Topic: smart-economy

Open-source innovation is at the forefront of ensuring that software-based processes, operational models, decision-making, and end-user experiences happen in a sustainable and cost-effective manner, but how is it being used in Smart City applications? The topic has been explored in detail in the latest White Paper from the FIWARE Foundation and a selection of its members and partners.

Open data could help to accelerate the development of smart cities by connecting the people most capable of creating smart city solutions with the data needed to generate and support them.

What is Open Data?

An overwhelming amount of data is being generated by both public and private concerns on an ongoing basis. This data is stored beyond the reach of most people, secured in government or proprietary databases or on individual electronic devices. The types and the depth of this data is growing as new and increasingly technological solutions are implemented to solve the problems of the governments, businesses, and private citizens of smart cities.

The potential advantages of data collection on such a scale are beyond question. Data collection is the most laborious part of any investigation, and yet the majority of global data is going largely unseen and unused. Limiting the number of people who can access it necessarily limits the number of problems to which it can be applied and, in most cases, prevents access to the people best able to apply it.

The solution to this is to make the data publicly available via an open government approach: open data.