Smart City Initiatives from ITAC Brainstorming 11/28/18 Executive

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Executive Summary

It is no news that the pace of technological change is accelerating across all areas creating both social adoption challenges and opportunities for new and improved individual and community benefits. The Smart City concept is a trend that looks at how communities integrate information and communication technology (ICT) and various physical devices connected to the network (the Internet of Things or IoT) to optimize the efficiency of city operations and services and engage with citizens.

The Innovation and Technology Advisory Committee of Foster City has been recently looking into how Foster City can adopt and prioritize Smart City initiatives to accelerate progress towards achieving the Strategic Goals set by the Foster City Council for the city.

This report describes the work that has been performed by the ITAC team, the analysis and approached that was followed and recommendations to the Foster City Council for next steps in the Smart City Initiative.

The ITAC team, working with IT staff from the city, looked at what technology projects other cities and communities worldwide have been launching in support of their strategic priorities. Using the Strategic Goal framework set by the FC City Council, the team brainstormed on opportunities specific to Foster City that had an impact on one or more strategic goals, turning these opportunities into potential projects and initiatives.

Each of these projects was then measured in terms of three key factors: Benefits to the community, Time to Implementation and Investment Cost. These measurements are rough estimates that would require more detailed analysis but they provided a framework for comparing and prioritizing the projects. Based on this analysis, the ITAC team would like to propose three key initiatives for consideration for further work and investment to the City Council.

The three key initiative are: • Airplane noise sensors • Solar powered cell phone chargers • Smart Street Lights: Solar Powered and Sensor Based

… to be finished …

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Summary of ideas with Rankings

Ranking framework

Time to deploy first pilot: S - less than 6 months M - 6 months to a year L – more than a year Value to the City L – Low or marginal benefit to some part of the community M – Measurable benefit to the community H – Substantial benefit to most of the residents Cost to Implement L – Low cost to FC, could be handled within existing budget M – Medium cost, would require budget changes by the City Council H – High investment, affecting city budget for future years

Project Table

Focus Area Project Time to Value to Cost to Deploy First the City Implement Pilot (L/M/H) (L/M/H) (S/M/L) Citizen Public Safety Video Central M M-H L-M Engagement and Moderated City Chat Room M-L H H Communications through Public FC Smart Public Assistant App M-L H H Services Infrastructure 5G Networks and Small Cell S-M H L Partnership with SMCLabs S M-H L Smart Street Lights: Solar S M L Powered and Sensor Based Automation to Automated Irrigation Control M M M Increase Areal (drone) based GIS M-L M-H L-M Operating mapping and monitoring Efficiency Education & Technology webinar/podcast for S M-H L Resident Reach seniors to Improve City “Innovation zone” for kids S M-H L-M Life Open participation initiatives M M-H L

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Enhance Airplane noise sensors S-M H L-M Sustainability Air quality sensors S-M M L-M and Quality of Life through Solar powered cell phone S-M M-H L-M Sensors and chargers solar power. Transportation Smart Intersections L M-H M

First/Last Mile Service M S-M M

Self-Driving Public Transit L H M

Analytics Open Data Portal S-M M-H M

Strengthening Security S-M-L M M-H

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Recommended Priorities

*** Insert ITAC Recommendations here

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Initiative Details

Smart City Initiative: Public Services (Doris)

Initiative Motivation: Improve citizen engagement and communications by leveraging Public Services applications to enhance communications.

Summary: Foster City has about 34,000 residents and is expected to grow as new residential building projects are completed and later occupied. Many residents are tech savvy and communicate about local elections, thefts, bad behavior and a variety of city issues on Nextdoor and other platforms. It is time for the city to explore a variety of appropriate communications tools. A smart virtual assistant available to the community could be helpful in locating city services and venues, for example, the post office or the city staff member to whom to report their observations in Foster City from a clogged street drain to a stray animal. • Have central location to post videos of crime or bad behavior in the city, such as Ring doorbell videos or dashcam footage • Have something other than Nextdoor. Something moderated with residency verification • FC “Alexa”-type Smart public assistant

Projects

1. Public Safety Video Central Have central location to post videos of crime or bad behavior in the city, such as Ring doorbell video or dashcam footage. Foster City web site to post pre-screened photos and video clips.

