Page 12 - Redefining smart city platforms: Setting the stage for Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

1.1.3 The solution

The solution to these two systemic problems is to exploit advances in data collection and data
handling. This approach enables the collection and use of more accurate and comprehensive
information about what is happening in the city, and uses it to model and better align the differing
objectives and strategies of city departments.

Using a combination of off-the-shelf commercial enterprise management systems, along with
loosely coupled components and services with minimal but sufficient interoperability, will enable
the orchestration of a robust, efficient and holistic management of infrastructure and citizen
engagement.

Thus, the city-as-a-system can employ digital transformation to continuously increase the level of
orderliness of the city and, therefore, make the city easier to manage.

This report aims to provide practical guidance on the steps and processes needed to achieve this.

1.2 The need for affordable and transformative solutions

The second challenge facing cities and communities is that as they collect more and better data to
enable new and transformative solutions to tackle city problems, they find that the products and
services available are largely untried, resulting in significant risk and expense. This could be due
to several factors, including the following:

– Cities and communities are trying to find solutions on their own.
– Companies are trying to sell proprietary solutions based on the strengths of their offerings and
not necessarily on the needs of the city.

– Research and trials are taking place on an ad hoc basis, with no consistent approach that would
allow comparison of different approaches.

If cities and communities adopt the same overall approaches to address their shared challenges,
this could spur the development of an effective market. Competition would drive down prices,
while wide-scale deployments of products and services would provide evidence on the efficacy
of a solution, thus de-risking investment.

Cities require robust and scalable ICT architectures, managed and designed using international
standards and free and open-source software, providing the socio-economic environment with
valuable information to foster an evolution towards a knowledge economy.

This report describes an approach that will help create a market for smart, data-enabled services
for cities and communities.

2 Redefining smart city platforms: Setting the stage for Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms