the UK Technology Strategy Board's Future Cities Catapult team on IBM's engagement in the Smarter Cities market. This presentation covers our Research projects and "Smarter Cities Challenge" through which we developed our understanding of urban challenges and the opportunities for technology to address them; through to our engagement with entrepreneurs and other innovative ecosystems; through to case studies from our work with customers. The downloadable powerpoint file has speaker notes and links to further material.
I gave this presentation at the launch of the British Standards Institutes Smart Cities programme - http://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/smart-cities/ . Open Standards will be enormously important in expressing visions for Smart Cities; winning investment to create them; and successfully implementing their social, governance, engineering, environmental and technology infrastructures. This presentation gives some examples of the issues that it's crucial for Smart Cities standards to address, based on my experience delivering large-scale technology solutions within business change programmes; and on my more recent experience delivering technology infrastructures that help to improve cities. The presentation has full speaker notes in the downloadable Powerpoint file.
Tomorrows smart cities will work like magicRick Robinson
When I was a teenager, I spent my monthly allowance visiting this basement shop in a London Alley near Oxford Street … at the time, it was the only place in the whole of the UK to buy *really* cutting-edge European Death Metal music.
Technology has changed our world so much over the last two decades that my youth seems like ancient history; but over the next two decades, the changes that will become possible as technology develops will be even more striking; and it may even be hard to recognise the way that we interact with our future world as "human behaviour" as we understand it now.
As consumer technologies such as social media, open data and smartphones evolve through the next-generation of "human/computer interfaces", the incredible power of future technology will be put into the hands of individuals and small businesses. By opening up cities' digital infrastructure to them, business and government can help people and cities to help themselves.
How I herd cats - teamwork, persuasion and communicationRick Robinson
Most of us can only accomplish what we need to at home and at work through communication with others. I use this presentation with university students to give them an idea of the types of teamwork, persuasion and communication that they'll find useful in their careers.
Smarter Cities and Communities: technology and collaboration - a presentation...Rick Robinson
I was honoured last year to be asked to address the 16th session of the United Nations’ Commission on Science and Technology for Development in Geneva on the topic of Smarter Cities and Communities. I was invited to speak following the Commission’s interest in my article “Open urbanism: why the information economy will lead to sustainable cities“, which was referenced in their report “Science, technology and innovation for sustainable cities and peri-urban communities“. A transcript of the presentation can be found at http://theurbantechnologist.com/2013/06/06/an-address-to-the-united-nations-science-technology-and-innovation-for-sustainable-cities-and-peri-urban-communities/
Big data, open data and telepathy: technologies for smart, human-scale cities...Rick Robinson
How will cities and communities be successful in the future? Why will people want to live in them and what challenges will they face? Technologies such as big data, 3D printing, the internet of things and social media will be crucial enablers of resilient, vibrant and equitable cities and communities in the future; and technologies invented in coming years will quickly create possibilities that are hard for us to imagine today. But applying them successfully to create better places to live and do business is a challenge for personal and community leadership and business innovation, not just engineering.
leewayhertz.com-AI in predictive maintenance Use cases technologies benefits ...alexjohnson7307
Predictive maintenance is a proactive approach that anticipates equipment failures before they happen. At the forefront of this innovative strategy is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which brings unprecedented precision and efficiency. AI in predictive maintenance is transforming industries by reducing downtime, minimizing costs, and enhancing productivity.
HCL Notes und Domino Lizenzkostenreduzierung in der Welt von DLAUpanagenda
Webinar Recording: https://www.panagenda.com/webinars/hcl-notes-und-domino-lizenzkostenreduzierung-in-der-welt-von-dlau/
DLAU und die Lizenzen nach dem CCB- und CCX-Modell sind für viele in der HCL-Community seit letztem Jahr ein heißes Thema. Als Notes- oder Domino-Kunde haben Sie vielleicht mit unerwartet hohen Benutzerzahlen und Lizenzgebühren zu kämpfen. Sie fragen sich vielleicht, wie diese neue Art der Lizenzierung funktioniert und welchen Nutzen sie Ihnen bringt. Vor allem wollen Sie sicherlich Ihr Budget einhalten und Kosten sparen, wo immer möglich. Das verstehen wir und wir möchten Ihnen dabei helfen!
