Smart Cities For Dummies

Appendix D

Solutions Built on Open Data

Among the top characteristics of a smart city is the effective management and use of data. In a digital world, data is an input that is powering capabilities and an output that is created as a product of activities. The volume, velocity, and variety of data continues to grow. At this scale, it even has a name: It’s called big data. Original, eh?

City governments are catching up with the private sector by recognizing the value of data and beginning to leverage it to their advantage. After all, cities create an abundance of data. It may be the only thing that every city has in abundance. (I discuss the value of city data in detail in Chapter 9.)

Data that is made freely available by governments to everyone to use as they want, with no restrictions, is called open data. One of the most valuable ways in which open data is being used is for the creation of useful applications. Individuals and organizations of all kinds are leveraging the variety and volume of data to create all manner of utilities for city staff and community members. Rather than wait for a government to build a particular solution, open data empowers anyone to step up and generate value. It’s a win-win. It produces important capabilities for a community typically without cost to the government, and these new applications can result in the creation of new businesses and employment.

The creation of solutions through open data is a global trend, and it can be a defining quality ...