Why we’re building Urban SDK, a data confidence platform for smart cities.
As the entire world pauses to rally, defeat and recover from the Coronavirus, we’ve been exposed to a hard truth: The way our governments collect, report and use data is haphazard, disconnected and frankly — dangerous.
With the absence of accurate, early information from China we set off a butterfly effect.
The result?
- Gross underestimation of severity
- Negligence to prepare infrastructure and resources
- Hesitant leadership
- Inaccurate Reporting
- Confusion among the media
- Political posturing that has fed fear and distrust in our communities
We wish we had a different use case to share why we exist, but our mission at Urban SDK has never felt more urgent or necessary.
Inequity is undermining public trust.
Distrust of government is growing from demonstrations of inequity and unfairness in the system. Inequity is amplified by major, social media and with one in your face Netflix documentary series after another, a lack of trust has never be more apparent.
A lack of trust in the government has never been more popular.
Highlighted clearly during crisis, the mass perception is that governments and global corporations increasingly serve the interests of the few over everyone. “Governments, more than any institution, is seen as least fair; 57 percent of the general population say government serves the interest of only the few, while 30 percent say government serves the interests of everyone.”
Fear eclipses hope, opinions create a wider divide.
The US economy is driven apart by fear, uncertainty and...
Specifically, 83 percent of employees say they fear losing their job, attributing it to the gig economy, a looming recession, a lack of skills, cheaper foreign competitors, immigrants who will work for less, automation, or jobs being moved to other countries.
Against the backdrop of growing political cynicism and the inequality of our current economic systems and the deep-seated fears about the future.
Traditional governments aren’t set up to make real-time decisions that serve the greater good. It simply cannot scale to take advantage of the emerging data we must use to improve decisions and unlock better outcomes.
Whether we blame bad data, disconnected systems, political posturing or all of the above, the reality is — leaders in 90,000 US cities now face the real outcomes of slow, misinformed decisions. Many of them are now realizing we’ve done too little, too late.
Distrust spreads through inaccurate, unreliable opinions and misinformation.
When people are massively under informed, especially during pandemic, opinions and hearsay generate fear, confusion, and difference of opinion.
While data may not be able to eradicate politics and mass media clickbait, a trusted source of information CAN help government leaders shift from an evidence-based approach by giving them the technology to gather, share and use more accurate data in real time.
For instance, the opinion COVID-19 impacts only the elderly with underlying health conditions.
Inaccurate reporting and misinformation led the mass population to believe they would not be impacted or if at all only potentially mild flu like symptoms. When in fact, the first well document Italian death was a 38 year old man, far from submitting for AARP discounts or collecting social security.
Misinformation delayed responses from federal, state and local governments to implement social distancing and travel restrictions which potentially created new hotspots from exponential transmission throughout the State of Florida due to infected cruise ships and airplanes from potentially ignorant travelers assuming their spring break would not be impacted by a global pandemic.
Delayed response and fears of economic impact caused an outbreak in Florida’s larger spring break destinations, Miami Dade and Broward counties.
For governments, data is not an asset, it is a chore.
For politicians, data is not an asset, unless it’s an election year or pandemic or federal inquiry. For state and local governments, data is the spreadsheet used to create a PDF for reporting during federal oversight, funding, legal documentation and budgeting.
So it shouldn’t shock you that the best approach to a data strategy, in the US, is one off, open source contributions with limited, purposeful intention to build anything of meaning beyond a catalog of datasets.
For state and local government agencies, data is the spreadsheet used to create a PDF for federal reporting.
Widely, state and local governments view data as a management chore, not an asset. Most organized initiatives are a check-box component of a data strategy with approaches geared to data management from a data center perspective, storage, security, up-time, CPU, etc, not staffed or guided to solve public problems.
At Urban SDK, we are turning public data into a public asset.
