Getting Smart City Initiatives Right

Today, practically all developed countries have launched smart city initiatives with the intention to raise liveability standards (and improve their rankings in surveys such as the Economic Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Index), create new job opportunities, and improve efficiency and productivity. By promoting better quality-of-life and advanced amenities, many cities hope to compete more effectively for global talents.

These smart city initiatives are large-scale, complex, and require the involvement of numerous participants. Some of them are well planned and executed while others are poorly coordinated. Over the coming years, billions of dollars will be spent on smart city initiatives — IDC expects worldwide spending on smart cities initiatives to reach $95.8 billion in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 17.7%. Thus, it is vital to ensure that benefits and outcomes are commensurate with the investment.

A smart city project is necessarily a continuous journey. Like any biological entity, a smart city will evolve over time and needs a vibrant ecosystem to sustain it. A successful smart city initiative requires active participation from four key stakeholders — government, society, enterprises, and technology providers/vendors (see Figure 1). Attention must also be given to four core pillars — innovation, security, sustainability, and supporting infrastructure. The omission of any single stakeholder or pillar can jeopardise the initiative.

Figure 1. Smart Cities: Four Key Stakeholders and Four Core Pillars

Stakeholders have to be aligned and coordinated in their decisions and actions. The government is by far the most important actor by virtue of its ability to influence, coordinate, and lead a smart city initiative.

The Government

The government has to execute well on the following dimensions to ensure a successful smart city initiative. It must:

• Promote social inclusion. No segment of the society must be left out. Care must be taken to ensure that the initiative does not lead to further stratification of society or widening of the digital divide.
• Elicit active engagement and participation from other stakeholders. This can be achieved through education, outreach programmes, incentive schemes for enterprises, and grants to technology providers/vendors.
• Consider security as a critical element right from "Day One" — it must not be viewed as an afterthought. For a smart city to function properly, it is vital to safeguard digital identities, digital transactions, and the underlying supporting infrastructure (e.g., networks, data centres, computing platforms, and databases).
• Foster an environment that is conducive for innovation. The government can contribute seed funding, support incubators, and ensure adequate supply of talent through the introduction of relevant courses in institutions of higher learning.
• Develop a blueprint for the supporting infrastructure. Robust and reliable info-communications infrastructure and digital platforms are prerequisites. Data exchange formats/protocols must be established so that data can be shared efficiently and securely across multiple government agencies, institutions, enterprises, and the public.
• Emphasise sustainability. A smart city initiative must promote efficient waste management, and energy and water consumption in order to achieve sustainable growth. Climate change and plastic waste are top of mind issues right now. Smart city initiatives must address these issues.
• Put in place a regulatory framework to provide guidelines and assurances to stakeholders. Data protection and data privacy policies need to be established as well. New developments such as air taxis, drones, and autonomous vehicles will require new regulations and procedures.

Society

Society (comprising citizens and residents) have to participate actively. Without this element, a smart city initiative can easily turn into a white elephant. Society has to:

• Pursue active engagement with other stakeholders to co-create the city of the future. Constructive feedback, creative ideas, and suggestions play an important role in the process of building a smart city — time and resources can then be better allocated to areas that resonate well with society.
• Adopt a culture of continuous learning. It must be open to new technologies and processes such as digital interactions with government and businesses, electronic/cashless payments, and e-health among other things.
• Be conscious of security when using digital technologies for personal activities. With increased adoption of connected devices and digital interactions, attack surface and attack vectors will multiply. Constant vigilance is called for.

Enterprises

Enterprises, be they multinational corporations or domestic businesses, must play their part too. They have to:

• Provide training for their employees to prepare them for the digital revolution brought about by a smart city initiative.
• Instil security awareness/best practices among their employees. Data protection and data privacy are of paramount importance. There must be trust and confidence in the functioning of a smart city.
• Accelerate adoption of digital processes and pursue eco-friendly/sustainable practices. Enterprises must now walk the talk on corporate social responsibility.
• Invest and participate in co-innovation efforts with other stakeholders. Enterprises can play a leading role in letting a thousand innovative ideas bloom. The amount of data that a smart city generates can be leveraged for new business opportunities.

Technology Providers/Vendors

Technology providers/vendors are important stakeholders as they supply the technology for the supporting infrastructure on which a smart city operates. They too have their roles in a smart city ecosystem. In particular, they have to:

• Be flexible and adaptive so far as business models are concerned because lack of funds and business model viability are frequent challenges encountered in a smart city initiative. Creative business models may include public-private partnerships, outcome-based projects, "as-a-service"/pay-as-you-go models, or exchanges of value-in-kind. For example, the LinkNYC (https://www.link.nyc/) project involves a service provider converting New York phone booths into digital kiosks in exchange for advertising revenue derived from the kiosks.
• Demonstrate viable product road maps and employ technologies that are based on open source or industry standards. Those responsible for the smart city project will want to utilise future-proof technologies and avoid vendor lock-in.
• Contribute talent and expertise as government bodies and agencies frequently lack the necessary technical experts/resources to plan and implement a smart city initiative on their own. Areas of expertise include (but are not limited to) 5G, Wi-Fi 6, artificial intelligence, automation, blockchain, cloud computing, data analytics, the Internet of Things, and cyber security.