Data is the lifeblood of smart cities. In fact, smart cities are all about getting the right data to the right people at the right time. At Spectrum Smart Cities, we know that data is the engine to drive transformational, citywide change. As such, we’ve outlined below some of the key considerations for city leaders who are interested in using data to fuel innovation.

Gartner Key Findings

• “Open data government programs can recover operating costs or create additional revenue by migrating toward data exchanges in their city or region.”
• “The vision of a smart city ecosystem needs a data governance model reducing data complexity, so that citizens can easily understand the information.”
• “Smart city data that can be traded and exchanged in a marketplace supports the efforts of government leaders to drive innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity in urban development.”
• “Data exchanges add accountability to the transparency of urban data trades between ecosystem partners by focusing on performance, citizen satisfaction and business outcomes."

What This Means for Communities

Whether it is online government transactions or a smart parking application, a city cannot get “smarter” without the data needed to make intelligent decisions. Data is an asset to any smart city, and open data policies fuel innovation. Two-way communication between city leaders and their citizens allows government agencies to collect feedback about the data (whether it’s complete, accurate, easy to access), and ask for the public’s input about different data they would like to see.

This open, two-way communication ensures that the voices of citizens are thoughtfully considered and reflected in the way smart city solutions are created and implemented, which is essential to success. Then, by opening up these data sets collected by government agencies, such as public records, city leaders can develop an open dialogue with their citizens and share data within their city or region to drive innovation throughout the larger ecosystem of partners, universities and neighboring cities.

Get Started with Spectrum Smart Cities

Looking for more information on smart cities? Contact us here.

Gartner The Urban Data Exchange Will Be an Engine of Community and Ecosystem Innovation, Bettina Tratz-Ryan, 27^th March 2020.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.