Wir erklären Ihnen, wie Sie häufige Konfigurationsprobleme lösen können, die dazu führen können, dass mehr Benutzer gezählt werden als nötig, und wie Sie überflüssige oder ungenutzte Konten identifizieren und entfernen können, um Geld zu sparen. Es gibt auch einige Ansätze, die zu unnötigen Ausgaben führen können, z. B. wenn ein Personendokument anstelle eines Mail-Ins für geteilte Mailboxen verwendet wird. Wir zeigen Ihnen solche Fälle und deren Lösungen. Und natürlich erklären wir Ihnen das neue Lizenzmodell.
Nehmen Sie an diesem Webinar teil, bei dem HCL-Ambassador Marc Thomas und Gastredner Franz Walder Ihnen diese neue Welt näherbringen. Es vermittelt Ihnen die Tools und das Know-how, um den Überblick zu bewahren. Sie werden in der Lage sein, Ihre Kosten durch eine optimierte Domino-Konfiguration zu reduzieren und auch in Zukunft gering zu halten.
Diese Themen werden behandelt
- Reduzierung der Lizenzkosten durch Auffinden und Beheben von Fehlkonfigurationen und überflüssigen Konten
- Wie funktionieren CCB- und CCX-Lizenzen wirklich?
- Verstehen des DLAU-Tools und wie man es am besten nutzt
- Tipps für häufige Problembereiche, wie z. B. Team-Postfächer, Funktions-/Testbenutzer usw.
- Praxisbeispiele und Best Practices zum sofortigen Umsetzen
Main news related to the CCS TSI 2023 (2023/1695)Jakub Marek
An English 🇬🇧 translation of a presentation to the speech I gave about the main changes brought by CCS TSI 2023 at the biggest Czech conference on Communications and signalling systems on Railways, which was held in Clarion Hotel Olomouc from 7th to 9th November 2023 (konferenceszt.cz). Attended by around 500 participants and 200 on-line followers.
The original Czech 🇨🇿 version of the presentation can be found here: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/hlavni-novinky-souvisejici-s-ccs-tsi-2023-2023-1695/269688092 .
The videorecording (in Czech) from the presentation is available here: https://youtu.be/WzjJWm4IyPk?si=SImb06tuXGb30BEH .
Trusted Execution Environment for Decentralized Process MiningLucaBarbaro3
Presentation of the paper "Trusted Execution Environment for Decentralized Process Mining" given during the CAiSE 2024 Conference in Cyprus on June 7, 2024.
Skybuffer SAM4U tool for SAP license adoptionTatiana Kojar
Manage and optimize your license adoption and consumption with SAM4U, an SAP free customer software asset management tool.
SAM4U, an SAP complimentary software asset management tool for customers, delivers a detailed and well-structured overview of license inventory and usage with a user-friendly interface. We offer a hosted, cost-effective, and performance-optimized SAM4U setup in the Skybuffer Cloud environment. You retain ownership of the system and data, while we manage the ABAP 7.58 infrastructure, ensuring fixed Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and exceptional services through the SAP Fiori interface.
HCL Notes and Domino License Cost Reduction in the World of DLAUpanagenda
Webinar Recording: https://www.panagenda.com/webinars/hcl-notes-and-domino-license-cost-reduction-in-the-world-of-dlau/
The introduction of DLAU and the CCB & CCX licensing model caused quite a stir in the HCL community. As a Notes and Domino customer, you may have faced challenges with unexpected user counts and license costs. You probably have questions on how this new licensing approach works and how to benefit from it. Most importantly, you likely have budget constraints and want to save money where possible. Don’t worry, we can help with all of this!
We’ll show you how to fix common misconfigurations that cause higher-than-expected user counts, and how to identify accounts which you can deactivate to save money. There are also frequent patterns that can cause unnecessary cost, like using a person document instead of a mail-in for shared mailboxes. We’ll provide examples and solutions for those as well. And naturally we’ll explain the new licensing model.
Join HCL Ambassador Marc Thomas in this webinar with a special guest appearance from Franz Walder. It will give you the tools and know-how to stay on top of what is going on with Domino licensing. You will be able lower your cost through an optimized configuration and keep it low going forward.
