https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE Expo
    • Calendar of Events
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Commentaries


Sponsored

Three cities building smart solutions with data they already have

Three cities building smart solutions with data they already have

Smart Cities Council Chairman Jesse Berst discusses how three cities have realized the value of data when it's shared with their citizens.
  • Written by contributor
  • 27th March 2017

By Jesse Berst, Smart Cities Council

Smart cities are connected cities – and connected cities generate massive amounts of data. In some ways harnessing all that data, making sense of it and using it effectively is a headache. But more and more city leaders are realizing the value of public-private partnerships and are coming up with a variety of data-based solutions that help ensure city operations and services are running smoothly.

And these three cities have also realized how valuable that data can be when it's shared with their citizens.

Why Louisville depends on its citizens so much
In Louisville, Ky, citizen participation is an essential element in the city's initial steps toward becoming a smart city. Officials are relying on knowledgeable citizens and groups like the Civic Data Alliance to come up with ways to connect the city's data with smart home devices and services. For example, a two-bedroom apartment in the downtown area used by technology publication CNET to test smart home devices and how they can integrate with the city features light bulbs that change color to indicate air quality levels. A smart speaker connected to Amazon's digital assistant Alexa can provide daily briefings from the city's mayor.

For city data officer Michael Schnuerle, those types of services (and high-speed internet for all) are among the types of project development residents are ideally suited for. Not only does it save money for the city, it also ensures that the citizens have a lot to say about the services they believe are important to them. "I would rather have the community build these tools and own them and make them open source and available to everyone," he was quoted as saying in a CNET article. "If the community owns it, it just builds momentum."

 

How a hackathon is making Las Vegas smarter
A team of University of Nevada, Las Vegas competing in the Smart Cities Hackathon and the recent Consumer Electronics Show has given the city of Las Vegas a better way to identify and repair malfunctioning or dead street lights. During the competition the students developed an automated application based on the city's open data that could provide notifications about bad lights. The city currently depends on reports from citizens or technicians making the rounds to check its 52,000 street lights. The team's automated solution involves monitoring to determine which street lights are not electricity when they should be. The city plans to have a working model of the detection system within the next three months.

 

Kansas City's smart city data viewing platform
We've covered Kansas City's smart city initiatives before, such as its pilot project with Council Lead Partner Cisco featuring a new streetcar line in conjunction with free Wi-Fi and smart street lights in the downtown core area. Now the city has launched an interactive web site that offers citizens up-to-date information on available parking, traffic conditions and congestion and street car locations through data collected by sensors the city deployed. As Kansas City Mayor Sly James put it "The smart city sensors and digital tools are cool, but understanding how to use these tools — and the data that they generate — bridges the gap between cool and smart."

 

Jesse Berst is chairman of the Smart Cities Council, which works to make cities more livable, workable and sustainable. Register for the Council's Smart Cities Week Silicon Valley, May 8-10 in Santa Clara, CA.

_____________

To get connected and stay up-to-date with similar content from American City & County:
Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter
Watch us on YouTube

Tags: Expert Insights Smart Cities & Technology Smart Cities Solutions Commentaries Smart Cities Council Sponsored

Most Recent


  • citizen
    How to move to a citizen-focused engagement model
    We know that engaged citizens play a critical role in helping make government agencies more transparent, more effective and more accountable. In fact, putting increased attention on digital government services and the citizen experience was ranked as one of the biggest changes that state chief information officers expected to continue post-pandemic. But too often, many […]
  • digital
    How to leverage digital tools to drive innovation in government
    The rapid evolution of digital technologies transformed the way governments function, making them more efficient, transparent and citizen-friendly. Rather than relying on crystal trophies, governments can leverage digital tools to drive innovation and streamline processes, benefiting the population they serve. Open data and crowdsourcing Open data refers to making government data available to the public, […]
  • Broadband
    Oversight committee addresses NTIA reauthorization, FCC broadband map ahead of BEAD Program funding allocations
    As technological advancements continue to roll out at a breakneck pace, from artificial intelligence to high speed broadband connectivity, investment in digital infrastructure has become a defining theme of the modern era. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, (R-Wash.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, stressed the importance of this charge in opening remarks at […]
  • zero trust
    Zero trust is a great strategy but a terrible name
    The monthly town hall meeting was going well until they got to the agenda item called “zero trust.” What was to be a routine request for additional funding to implement a zero-trust environment quickly became one of confusion and misunderstanding. Trust in government at all levels has continued its downward spiral over the years. So, […]

Related Content

  • North Texas alliance partners with Marketplace.city on smart government solutions
  • Harris County deploys next-generation security in 150 public buildings
  • Prioritizing rapid restore leads to stronger ransomware attack recovery
  • Today’s infrastructure needs greater than roads and bridges - It’s time to face our digital connectiveness

WHITE PAPERS


5 reasons why Plan Examiners need Objective Trapeze

30th May 2023

7 Permitting & Licensing Fails Slowing Community Growth

24th May 2023

The Secret Ingredient to Local Government Employee Retention

23rd May 2023
view all

Webinars


How to Centralize and Build a Grants Management Process at your Organization

24th May 2023

Making Permitting Easier: What We’ve Learned Helping America’s Largest Cities Improve Their Permitting Process

16th May 2023

Digital Property Tax Collection: Tales from the Trenches of Modernization

16th May 2023
view all

Podcast


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

GALLERIES


10 best suburbs for city-like living

1st June 2023

Gallery: Annual index ranks America’s top performing cities; most are in the West

30th May 2023

Gallery: Top 10 American cities for seasonal and summer jobs

25th May 2023
view all

Twitter


Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.