Benefit: medium to high

Cost: low to medium, depending on whether paid staff or volunteers do most of the work. There is also potential liability associated with passing judgment on what constitutes good and bad behavior. (Case in point: Do my non-Christian neighbors have the right to post a video clip of me hanging a Christmas wreath in the building lobby or on my deck and call this bad behavior?)

Examples: (bad behavior) https://patch.com/california/fostercity/foster-city-theft-suspects-lead- police-chase-across-bridge-grocery-store (good behavior) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiaKXtb_YNZq2NgYoJ-0-hQ

2. Moderated City Chat Room Have a platform for citizen communication exchanges other than Nextdoor. Something moderated with residency verification. This could be a centralized blog to discuss all

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

issues relevant to Foster City from local politics to the levy improvement, waste water treatment plant to the master plan for parks and new recreation center, traffic, air plane noise, etc.

Benefit: High, if the Nextdoor replacement tool is properly moderated.

Cost: High, depending whether FC can recruit enough qualified volunteers to moderate the new platform. Note: It may be possible to modify settings in Nextdoor in Foster City to make sure a real person owns the account and resides at the stated address. Perhaps invite NextDoor to demonstrate full capabilities to ITAC.

Examples of alternate mobile apps: Meetup, Nearify, City Socializer, Social Radar, Kickstarter, WeGoDo, Foursquare City Guide.

3. FC Smart Public Assistant App

This app would allow residents and interested parties to easily access public city data including parks and physical locations. From a variety of devices, including a home computer or smart phone, a resident could easily get answers to a variety of questions: “What are the crime statistics for my neighborhood?” Do past offenders reside within three blocks of xxx address?” “How does elementary school A compare to school B?” “Which FC parks have bocci ball courts?” “Does FC offer Qi Gong classes and if so where and at what time?”

Benefit: High

Cost: High: FC web site will need a major upgrade to answer questions as posed above. Ongoing maintenance is anticipated.

Examples: Use Google assistant on mobile devices to access the FC website/ portal. Ideally, in addition to Google Assistant, someone could also use Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana and perhaps Amazon Alexa. This would mean supporting android, ios and windows systems.

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Smart City Initiative: Infrastructure (*** Ramiya)

Initiative Motivation: Find ways to address infrastructure initiatives with a view towards minimizing cost while optimizing and accelerating return to investment

Summary: A smart city aims to improve the quality of life for its citizens by harnessing technology to connect infrastructures, resources, and services. An essential criterion of any smart city is a reliable network that allows real-time and secure transfer of the mission-critical data.

In the home, every powered device – light switch, bulb, doorbell, battery, central heating control, door or lock device – will have an IP address and therefore be controllable. In the smart city environment, that list of connected devices expands to include every aspect of living and working in the city and being able to manage that environment to make it safer, cheaper and more convenient for its citizens, all of which will require high-bandwidth, low latency, reliable, secure, wireless networks.

Projects

4. 5G Networks and Small Cell Small cells are a critical piece of the wireless network plan, both for the existing 4G LTE network today and the 5G network of tomorrow. They are wireless transmitters and receivers designed to provide network coverage to smaller areas.

This technology is also integral to laying the groundwork for the upcoming 5G network. With 5G data transfer rates will be 30 to 50 times faster than 4G and sub-millisecond latencies.

Benefits: High Small cell strengthens coverage, data transfer speed and has shown to improve the battery life of the consumer handset.

Cost: Low Wireless carriers will cover the infrastructure costs.