These topics will be covered
- Reducing license cost by finding and fixing misconfigurations and superfluous accounts
- How do CCB and CCX licenses really work?
- Understanding the DLAU tool and how to best utilize it
- Tips for common problem areas, like team mailboxes, functional/test users, etc
- Practical examples and best practices to implement right away
5th LF Energy Power Grid Model Meet-up SlidesDanBrown980551
5th Power Grid Model Meet-up
It is with great pleasure that we extend to you an invitation to the 5th Power Grid Model Meet-up, scheduled for 6th June 2024. This event will adopt a hybrid format, allowing participants to join us either through an online Mircosoft Teams session or in person at TU/e located at Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven, Netherlands. The meet-up will be hosted by Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), a research university specializing in engineering science & technology.
Power Grid Model
The global energy transition is placing new and unprecedented demands on Distribution System Operators (DSOs). Alongside upgrades to grid capacity, processes such as digitization, capacity optimization, and congestion management are becoming vital for delivering reliable services.
Power Grid Model is an open source project from Linux Foundation Energy and provides a calculation engine that is increasingly essential for DSOs. It offers a standards-based foundation enabling real-time power systems analysis, simulations of electrical power grids, and sophisticated what-if analysis. In addition, it enables in-depth studies and analysis of the electrical power grid’s behavior and performance. This comprehensive model incorporates essential factors such as power generation capacity, electrical losses, voltage levels, power flows, and system stability.
Power Grid Model is currently being applied in a wide variety of use cases, including grid planning, expansion, reliability, and congestion studies. It can also help in analyzing the impact of renewable energy integration, assessing the effects of disturbances or faults, and developing strategies for grid control and optimization.
What to expect
For the upcoming meetup we are organizing, we have an exciting lineup of activities planned:
-Insightful presentations covering two practical applications of the Power Grid Model.
-An update on the latest advancements in Power Grid -Model technology during the first and second quarters of 2024.
-An interactive brainstorming session to discuss and propose new feature requests.
-An opportunity to connect with fellow Power Grid Model enthusiasts and users.
Letter and Document Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Sol...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on automated letter generation for Bonterra Impact Management using Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
Interested in deploying letter generation automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
How to Interpret Trends in the Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart.pdfChart Kalyan
A Mix Chart displays historical data of numbers in a graphical or tabular form. The Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart specifically shows the results of a sequence of numbers over different periods.
Programming Foundation Models with DSPy - Meetup SlidesZilliz
Prompting language models is hard, while programming language models is easy. In this talk, I will discuss the state-of-the-art framework DSPy for programming foundation models with its powerful optimizers and runtime constraint system.
Fueling AI with Great Data with Airbyte WebinarZilliz
This talk will focus on how to collect data from a variety of sources, leveraging this data for RAG and other GenAI use cases, and finally charting your course to productionalization.
Monitoring and Managing Anomaly Detection on OpenShift.pdfTosin Akinosho
Monitoring and Managing Anomaly Detection on OpenShift
Overview
Dive into the world of anomaly detection on edge devices with our comprehensive hands-on tutorial. This SlideShare presentation will guide you through the entire process, from data collection and model training to edge deployment and real-time monitoring. Perfect for those looking to implement robust anomaly detection systems on resource-constrained IoT/edge devices.
Key Topics Covered
1. Introduction to Anomaly Detection
- Understand the fundamentals of anomaly detection and its importance in identifying unusual behavior or failures in systems.
2. Understanding Edge (IoT)
- Learn about edge computing and IoT, and how they enable real-time data processing and decision-making at the source.
3. What is ArgoCD?
- Discover ArgoCD, a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes, and its role in deploying applications on edge devices.
4. Deployment Using ArgoCD for Edge Devices
- Step-by-step guide on deploying anomaly detection models on edge devices using ArgoCD.
5. Introduction to Apache Kafka and S3
- Explore Apache Kafka for real-time data streaming and Amazon S3 for scalable storage solutions.
6. Viewing Kafka Messages in the Data Lake
- Learn how to view and analyze Kafka messages stored in a data lake for better insights.
7. What is Prometheus?
- Get to know Prometheus, an open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit, and its application in monitoring edge devices.