When public dollars are put to use by innovators to improve quality of life for all, data becomes a public asset. Over the last 24 months our team has built next generation smart mobility platform connecting city & transportation planners to the reliable data sources they need to accelerate more confident decisions every day.
Enhance your data confidence to accelerate mobility intelligence, improve decision quality and unlock a higher quality of life for your community.
Industry problem: Traditional urban planning cannot scale to take advantage of the emerging data we need to improve decision confidence and unlock better city and transportation policy and budgeting outcomes for our communities.
So we built the most flexible smart mobility platform to simplify how mobility leaders collect and use more reliable data, accelerate decision confidence, improve services and deliver outcomes that improve trust without the need to increase financial and talent resources.
Next up; accelerating digital governments
We built Urban SDK as a collaborative framework for government institutions to share data, automate analysis and communicate insights in order to give our leaders the speed, agility and intelligence to make real-time, urgent decisions.
Government problem: Governments cannot scale cannot scale to take advantage of the emerging data we need to improve decision confidence and unlock better quality of life and budgeting outcomes for our communities.
Data will change how we govern. We envision a pathway to a new form of government — one that is automated, tailored and unbiased in its service to create equality, safety and opportunity for all citizens. Our mission is focused on building smarter communities through innovative solutions for government authorities.
What We Build: Urban SDK is a software company designed to drive information, innovation and transformation at all government levels in order to accelerate automated and intelligent citizen services.
Why We Build: Urban SDK connects public agencies, policy makers, and the community with better data to make more informed policy and budgeting decisions. We enable customers to quickly gather, analyze, and visualize performance indicators to make decisions with a higher degree of confidence.
Initial Success: Since launch we have earned the trust of government agencies in the United States and European Union. Currently public agencies as customers, including: State Department of Transportations, Law Enforcement, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Transit Authorities, Municipal Utilities, Cities and State Agencies use our platform.
Our Solution
We provide customers with a smart data platform connecting city & transportation planners to the reliable data sources they need to accelerate more confident decisions every day.
Our IoT analytics software enhances your data confidence to accelerate mobility intelligence, improve decision quality and unlocks internal staff capabilities without the need to hire specialized staff.
With modern data tools to you can identify open source data in a Data Exchange, automate reporting with Dashboards, analyze real-time events in Dataviews, publish analysis to visual Stories and commentary or accelerate more advanced analytics and modeling with SDKs.
SDK’s are software development toolkits built to accelerate specific value for teams or departments.
How does our platform do?
1. Integrates existing physical and emerging digital data.
Urban SDK is a lightweight middle layer connecting the physical world and emerging digital data.
- We integrate emerging private digital data with existing data captured from physical hardware including sensors, video streams, facility alarms and more in one easy to use online platform.
2. Accelerates a data confident culture.
Urban SDK accelerates a data confident culture for all stakeholders.
- Built to enhance existing tools, data sets and planning models mobility teams already use, Urban SDK delivers data driven insights today’s mobility stakeholders can be more confident about.
3: Introduces an open-source mindset to mobility.
Urban SDK replaces traditional data silos and makes it easier to share, use, report and benefit from a deeper set of data.
- We broker exponential volumes of hyper localized, multi-modal data from the private sector, indexing it in real time.
- Urban SDK delivers on demand access to proprietary data sets, cutting edge planning models and future ready decision algorithms.
4. Closes the efficiency gaps of your required planning.
Urban SDK automates manual processes to scale reliable, real time planning and decisions you make every day.
- Urban SDK shifts the planning paradigm from reactive to proactive.
- Urban SDK empowers predictive, real-time decisions amid increasingly complex planning challenges and exponential volumes of emerging private sector data.
- Urban SDK’s configurable workflows automate manual tasks and processes, while speeding execution on research, reports, communications and alerts.
5: Aligns priorities and decisions to measurable indicators.
Urban SDK helps city and transportation planners align decisions and priorities against measurable indicators of performance, prosperity and well-being.
