Making smart cities smarter

During the past decade, there has been rapid growth of the smart cities movement – improving critical public service delivery, while reducing cost over the long run, through the Internet of Things, real time data gathering, better sensors and integrated systems management. The pace of growth is resulting in a wide variety of do-it-yourself models for smart communities to address their IoT data management and analysis needs. If there are advantages in connecting all of the various components of the complex business of a local government, it follows that there have to be economy of scale opportunities for even greater efficiencies and innovations by connecting Smart Cities’ data systems to each other. US Ignite and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) recently announced a strategic alliance to provide the platform to help municipalities of all sizes to work together to develop a blueprint for a “secure and interoperable exchange of data beyond city operational boundaries.”

The joint initiative will develop the foundation for a data-exchange specification or standards to pave the way for greater inter-operability across data formats, protocols and common APIs while still meeting security and privacy demands. 

“Sharing data is how smart communities will continue to grow, improving economic development and quality of life,” said Nick Maynard, Chief Strategy Officer of US Ignite. “But we can only achieve that reality by collaborating on issues of technology, security, privacy, and usability. Working with ATIS, it’s our goal to help ease the transition to a smarter data-sharing society. We may not have all the solutions today, but through this program, we can act as a guide through the process by aggregating resources and best practices, defining technical standards, and consolidating efforts already underway in communities around the country.”

The work has a fast-tracked target completion date of spring 2019; the inaugural meeting for cities interested in participating in the Smart Cities Data Exchange was held Sept. 26.  More information is available here.