8. Monitoring Application Metrics with Prometheus
- Detailed instructions on setting up Prometheus to monitor the performance and health of your anomaly detection system.
9. What is Camel K?
- Introduction to Camel K, a lightweight integration framework built on Apache Camel, designed for Kubernetes.
10. Configuring Camel K Integrations for Data Pipelines
- Learn how to configure Camel K for seamless data pipeline integrations in your anomaly detection workflow.
11. What is a Jupyter Notebook?
- Overview of Jupyter Notebooks, an open-source web application for creating and sharing documents with live code, equations, visualizations, and narrative text.
12. Jupyter Notebooks with Code Examples
- Hands-on examples and code snippets in Jupyter Notebooks to help you implement and test anomaly detection models.
5. Hard Infrastructures
Spaces and buildings
Transport and Utilities network
Information and Communication Technology
Soft Infrastructures
Networks and Community organisations
Innovation forums
Leadership and governance
City Systems
Transport
Services
Health
Culture
Economy
City
Admin
Utilities
Social
Care
Public
Safety
Education
Others...
?
Public Sector Community Private Sector
Others ... ?
Schools
Emergency Services
Council
3rd Sector
Others ... ?
Social Enterprises
Not-for-profits
Charities
Others ... ?
SMEs
Retailers
Employers
Others ... ?
Neighbourhoods
Cultural & Religious
Independence Choice Sustainability Others ... ?
Wealth Opportunity SafetyHealthGoals
Citizens, Employees, Innovators, Visitors ...People
Ecosystem
Family & Social
http://theurbantechnologist.com/2012/09/26/the-new-architecture-of-smart-cities/
Barack Obama used his twitter account to great effect in winning his first Presidential Election. However at one point during the campaign, a Twitter administrator’s account with a weak password was hacked using a dictionary attack. Barack Obama’s account was one of those that the hacker gained access to, resulting in a series of inappropriate tweets reaching his 155,000 followers.
When technology is used to influence or control real-world systems, technology failures can have significant real-world impacts.
There are thousands of examples of IT projects that run into difficulty, or that deliver unsatisfactory systems, because of failures of communication between the very many stakeholders involved; from misinterpretations of business requirements to mis-communication between project teams. Any experienced IT deliver person will recognise all of the problems illustrated by this cartoon.
First, we need to agree what a Smart City is. This is the most succinct and open definition I use.
Secondly, we’ll need common understanding across all of the very many areas of concern involved in Smart Cities, from environment to technology infrastructures to systems such as healthcare and water supply, through communities and cultural ecosystems to governance and politics.
This diagram is taken from my article, “The New Architecture of Smart Cities”: http://theurbantechnologist.com/2012/09/26/the-new-architecture-of-smart-cities/
The objective of Smart Cities isn’t to create a financial profit – though they must demonstrate some form of financial value in order to attract investment. The real objectives are usually social, environmental and economic. There are strong resonances with the concept of the “triple bottom line” and social capital. But brand value is also important, as cities seek to attract residents and businesses in a globally competitive market.
When IT projects fail, they usually fail at the interfaces between systems. As technology becomes embedded in more and more physical and social systems, we are creating new interfaces that we have never built before. The risk of failure is therefore high, and we need to design those interfaces carefully to avoid failure as far as possible; and to mitigate its effects. One way to do that is to create new standards that professionals in technology, construction, social care and politics can all use, along with citizens, communities and businesses, to at least build a common understanding of how those interfaces should behave.
This spreadsheet illustrates the difference in culture between the IT industry and the engineering and construction industries. In IT, the prevailing culture is to assume that a project is proceeding successfully unless it can be demonstrated to be failing, or to be exposed to unacceptable risk. In the engineering and construction industries, projects are not assumed to be successful until it is proved they are deliverable on time.
I once saved a deeply troubled, multi-£100m IT programme by adopting construction culture, not IT culture. This spreadsheet was colour-coded red for every element of every project that could not prove it had committed resources to address every issue in it’s project plan. “Rick and Dave’s big red spreadsheet” – printed out on A2 paper and walked around the office of the company running the project – drew attention to the number and severity of issues affecting the programme, resulting in a restructuring that enabled it to be successful.
