Smarter City with Strategies for Open Data

As we known, open data has been viewed as an important method to improve government transparency and accountability, and today hundreds of local and national governments worldwide are using open data portals to publish data and documents that they produce over the course of their operations.

To make sure our open-data can really drive cities smarter, we should invite some strategies.

Strategy 1: Sometimes the smartest tech is low-tech

While talking about open data, many people draw attention in areas like the Internet of Things, Machine-to-Machine automation, broadband WiFi, big data visualization, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics, drones and autonomous vehicles.

However, more and more ‘low-tech’ solutions that are playing the most important role today in improving the quality of life of citizens, enhancing government transparency and trust, and improving environmental and economic sustainability. This is true in developing cities where budgets are especially constrained and population growth rates are at their highest.

Strategy 2: Go small before you go big

You can accomplish many smart city goals in a timely and inexpensive manner by exploring options for leveraging an existing infrastructure of low-tech, collaborative information and communication technologies like cell phone, social media app, online platforms and low-cost sensor kits, before making hefty new technology investments. If you do plan, however, to invest in new equipment and systems, it’s a good idea to use pilot projects to go small before you go big.

Using the pilot approach is a great way to assess the potential impact and return-on-investment of a large-scale project before a full roll out. In addition, it is a strategy that can be very useful in governance issues like animating communities of civic technologists and start-ups to accelerate innovation.

There is no doubt that high-tech digital data can have enormous impact in helping cities meet the environmental, social and economic challenges of population growth in a world of increasingly strained natural resources and a changing climate. However, these two strategies firstly help us realize the useful means on using and digging in the open data project. When doing something further, we may need other strategies.