Page 66 - Digital solutions for integrated city management and use cases: A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

In the experience of many cities covered in this report, successful smart city platform implementation
hinges on keeping citizens’ needs, quality of life requirements, and expectations first and foremost.
This can be achieved by developing sound citizen engagement and democratic mechanisms that
allow the public and all other key stakeholders to have a say in the general urban direction-setting.

A key consideration is how the smart city platform should be utilized in terms of data management.
Without prior understanding at the city-level of how it will make the best use of the data that is
generated by smart solutions to flow into the platform, it will offer limited to no functional utility.
Again, strategic and thoughtful deployment decisions will go a long way to ensuring returns on
the city’s investment into its smart city platform.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other standardization bodies offer valuable
information and guidance to cities in their smart transformation. Initiatives such as U4SSC can help
cities as guidance in this process.

Lastly, safety, security and data privacy must be key considerations for any city looking to implement
city platforms and other smart solutions. Ethical and legal concerns about use of data such as mobile
location and facial recognition must be addressed for the public transparently and objectively. This
is especially crucial in scenarios where smart city platform initiatives are sponsored, overseen, and
administered by different actors, funding mechanisms and policies.

54 U4SSC: Digital solutions for integrated city management & use cases