- Urban SDK helps planners & policy makers quickly visualize how they are performing against critical goals including safety, infrastructure conditions, congestion reduction, system reliability, freight movement and economic vitality, environmental sustainability and…
- Helping them track purpose and align daily decisions against that.
How does it help our customers?
1: Easily access the data you really need to make more reliable, predictive decisions.
- Urban SDK integrates disparate data sources and technologies empowering you to monitor trends, predict outcomes and make more confident decisions.
- Urban SDK simplifies access to AI and ML to make predictive decisions around traffic safety, congestion and other impacts on well-being.
2: Build skills and maximize financial resources at the local level today.
Urban SDK shrinks talent and financial resource gaps for city and transportation planners.
- Decrease your reliance on specialized, in-demand talent with intuitive, web-based tools.
- Gain the power to optimize your existing tools and future proof your planning resources with our open APIs.
- Reduce the resources needed to research and produce high-quality surveys, studies and reports required for city and transportation planners.
3: Replace data silos with an open-source platform.
Easily share, use and report on data across your organization, city, region, state or country.
- Take advantage of the geo-spatial data innovation already happening today.
- Capitalize on emerging data sets the private sector already collects including ITS Devices, weather, ride share, carriers, and consumer apps.
4: Accelerate next-generation mobility intelligence.
Accelerate next-generation mobility intelligence by
- Simplifying access to emerging data sets, introducing predictive decision support and automating the manual tasks that stall traditional planning and performance outcomes.
- Shrink the distance between where you are today and planning and policy making digital maturity you need next.
5: Accelerate better performance outcomes, prove planning competencies and build community trust.
Shift the planning paradigm from reactive policy making to proactive, data driven planning.
- Eliminate the data dysfunction that slows planning and erodes performance and damages trust.
- Customize performance dashboards for real time monitoring, predictive analytics and data visualizations.
- Accelerate planning cycles for initiatives that improve accessibility to work, attract industries and improve quality of life.
Why it’s the right time
Our need for public data governance, comprehension and accessibility has never seemed more apparent. States are more equipped to make decisions and communicate policies when they can share WHY the policy is in place.
The State of Florida stood out amongst other States managing COVID due to their ability to organize reporting and publish a simple dashboard.
Why are we focused on mobility and infrastructure?
Public infrastructure managed by local governments in aging past critical levels of service and in need of broad repair. As bridges, roadways, public service assets, traffic systems, and public safety assets continue to be updated with modern internet-enabled physical infrastructure, assets, and service systems the need for edge data management will grow rapidly.
By 2020, 30.3 billion devices globally will have internet connectivity.
New infrastructure will be digitally enabled. As infrastructure systems continue to be installed in volumes, it will create a massive disparate data management problem for local governments and IT costs will surge. This new internet-enabled physical infrastructure will require a new digital information management infrastructure governments have never managed before.
As a component of the President’s $200 Billion Budget for the Department of Transportation, $20 Billion will be invested a Transformative Projects Program to use transformative technologies and techniques to improve or reduce the costs of transportation services. This program will fill innovation gaps, and yield technologies that may solve our critical issues surrounding safety, congestion, and efficiency.
The President’s Infrastructure Initiative and US Department of Transportations commitment to modernizing its investments in technology has created a new industry in government transportation sector based on the emerging 1) availability of connected data, 2) the adoption of internet-enabled technology and systems 3) the pending infrastructure stimulus may make this a opportunity for multiple unicorn companies to emerge.
Beyond infrastructure, a host of emerging issues and consumer expectations are requiring governments to adopt digital transformation and procure more software and technology services, analytics specifically is growing 64% CAGR.
Gartner, Inc., a leading information technology research and advisory company, estimates that state and local government application and vertical specific software spending will grow from $14.7 billion in 2018 to $18.3 billion in 2021. The professional services and support segments of the market are expected to expand from $30.7 billion in 2018 to $34.4 billion in 2021. Application and vertical specific software sales in the primary and secondary education segments of the market is expected to expand from $2.6 billion in 2018 to $3.3 billion in 2021 while professional services and support are expected to grow from $2.3 billion in 2018 to $2.5 billion in 2021.
