Smart Cities Need Open Data and a Willingness to Test and Learn
Photo Credit: Regent Street interactive bus stop at night. London is about to get its first chief digital officer. Transport For London / Transport for London
Skift Take
Making a city smarter requires new ideas, and these fresh concepts need testing. The public sector shouldn't be afraid of trying new things and failing as long as the trials are targeted and don't cost too much money.
Open data platforms and the desire of a new generation of leaders are helping to transform many "dumb," or developing, cities across the world into smart ones.
Transportation was one of the first areas companies focussed on, resulting in the launch of apps such as Citymapper, which have made navigating cities much easier.
With all this data, you’d think it would be easy for companies to help solve city-wide problems? Not always.
Minerva Tantoco, the former chief technology officer of New York City, said the key thing to remember about the early days of digital was not about the technology but about identifying the problem in the first place.
Tantoco, who was speaking on a panel during London Tech Week on Monday, was one of the drivers of New York’s use of global positioning systems (GPS) on buses to prioritize public transport at intersections. This initiative, she said, cut public transit commute tim