It’s already hard enough to deliver projects successfully in the IT, construction and engineering industries. When we bring them together; and attempt to address issues in the complex, emergent, human context of cities, we’ll multiply the challenges. Standard approaches to expressing targets, measuring progress towards them, and characterising and quantifying risk will be needed if we are to succeed.
This diagram describes part of the project methodology by which IBM governs the delivery of complex IT projects. Most successful organisations have similar formal methods (“agile” methods are structured very differently to traditional methods; but they are still methods). The most experienced project delivery expert that I know once told me “if you see no method applied to project governance, be worried. If you see two or more methods, be terrified”.
Smart cities projects will involved teams and companies drawn from a wide variety of disciplines and sectors. They will all have very different methods of delivering projects successfully. Unless we can at least align those Methods to each other, it will be very difficult and risky to deliver Smart Cities projects successfully.
Smart Cities solutions involved systems in many different domains – utilities, social care, education, culture – integrating successfully together.
But integration, especially of such complex systems, is not easy.
These are just a small number of the “entities” that my colleagues realised needed to be used in common descriptions of maintenance work carried out on roads and utility systems in cities – a tiny subset of the overall number of systems.
It’s actually very laborious to define any of these entities in a way that is sufficiently detailed to be useful; and in a way that organisations and individuals as different as city councils, gas companies, homeowners and traffic officers will agree to.
And there are already a plethora of different standards describing these entities from different perspectives. This is just a sample of the existing samples my colleagues found.
As a result, one of the pieces of research work IBM is undertaking – in partnership with Universities around the world – is to attempt to build a common “meta-model” of information and entitites relating to city systems, so that we can start to understand the scope and complexity of the work that will be involved in integrating them together.
Of course, you don’t need this level of analysis if you simply need to integrate a works management system for pavements with a works management system for gas pipes – that individual piece of work is much simpler.
But if we aspire eventually to achieve the widespread integration of information from city systems – either in order to operate them more consistently and effectively; or to release that information to citizens, businesses and communities as open data in a form that is useful to them – then we need to recognise and tackle this important and complex problem.
The good news is that there are plenty of efforts underway to do this. One example is the EU-funded “European Platform for Intelligent Cities”, in which IBM is one of many participants.
Open standards for Smart Cities will be an incredibly important tool for addressing the issues that I’ve described; but it is not a panacea.
In the early days of internet computing, the development of the J2EE Open Standard played a tremendously important role in reassuring customers that the products of companies such as IBM and WebLogic (now owned by Oracle) could allow them to adopt internet computing without becoming “locked in” to a single vendor’s platform – a concern now shared by all of the cities that I speak to about Smarter Cities.
In theory, the fact that both IBM and WebLogic’s products complied to the J2EE standards meant that customers could build applications that could be moved from one to the other – or to Open Source offerings such as JBoss – with minimal effort.
But reality is always more complicated. Writing and agreeing an Open Standard that completely describes the behaviour of something as complex as a Web application server is a very complex task. In 2002, the EJB 1.1 specification, part of the J2EE specifications, was supported by both IBM and WebLogic. However, the specification omitted to describe a crucial aspect of how Web applications servers should interact with databases. Vendors such as IBM, JBoss, WebLogic and others had to chose a way to address the issue, and all chose different approaches, with the result that applications were not in fact portable between platforms. This issue was addressed several months later in the EJB 1.2 specification, but in the meantime customers faced the hard choice of developing applications that could only be moved between platforms with effort; or delaying the business applications that they needed.
Similar issues are absolutely guaranteed to occur through the development of Smart Cities standards by the BSI , City Protocol Society , OASIS, ISO and all of the other relevant standards bodies – the systems involved are just so rich and complicated that there’s simply no way to get the standards right and complete first time.
Technology providers, the Open Source community, standards bodies and cities should all be very open about these issues – they should not be hidden deep in technical documentation. Smart Cities systems will affect real lives, and be involved in life and death situations. Edward Tufte’s analysis of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster showed that the crucial information that predicted the disaster would happen was presented by engineers to NASA’s managers long before the disaster. But is was buried as a small detail in complex technical presentations. We must not make that mistake with Smart Cities standards as we develop them.