Concerns & Recommendations: Every wireless company is trying to expand/build their small cell infrastructure. There are risk around aesthetics where every city light will look different and pavements will be dug multiple times by various providers. We recommend that we should have a standards for design and implement a “Dig Once Policy”.

Examples/Research: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/tmt/library/5g-small-cell-revolution.html

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

5. Partnership with SMCLabs SMCLabs is leading a smart city project through a new IoT lab aimed at deploying the technology on a regional scale. They are building a test lab in downtown Redwood City, where different approaches can be studied in “a little sandbox” that allows residents and city workers to see IoT in action. We should closely partner with them to leverage the synergies and learn from other cities in the county.

Benefits: Medium to High

Cost: Low

Examples: https://smclabs.io/scaling-smart-city-tech-could-help-clear-regional-obstacles/

6. Smart Street Lights: Solar Powered and Sensor Based Introduction of intelligent technology in combination with clean energy sources results in long-term sustainability and improved public services. Modernizing street lighting infrastructures is part of many successful Smart City Projects. Remote management control also enables the lights to be automatically dimmed or activated via motion sensors.

Benefits: Medium • Clean energy • Reduction in electricity costs • The solar street lighting system is functional even when the city’s electricity grid has problems • Remote Management of lights - sensors can be implemented to turn on/off the lights automatically based on activity levels.

Cost: TBC

Examples: • https://blog.lightinus.com/five-reasons-why-solar-street-lighting-is-a-smart- decision-for-cities • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323347741_Design_and_implementatio n_of_smart_solar_LED_street_light

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Smarter City Initiative: Automation to Increase Operating Efficiency (*** Claudio)

Initiative Motivation: *** TBD.

Summary: Foster City has a large number of parks and other public areas that require substantial maintenance and oversight. The use of remote sensors, robotic devices and drones will provide periodic data points, expected/unexpected event notifications, and multiple viewing capability for city operations management and resident access.

Projects 7. Automated Irrigation Control. Install water use sensors to allow efficient irrigation in public areas. Micro controllers would be set up in all areas requiring irrigation so whenever the soil moisture content is less than certain value, the pump will be automatically turned on and as soon as the soil moisture content becomes more than a particular value, the pump will be turned off automatically. All these activities would be reported and monitored form a Central Control Center (C3) which could be used for multiple purposes (e.g. traffic)

Benefits: Medium • Reduction in use of water by the City. • Postponement of corrective cover maintenance due to underwatering or overwatering. • Minimal (potential) reduction of human participation in manual controls

Costs: Medium • Initial investment in sensor acquisition and installation • Initial investment in C3 implementation and connectivity (could be over 5G) • Ongoing operation expenses (power could be provided by Solar panel at location)

Examples • https://www.skyfilabs.com/project-ideas/dual-axis-solar-panel-tracking-for-smart- irrigation • Several cities worldwide have implemented this

8. Areal (drone) based GIS mapping and monitoring Use commercially available and centrally controlled drones with cameras to support aerial land surveys for city use, remote monitoring of city parks and public areas by police and availability of camera views of park conditions to general resident use. The latter would be similar to the use of “road conditions webcams” on state highways. Activities would be reported and monitored from a Central Control Center (C3) which could be used for multiple purposes (e.g. traffic, city services, police)

Benefits: Medium to High

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

• Enhanced security for residents in the form of police oversight • Reduction in cost of commercial aerial services. • Increased resident appreciation and information transparency and accessibility Costs: Small to Medium • Initial investment in drone acquisition • Initial investment in C3 implementation and connectivity (could be over 5G) • Ongoing operation expenses

Examples • https://www.skyfilabs.com/project-ideas/dual-axis-solar-panel-tracking-for-smart- irrigation

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Smarter City Initiative: Education & Resident Reach to Improve City Life (*** Claudio)

Initiative Motivation: *** TBD.

Summary Technology advances are extremely participatory requiring involvement of all sets of residents in the community. In order to achieve this participation, knowledge and access barriers have to be removed. Education, open access to technology and wide collaboration are key to this.

