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Developing countries embarking on their smart city journey may also face another daunting challenge
of managing corruption. In light of the aforementioned challenges, the actual implementation of smart
initiatives may take years, or even decades. As the people involved could change, continuity needs to
be managed strategically, in order to take projects to a successful conclusion.
The installation and operation of systems or elements of new technologies in public spaces and public
buildings can sometimes be a nuisance and an obstacle to people who are not familiar with the
project's objectives. This can lead to a rejection of the smart initiative that, if widespread, could have
been beneficial for the overall smart city transformation. For this reason, cities and communities that
are open to change are more successful in becoming smart. Cultivating this attitude requires good
communication and trust between stakeholders.
One of the challenges cities and communities are facing is that of competing priorities that need to be
addressed. On the one hand, it is difficult for cities to decide which matters to attend to first. In such
situations, cities need to develop definitive criteria to assess which initiatives will have the most impact
on the stakeholders with the greatest need. On the other hand, even if priorities are clear, there will
always be projects that cannot be implemented with available resources. In this case, being able to
partner with other organizations and facilitating open innovation in the city will be necessary to foster
the contributions from others for developing the city or community.
Implementation challenges
The implementation of smart city initiatives leads to several interrelated challenges, due to their
reliance on data and communication networks.
There exists the challenge of accessing, compiling, normalizing, validating, analyzing, and sharing and
trading of data. Different government agencies have traditionally taken responsibility for data in their
domains, resulting in siloed attitudes and systems that operate in isolation. Since many smart initiatives
depend on sharing and processing large amounts of validated, often real-time data, there are challenges
pertaining to who owns the data, which data can be shared and for what purposes. Additionally, there
are technicalities for sharing data across diverse platforms. In certain situations, some data could also
be owned by private entities that have their interests and privacy to protect.
One of the challenges for sharing data is that agencies struggle to trust the accuracy and quality of data
originating from other sources, and they are reluctant to allow changes to data where such changes
are outside of their control. Given the importance of records relating to citizenship, health or property
ownership, for example, such concerns are valid. Lines of responsibility for data need to be clear and
changes to data need to be traceable and auditable.
Trust is also a desirable aspect for smart city initiatives. This includes trust between different government
agencies, between government and residents, and between government and suppliers. However, these
parties often have different agendas, unequal power bases and conflicting goals. Establishing trust in
such situations can be difficult and can impede projects. One obstacle to establishing trust is a lack
of transparency; however, transparency can be difficult to guarantee, particularly in situations where
one party has control of data and another does not.
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