The Australian Smart Communities Association (ASCA) is urging reform of local government authorities to create a citizen-centred governance model that it says is necessary to realise the full potential of smart communities.
ASCA’s future governance model would be driven by advances in analytics, social engagement and big data that would provide the tools to drive the future of governance.
“Local projects that provide new innovative initiatives for smart communities are working hard to drive change and better outcomes for communities,” it says.
According to ASCA, the current hundred-year-old operating model for Australian local government impedes the broad-based reforms needed to fully realise the potential of smart communities.
“The current model … takes a top down approach to decision making, prohibits collaboration and does not utilise the full scope of data available to us,” ASCA says.
ASCA has set out its views in a discussion paper Proposing an entirely new governance model to unleash innovation throughout local government.
It says the challenges of moving councils to distributed governance, cannot be underestimated. “This is about systemic and systematic reform: rewriting the code of local government.”
It is calling for a new local government operating model that pivots from a closed and professionally directed system to an open, participatory one that takes data from many sources, including sensors, residents, and partner organisations, and organises it in a way that enhances the user’s experience.
“The new model is not just about ICT hardware and software, but also involves reworking the internal code of government rules, laws, and structures that make cities run.”
ASCA says the discussion paper is a precursor to a larger body of work that will explore how governments can implement the recommendations it contains.
It has recruited a group of smart community professionals and given them a mandate to provide further documentation and guidance for government authorities looking to implement new strategies, and is seeking additional volunteers from its member organisations.
