Image credits: Dennis Kummer, Unsplash
Smart City developments open up the possibility for government organisations to innovate. Will they take up this opportunity, and walk through the door to a new day? Or is the public sector inherently risk-averse?
Developments such as IoT sensors, data analysis, artificial intelligence and open data open up the possibility for authorities to experiment, to offer new services to residents and to “do more with less”.
Will they embrace this opportunity or shun it? The future alone will tell, but I think it will be affected by four factors:
Economics
Leadership
Personality and culture
Risk tolerance
For the next few years, there will be no definitive account of what’s being spent on smart city initiatives, and no definitive calculation on the return.
Compelling business cases
There are compelling business cases put forward by (eg) smart parking and smart bin vendors. But these are just a first step on the smart city journey. The next step, which truly does open the way to innovation, is to develop a policy under which relevant data from all such initiatives can be shared and examined, to give a totally new perspective on the ‘hidden life’ of city services.
Conclusion:economics is not currently a definitive decision-factor. Optimists who believe it to be so will trust the figures supporting that view: and sceptics who are more comfortable with today’s situation will lean towards the yet-undetermined future costs.
There is a mantra that “this must start at the top – with the mayor”.
Reality is more nuanced. There are two instances that I’m aware of (Ipswich Australia and Bristol UK) where the initial drive was attributed to the mayor. There are many more where a sustained smart city program has been developed by someone within the executive, rather than by an elected official.
Naturally, that person has had to get buy-in from others, including the mayor. And it may be that the mayor is the one who gets to take credit. That’s part of the role – get credit for spectacular wins and take the blame for visible stuff-ups. But to put the acid on the mayor alone is a simplification.
A recent report on the high-visibility meltdown at the ABC said: “Many of the new regime [from the corporate world] think that if you’ve been a public-sector person, you’re a bit of a loser. Their attitude is: if you’d had any nous and initiative and guts, you would have been in the private sector.
This is an unfortunate, but not uncommon perception. Local governments have a duty of care; so it would be crazy for them to experiment like, say, a software company where mistakes have little or no human consequence. But it’s untrue to say that public sector employees lack initiative.
Sometimes the innovation is forced upon them – the pressure to “do more” (i.e. offer the same services as last year, and then some) “with less” (less council revenue) certainly is a driver to new ways of thinking. But it’s innovation all the same.
Risk versus duty of care
Risk tolerance. Local governments have a duty of care to all residents –young and old, and vulnerable elements. To gallop ahead with new, untested, initiatives without due diligence would be irresponsible. But so would burying their heads in the sand, leaving promising avenues unexplored.
Risk is one of the main factors ‘slowing down’ the journey to smarter cities and communities: but understandably so.
The smart city movement is a commitment to improving the future and to doing more with less. As such a certain leap of confidence is required. This is not a leap in the dark though – it is underpinned by careful planning. Often it is unsustainable to carry on as is. Those who are already exploring the possibilities deserve support.
I don’t believe there can be an ‘explosion’ of innovation until there is a secure and open framework in place for data to be shared. Unless I’m much mistaken, that’s where the demonstrable smarts will start to pay off.
Until then, I hope the leaders in this exciting space will continue to back their judgement; and be backed both by their own leaders and their major stakeholders: the residents.
Creator Tech has authored a white paper that looks in more depth at this issue of data sharing and how it is central to smart city initiatives. To download this, click here.