Projects 9. Technology webinar/podcast for seniors Technology is changing at a increasingly fast pace. Young minds are trained in the newer technologies while older people are left behind making it harder for them to understand and make use of technology advances to improve Quality of Life. Webinars or podcasts oriented to Seniors and accessible from either library of city websites and apps would be a relatively way to start senior technology catch up

Benefits: Medium to High Increase senior use of city services and participation in community activities

Costs: Small Podcasts can be built with volunteer participation and can be acquired/reproduced from other public and educational sources Deployment would be through existing apps connected to Foster City Website

Examples To be documented

10. Innovation Zone for kids Create a hands-on Technology-Lab as an extension – maybe – of the Vibe. Use parents with technology background as volunteers

Benefits: Medium to High Increase appreciation of City services Improve Quality of life for youth in the city

Costs: Low to Medium It may require investment for base lab facilities Costs could be subsidized by local corporation donations

Examples To be documented

11. Open participation initiatives

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Resident request for involvement and hackathons, like New York City's BigApps competition, produce useful and resource-saving apps to improve cities and keep citizens informed. Things like air quality, restaurant sanitation scores, building inspection scores and impending legislation should be readily available for all citizens.

Benefits: Medium to High • Increase resident use of city services and participation in community activities • Resident “goodwill”

Costs: Low • Incremental costs to what is done today in the city • May require active use of self-service data collection and survey software • Would require additional work for Foster City website design

Examples • New York City's BigApps competition

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Smarter City Initiative: Improve Transportation (*** Thaddeus)

Initiative Motivation: *** TBD.

Summary Transportation issues are impacting quality of life for residents of Foster City. This is more than a local issue and regional traffic problems ae encroaching in Foster City local traffic. It would be extremely beneficial to Foster City to incorporate existing and emerging traffic data technology as well as analytics based solutions to control and am eliorate the impact of the traffic issues to Foster City residents

Projects

12. Smart Intersections Cut-through traffic is out of control and impeding on Foster City Resident’s quality of life. Before we can attempt a fix, we need to create an infrastructure to create, collect, and analyze accurate traffic data.

The proposal is to implement advanced sensors, license plate readers, and cameras through “smart intersections”. Co-locate the data and feeds from these cameras into a “Traffic Room”. Utilize data analytics to identify cars only using Foster City as a short- cut to the 92 by accurately identifying and codifying cars at ingress points at 101/EHB, Mariners/FIB, 3rd Ave/FCB and egress points at 92 Eastbound at Edgewater/Emerald Bay and FCB/Metro Center.

Benefits: Medium to High • Diminish the impact of afternoon rush hour traffic • Provide information for proactive traffic planning measures

Costs: Medium

Examples See implementations done at other cities, like Chula Vista or Columbus, OH. https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/Columbus-SCC-Technical- Application.pdf

13. First/Last Mile Service

Too many single-driver cars are on the road and being used by Foster City resident’s commutes as well as employees of our large corporations (Gilead, Visa, Illumina). How do we encourage/facilitate more adoption of public transportation and ride sharing. The proposal is to partner with the large corporations to get funding for first/last mile services.

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Benefits: Medium

Costs: Small to Medium

Examples

• Dedicated locations (hubs) for ride sharing pickup/drop-offs, where *free* e- bicycles and e-scooters are available to take you to/from your work/home. • Utilize social networks like Nextdoor or create a custom Foster City app/website to educate and raise awareness to these new services as well as to connect riders to drivers. • Provide free wifi at these hubs for use while waiting. These hubs can also be used as a shuttle stop between CalTrans/Bart and Foster City. • Increase the number of intra-city shuttles that just circle around Foster City 15 hours a day, five days a week. Intra-city shuttles are *free* to all Foster City residents. Intra-city shuttles to use electricity instead of gas like Mountain View’s Community Shuttle. Energy used to power the shuttles to be provided by solar panels similar to the ones installed at the Library (if not those). • Shuttles to transmit GPS coordinates to central server and then the shuttle location is made available, in real time, to the app/website for residents to know exactly how long the wait will be. Shuttles will provide free-wifi. • In addition, maybe look to add in fast, free electric car charging station at this location. “Come, charge for 15 minutes and pick up a rider or two on your way out.” • Also consider increasing the subsidies for ride sharing apps like Scoop.

