Local Government & The Internet of Things

Agenda  A bit about me  What the Internet of Things is  Lots of examples  How it works  Why it is important  The risks  The challenges  Smart Cities  Civic Hackathons  Advice

Isis Group  Small company that is focussed on transformational change of business and ICT  Primary work is currently moving government agencies (mostly) to take up Cloud (in various forms), through Common Capabilities (mostly), and implementing Service Management to support those new technologies  A bit about me:  Twenty Five years in the industry  Freelance writing and blogging for about the same (various publications, currently National Business Review and CIO.com)  Author of two books “How to migrate your ICT services to Cloud” and “Wellington as a Smart City”  Have worked with most of the larger Government Agencies in New Zealand and have a good working relationship with the Wellington City and Greater Wellington Regional Council  One of three organisers of Civic Hackathons in Wellington  I quite like technology

What is the Internet of Things?  At it’s most basic level it is when everyday objects have network connectivity allowing them to send and receive data  The Internet of Things requires Devices (& Enchanted Objects), the Internet, Cloud Computing, Mesh Networks, Big Data, and Open Data Disciplines all of which will power Smart Cities  Gartner says that by 2020 there will be 26 billion devices on the Internet of Things and a value of $1.9 trillion in that year (some estimates have this at 40 billion)  Massively increases data creation  Has benefits and risks that must be managed

Example: Water Management – Blossom

How it works  The device attaches to the Internet (can be built like lego)  It collects a range of data from all kinds of different sensors  That data is sent via the Internet to a Cloud service  The data is aggregated creating Big Data  That data can be made Open (publicly accessible to everyone)  In the context of Local Government, that data can be used to help create “Smart (or Sensing) Cities

Example: Artificially Intelligent Traffic Systems  Universities are building “artificially intelligent” traffic systems  Cars are monitored via clusters of sensors as the enter and exit city intersections  Slow, fast, and erratically driven cars, which cause congestion, can be tracked and their behaviour on overall traffic flow accounted for  Traffic is managed by the AI on a city-wide scale  Over time, the system learns and adapts its own behaviour

Why the Internet of Things?  Allows massive collection of data on almost anything  That data can be analysed to improve systems  Environmental monitoring; air quality, weather, earthquake and tsunami warning systems  Infrastructure management; structural integrity, maintenance, waste management  Industrial applications; predictive maintenance, robotics  Energy management; power management in buildings and homes  Medical; bio-monitoring  Home automation; heating, power, security, appliances, entertainment  Transport; traffic flows, real-time public transport, parking, congestion measures  Community outsourced Apps save money

Example: Cyclist and Walker Counter  Created at a Wellington Civic Hackathon  Counts Cyclists and Pedestrians  $150 versus $3,500 plus  Sonar and pressure sensors  Ten kilometre range  Solar powered  Being used on Mt Victoria in Wellington to monitor track usage

Risks  Privacy & Security  Complexity  Costs (particularly from large global tech companies)  Very early in lifecycle  Power usage (Environmental Impact)  Space  A “basketful of remotes”  The Data Flood

The Future: The Data Flood is coming

Example: TaxiShare Prototype  Result of a Civic Hackathon  Team took data from Araflow blue tooth sensors, airport barrier arm data, rubber strips, and live airline timetables  Taxis in Wellington move in “surges” between the airport and CBD with 2,500 (on average) travellers moving into the city in peak, each in a taxi or private car (some bus usage  The TaxiShare App allows travellers to connect with each other at the airport as they arrive to share taxis  Reduces taxis, better for the environment, reduces company or government agency costs, reduces congestion

Big Data  Big data is a blanket term for any collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand data management tools or traditional data processing applications. – Wikipedia  As we move to more of an online world the amount of data we capture increases exponentially  Our customers want to interact with us on a digital platform, not a face to face platform (it’s too slow)  The requirement then is that we collect increasing amounts of data that must be turned into real-time information that is accessible anytime, anywhere, on any device

Open Data  Open Government Information and Data Work Programme (DIA):  make non-personal government-held data and information more widely available and discoverable, easily usable and compliant with open government data principles within the NZ legal context; and  facilitate agencies’ release of the non-personal government-held data and information that people, communities, and businesses want to use and re-use.  Data must be shared be default where it can be (privacy)  That data must be robust and always available  The requirement is then for us to make available (non-attributable) data anytime, anywhere, in a robust fashion for other’s to consume

Example: Blue tooth sensors  Being used in Wellington (and other centres)  Tracks, in a non-attributable way, smart phones by looking for their blue tooth signal  Can be used to:  Monitor traffic flow times  See which intersections are least congested (intelligent routing)  See where visitors move within the city on event weekends  Analyse pedestrian wait times  Differentiate (with programming) between cars and buses

Smart (sensing) Cities  Globally, residents are demanding Smart Cities driven by information that is extracted from Big Data collected by the Internet of Things  The Internet of Things describes the new environment that will collect data and relay back information to residents  Local government is at the heart of this movement and must adapt to this new model or face irrelevance as it is built around them  It is not for local government to buy, build, or create these services, it is for local government to make data and information available to feed them while extracting value for future planning

Smart (sensing) Cities – More Examples  Sensors everywhere; personal smartphones, cars, buses, cameras, road side counters, water systems, air quality, sewage systems, weather, bicycles, taxis, and more  Real-time public transport (and taxi) information including arrival time, congestion, number of people on the service, and other information  Traffic management and analysis in order to decrease congestion and ease flows  Free wireless  Fault logging and things like pothole management or waste management so bins are only collected when full)  Digital Art and Graffiti  Digital collaboration in all things controlled by the city including redefining the consultation process between local bodies and residents

The Challenge  Management of risks  The horse has bolted  “Shadow ICT”  The Data Flood pours into local body at an increasing rate however, not all data needs to be kept. The value of data in this context is largely determined by time. The vast proportion only has value for minutes, if hours.  That data has to be processed into information, not necessarily by local government, and made available to the organisation (longer) and the world (shorter).  We must engage the Community to build the applications based on data and information we make available  This requires a very strong strategy, discussion amongst local bodies, and then a plan to deliver.

Where to start: Civic Hackathons  The word hackathon is the coupling of “hack” and “marathon”  In this context, to “hack” is to make an every day things extraordinary  Challenges are decided by a group  It is usually held over a weekend where people split into teams to create specific solutions to the challenges posed  Allows the Council to engage in a very practical and pragmatic way with the community to provide resource that makes a real difference  Quite common with most large global cities carrying them out regularly  Are important because they are the creation ground of many Internet of Things devices and ideas  Reach out to your local ICT Community, most likely their will already be Hackathon groups that are working in your city

Hack Miramar  The challenge was to improve transport for Wellington and in particular, on the transport corridor from Miramar (Eastern Suburbs) to the CBD  50 participants  The Wellington City Council provided food, coffee, data, and a GIS specialist  Nearly all of the City Councillors came and spent time over the weekend with the teams  Five viable ideas; TaxiShare, Real Time Bus App, Future Ideas, Traffic Visualisation,  Foundation for future events

Final Thoughts & Advice  The Internet of Things will have a large impact on Council’s because of the rise of Smart Cities  It is here now, there is no avoiding it, and there is no stopping it, start to research what is going on  Consider employing an “Innovation Manager” or similar  ICT are not always best placed to help with the front end of this, remember you are the customer, however, will be instrumental in setting up data sharing platforms  The community will bring the applications  Beware large multi-nationals trying to bring their solutions, this is a hot selling area at the moment  Recognise that it is a shifting area with little or no standards  Start to build now in order to be ready in a year or two for the data flood

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