Open Data Strategies of Real-time Cities Part 2

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Feb 10, 2016, 12:51 ET

NEW YORK, Feb. 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Open Data Strategies of Real-time Cities Part 2 : ICT Opportunities in Cambridge (UK) and Kazan (Russia)

This is the second in a series of city case study publications as part of Frost & Sullivan's Real-Time Cities Research Programme. It is becoming increasingly evident that cities have an opportunity to stimulate economic growth by opening up their substantial sources of data to digital service innovators. To become true real-time cities, they want to do more than simply publish existing information and processes online. Differentiation lies in the foundations they put down in terms of data strategy, governance structures, and partnerships. This study profiles the early-stage open data strategies of two European cities, Cambridge (UK) and Kazan (Russia). It provides an analysis of each city's goals, activities with partners, and challenges

Study Findings—Second Wave Cities

Second wave cities and towns lack comprehensive funding for projects and hence seek experience from larger cities in their regions whilst minimising risk, capex, and opex. Ironically, constrained budgets can have a positive impact by encouraging closer integration of policy with technology, compared to well-funded but standalone projects—for example, by including data requirements in the procurement of services from contractors. Greenfield sites, in contrast, function as political flagships and technology test beds, but lack the scale and authentic data of projects implemented in live city environments.

Successful second wave cities invest in their ability to absorb best practices and new technologies and to manage partnerships. Knowledge-transfer skills are needed to leverage expertise from academia, established and SME technology companies, collaboration networks, first wave cities, and other regional partners.

They must also strengthen their ability to work with a wide variety of financial instruments, such as public–private partnerships, grants, and loans. However, they must avoid 'competition fatigue', whereby too much resource is allocated to project bids where the chances of emerging empty-handed are high.

Second-wave customers prioritise broadband and mixed-technology access networks and urban infrastructure renewal. The latter may have significant government backing but lack the opportunity for ICT suppliers to lead. The main opportunities are, therefore, in solutions for problems of siloed and legacy back-office systems, and tools for designing citizen portals and mobile apps. Although customers favour open-source options, some early advocates have become more accepting of proprietary solutions with open APIs.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03607624-summary/view-report.html

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