14. Self-Driving Public Transit

Foster City is a community away from the major public transit routes (like El Camino Real). People with limited access to cars like youth and seniors need alternatives for moving around and having access to public and commercial services.

The proposal is to partner with the companies that have emerging technologies in self driving vehicles to provide cost effective public transportation services for targeted resident groups.

*** This is a forward looking project that is likely to become relevant in the next 3-5 years. Not for current investment.

Benefits: TBD

Costs: TBD

Examples: TBD

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Smarter City Initiative: Quality of life (*** Doris)

Initiative Motivation: Enhance sustainability of Foster City through implementation of technologies that improve quality of life, for example, monitoring air quality and air plane noise and adding solar-powered cell phone chargers in parks and other public areas.

Summary: Foster City now has about 34,000 residents and is strategically located in the central area of the populous San Francisco Bay region. This convenient location also places Foster City in the midst of air pollution and noise pollution, especially from San Francisco International Airport. Through technology it may be possible to improve the local environment and make strategic use of low-emission alternative energies, including sun and wind. This initiative addresses potential reduction of airplane noise, increased awareness of air quality, and added conveniences like cell phone chargers, information kiosks in parks and around Foster City.

Projects

15. Airplane noise sensors Strategically located noise sensors placed near the Foster City Levy and/or directly under the flight path could measure air craft sounds in decibels, record time of day and perhaps take a photo. Combined with flight schedules and FAA data, this could lead to identification of the specific airplane(s) creating the noise. The airlines and/or pilots who don’t follow guidelines regarding the proper flight path, when to lower their landing gear, etc., could be reprimanded and even fined. This should result in fewer noise violations. A separate issue would be to get SFO and the FAA to modify the flight path and perhaps return to the “quiet bridge approach”. Potential noise reduction depends on cooperation from the FAA.

Benefit: High • high for residents who reside under the flight path.

Cost: Low to Medium • especially if volunteers would take the measurements and report them.

Example: https://www.flysfo.com/community/noise-abatement/aircraft-noise-monitoring-system https://everythingsouthcity.com/2016/10/local-residents-take-on-fight-against-increased- sfo-airplane-noise-due-to-nextgen/

16. Air quality sensors Strategically located air quality sensors placed throughout Foster City could more accurately measure outdoor air quality than what we have now. By becoming more acutely aware of air quality, Foster City can potentially take steps to improve the air as

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

well as issue timely warnings to residents when needed. It remains important to work with surrounding communities and ultimately the world to improve air quality.

Benefit: Medium

Cost: Low to Medium, depending in part whether City staff or volunteers monitor air quality.

Examples: http://www.baaqmd.gov/ https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=317 https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field- keywords=air+quality+outdoor+sensors&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aair+quality+outdoor+se nsors

17. Solar powered cell phone chargers in Leo Ryan Park, later in other parks – could also be City info kiosks. Many Foster City residents carry a smart phone or device with them nearly everywhere they go. These devices often run low on battery power and it would be a great convenience to provide phone chargers throughout the city, especially in the parks -- starting with Leo Ryan Park. An even greater public service would be to combine a City information kiosk with the phone charger. By using solar-powered chargers and kiosks, energy costs will be minimal. Wind power might be another option.

Benefit: Medium to High

Cost: Low to edium after the initial purchase of equipment. Maintenance cost would depend on whether City staff or volunteers do most of the work.