Why we’re starting with KPIs and trend analysis?
Local government bodies are now recognizing that information and data management is an additional responsibility for community development.
From integrated tax systems to integrated permitting to integrated criminal justice information systems, local governments have benefited significantly from the implementation of jurisdiction-wide information management systems that allow different agencies or government departments to share data and provide a more comprehensive approach to information management.
Additionally, many city and county governmental agencies are required to report their operations and fiscal performance to Federal and State offices to justify and request additional funding. These agencies have unique individual information management requirements, which must be tailored to the specific functions of each particular Federal or State office.
Like many industries manual data collection, analysis, and reporting is being replaced by automated systems and machine learning. Manual data entry and reporting is time consuming and is often outsourced by agencies who lack experienced internal expertise to government services firms.
Many local governments have difficulties attracting and retaining the staff necessary to support data and often are forced to outsource to expensive professional services firms. Our technology empowers local governments to streamline sophisticated data operations with a measurable return on investment that justifies the purchase of software as a service.
How our customers have done more, with less?
Florida Department of Transportation
Urban SDK helps Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) performance measures for connected corridor performance, traffic, and safety analysis with real-time IoT, connected vehicle, and traffic incident data.
Features include:
- Cognitive Analytics for Patrol Guidance, Drive Time and Positioning
- Performance Measure Scorecards and Predictive Analytics
- Staffing Prioritization and Shift Modeling
Florida Highway Patrol
Cognitive analytics and machine learning to reduce incident response times by positioning public safety assets with machine learning.
Features include:
- Cognitive Analytics for Patrol Guidance, Drive Time and Positioning
- Predictive Analytics to identify crash hotspots by day, time, and real-time traffic conditions
- Staffing Prioritization and Shift Modeling
North Florida TPO
Congestion management performance measure analytics for transportation and transit planners to automate analysis and reporting of big data.
Features include:
- Performance Measure Scorecards and Predictive Analytics
- Configurable Dashboards (189 Scorecards)
- Automated Data Collection from IoT, Telemetry, and State Sources
- Geospatial Visualization & Mapping
- Cloud based Data Warehousing
- Product Integration & Developer APIs
Memphis Area Transit Authority
Business intelligence for transit agencies. Performance measure analytics for transportation agencies to align priorities and mobility decisions with measurable indicators of performance, prosperity and well-being.
Features include:
- Performance Measure Scorecards and Predictive Analytics
- Configurable Dashboards
- Automated Data Collection from Transit Systems
- Geospatial Visualization & Mapping
- Cloud based Data Warehousing
- Product Integration & Developer APIs
Smart North Florida
Powerful data management system that makes data accessible — by providing tools to streamline publishing, sharing, finding and using data.
Features include:
- Open Data Management
- Data Visualization and Chart Building
- Data ETL & Warehousing
- Data Governance and Policy Management
- Open Source Integrations & Developer APIs
About:
Urban SDK, a Techstars company, provides mobility intelligence for smarter cities. Urban SDK connects public agencies, policy makers, and the community with better data to make more informed policy and budgeting decisions. We enable customers to quickly gather, analyze, and visualize performance indicators to make decisions with a higher degree of confidence.
Management Team:
Urban SDK is led by a unique blend of leadership with shared experiences in government software as a service business development.
Drew Messer, Co-Founder: Drew leads corporate strategy business development, sales, and marketing. Our mission is focused on building smarter communities through innovative solutions for government authorities. We combine leading data collection practices with performance measurement analytics to impact your organizations next innovation.
Justin Dennis, Co-Founder: Justin leads operations, product development, and technology related duties. He specializes in the development and marketing of complex data management, data science, and cloud software products. He has over 10 years experience leading software development and big data operations with a unique mix of private and public sector experience.