Examples (photos): https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=hmCn0opA&id=716F5F62F 016CF2967A5471BA0BEB3272A5EF81C&thid=OIP.hmCn0opAdp0Wh0Z5UUPWcQ HaES&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2flaughingsquid.com%2fwp- content%2fuploads%2f2014%2f08%2fCityCharge_IC_BLOG- Post_41.jpg&exph=928&expw=1600&q=picture+of+phone+charger+in+a+park+usa&si mid=608034927977041555&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=0%2f9qFMWc&id=7A9D7 B571A1B633ED7739733B035EF3365564AFC&thid=OIP.0_9qFMWcfCUuxGidq9u8Z QHaE8&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2faz598155.vo.msecnd.net%2fwp- uploads%2f2016%2f01%2fplaypoint.jpg&exph=1367&expw=2048&q=picture+of+phon e+charger+in+a+park+usa&simid=607994602529883831&selectedIndex=69&ajaxhist=0

https://www.amazon.com/solar-phone- charger/s?page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Asolar%20phone%20charger

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=Bd%2fZp2cX&id=832567D A4C4FC192043CA98A3194DF18A4D564C4&thid=OIP.Bd_Zp2cXPbaOcBxvOKczow AAAA&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fimg.pickjoomla.com%2fnimg%2f19%2fb6%2fd5cbf dd08265a884eec41243be0c-600x600- 0%2fw3_stainless_steel_waterproof_outdoor_touchscreen_information_kiosk_with_infra red_waterpro.jpg&exph=600&expw=332&q=Information+Kiosks+Outdoor&simid=608 026045951706989&selectedIndex=9&ajaxhist=0

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

Smarter City Initiative: Analytics (***Thaddeus) (The following sections have excerpts that were written by https://hub.beesmart.city/solutions/author/lisa-smith)

Initiative Motivation: *** TBD. Summary: An overwhelming amount of data is being generated by both public and private concerns on an ongoing basis. This data is stored beyond the reach of most people, secured in government or proprietary databases or on individual electronic devices. The types and the depth of this data is growing as new and increasingly technological solutions are implemented to solve the problems of the governments, businesses, and private citizens of smart cities. • New Traffic sensors will produce an endless stream of data. Any resident with a computer can access this raw data and see the impact traffic is having on the city and observe the impact that traffic abatement programs are having (if any). • New Air Quality Sensors can track over time the air quality. Couple that with seasonal and weather data and you can start finding trends and make predictions on air quality and track quality to demonstrate that it is improving or declining. • New Airplane Noise Sensors can track noise decibel levels over time. A resident interested in the noise levels can look at the data and aggregate it over time to see trends and the times when noise levels exceed regulation. • Crime Statistics: The police reports of various types of crimes, their location and time can be tracked and collated. For example, package thefts can be tracked and trends on which neighborhoods are more susceptible and at what time of day and what day of the week they occur most often. Another example are car break-ins, with the same observable metrics. • Financial Data: How much money has been spent on the “wall” (aka Levy). • Construction Data: How long has Beach Park Blvd been closed because of Levy construction. • Educational Data: How many school children are enrolled in the three elementary schools and in which grades? Be able to make predictions for Bowditch capacity 5 years from now so decisions and actions can be made now to prepare.

What Challenges Should Be Considered?

Challenges to the provision and use of open data include: • Privacy concerns. Anonymity must be ensured and misuse prevented, to avoid the compiling of information about an identifiable individual’s behavior or personal history. Consent may be required to make some data more broadly accessible. This consideration will be impacted by regulations such as the European Union’s ‘right to be forgotten’, and questions remain regarding under what conditions data should be shared and who should have control over sharing them. • The potential to lose control over confidential information, both on a personal level and a company level. • The expense of creating and curating an open data portal. While third parties stand to make clear financial gains from successful app development, the return-on-investment for those hosting access is more complex and difficult to measure. • The requirement that data must be machine-readable. Data which is not machine-readable cannot be readily found by search engines, and is therefore effectively useless. • The constant updating and promotion of databases and portals, necessary to ensure that they remain relevant.

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

• Organizational effort must be spent engaging the community in order to generate impact from open data. This will directly affect the success of an open data initiative.

Project 18. Open data portal Expose raw data metrics or pre-canned reports on things like crime stats or water usage trends. The potential advantages of data collection on such a scale are beyond question. Data collection is the most laborious part of any investigation, and yet the majority of global data is going largely unseen and unused. Limiting the number of people who can access it necessarily limits the number of problems to which it can be applied and, in most cases, prevents access to the people best able to apply it. The solution to this is to make the data publicly available via an open government approach: open data.

Benefit: Medium to High The major benefit of open data is its role as an enabler. It places key information into the hands of the people who have the problems – the citizens of smart cities – and those with the ideas and technical knowledge required to solve them. Open data projects therefore hold great potential to provide citizen-centric solutions, optimizing smart city services according to the needs and preferences of the local people, in alignment with geographically differing customs and policies. Open data has the advantage of being cost-free with unlimited usage rights, removing two major barriers to progress. It can lead to new innovations driven by big data analytics, providing: • greater transparency and integrity of the public sector • the possibility to track public money flows • market insights, illuminating current and historical trends, which can be correlated with information on social, political, and environmental climates • the ability to recognize, respond to, or even predict changes in real time • estimations of the impact of different types of change through modelling and simulation, and the ability to test those predictions with a high accuracy depending on the amount of data available • increased productivity via the streamlining of processes and services, by allowing the easy identification of inefficient or ineffective practices • a reduction of environmental impact by simplifying the identification of its sources, and by aiding in the compliance of existing projects, services and infrastructure with environmental regulations • tailored solutions, allowing similar problems to be addressed across different legal frameworks and different demographics

All of these benefits could lead to economic savings, with the potential to generate new and increased economic revenue. A McKinsey report of 2013: “estimated an added annual value of over USD 3 trillion globally with the following seven key areas as targets for open data projects: education, transportation, consumer products, electricity, oil and gas, healthcare, and consumer finance. The report also identified consumers as having the most to gain from open data.”

On the scale of the individual, open data can be used to make more informed financial decisions, and to feed apps which allow smart solutions to the problems faced by large numbers of people across different demographics at the same time, such as real-time traffic information enabling the re-direction of vehicles away from heavy congestion, construction or accident sites.

Smart City initiatives from ITAC brainstorming 11/28/18

For businesses, open data is a cost-effective resource to combine with proprietary databases, to inform effective practices and to tailor new and existing products and services based on consumer trends, as well as identifying finer market segments and successful marketing strategies.

On a governmental level, open data can be exploited to direct improved city planning and job creation, the modernization of education and healthcare systems, and could help to pinpoint inefficiencies and inequalities in the delivery of basic services and facilities.

Location-based open data could also suggest sustainable solutions to address the problems of an ageing population, urban migration and climate change, to deliver solutions which will have a positive economic impact.

Cost: Medium

Examples (photos):

Examples of Open Data:

https://data.smcgov.org/ https://data.ca.gov/

19. Strengthening Security As we employ more IOT devices as part of our city infrastructure (internet-connected smart sensors for traffic or air quality, cameras for traffic lights, etc.) it is imperative that these devices are secured and protected from unauthorized use. As we delve into the possibility of have open data portals, it is imperative that private citizen data is masked and anonymized.

Benefit: Medium (short term) “Cybersecurity has been the No. 1 priority for state chief information officers for the past five years, according to Yejin Jang, director of government affairs for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. However, less than 35 percent of average end users in local governments were either moderately aware or exceptionally aware of cybersecurity issues, according to the International City/County Management Association’s 2016 cybersecurity survey.”

Cost: Medium to High

Examples: https://www.wired.com/story/elaborate-hack-shows-damage-iot-bugs-can-do/