This week, we distill insights around the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge - a collaboration between IBM and local governments to co-fund technology-based solutions to city-specific urban challenges.
100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network.
Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the iPad-friendly People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities.
For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com
IBM Smarter Cities Challenge: People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 12
1. crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 12
IBM Smarter Cities
Challenge
2. People’s Insights
100+ thinkers and planners within MSL- In 2013, we continue to track inspiring
GROUP share and discuss inspiring proj- projects at the intersection of social data,
ects on social data, crowdsourcing, story- crowdsourcing and storytelling, with a fo-
telling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP cus on projects that are shaping the Future
Insights Network. Every week, we pick up of Citizenship.
one project and curate the conversations
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around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights
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Network itself but also on the broader
reports, and do share your tips and com-
social web — into a weekly insights report.
ments with us at @PeoplesLab on Twitter.
Every quarter, we compile these insights,
along with original research and insights
from the MSLGROUP global network, into
the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
We have synthesized the insights from our
year-long endeavor throughout 2012 to
provide foresights for business leaders and
changemakers — in the ten-part People’s
Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next:
Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engage-
ment.
People’s Insights People’s Insights People’s Insights
weekly report quarterly magazines Annual Report
Volume 2, Issue 12, Future of IBM Smarter Cities
January - March, 2013 Citizenship Challenge
3. What is the Smarter Cities
Challenge?
IBM launched the Smarter Cities Challenge to urban challenges. Through the Smarter Cities
collaborate with local governments and co- Challenge, IBM aims to help 100 cities across
fund technology-based solutions to city-specific the world address urban issues with $50 million
worth of IBM technology and expertise.
Source: fastcompany.com
IBM focuses on cities that collect data, and leverages its own technology and expertise to integrate city
systems and solve problems. As former IBM-er Adam Christensen blogged:
“Cities have tremendous opportunities to use data, connectivity, and sophisticated software tools to know
themselves better and improve their efficiency and effectiveness as providers of services and engines of
economic growth.”
The Smarter Cities Challenge was launched as a three-year initiative in 2011. By the end of 2012, IBM has
sent 300 experts to work with 60 cities around the world. Winners of the final phase of the challenge
were announced in November 2012.
How it works
Cities applied to the challenge online over three
years and IBM announced 20 to 35 winners each
year.
Blogger Itir Sonuparlak noted:
“In order to receive the funds and the expertise,
the cities had to be prepared to match IBM’s
investment with their own commitment of time
and resources. The submissions that were favored Source: IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
included urban concerns that could be addressed
using “smarter” technologies, the availability of A team of IBM experts visits each winning city and
data, and cities that demonstrated a record of spends three weeks working with local authorities
innovative problem solving.” to analyze the city and recommend smart city
solutions.
3
4. Fast Company’s Ariel Schwartz wrote: simulation of an urban city and the challenges it
faces. As Fast Company’s Ariel Schwartz noted:
“The program… will give $250,000 to $400,000
worth of services to each city selected through the “Cities considering the application process might
competitive grant process. Those services may want to take a look at IBM’s CityOne, a city
include access to City Forward (an IBM tool which simulation game intended to help developers and
allows cities to analyze and visualize data across city planners deal with issues related to climate
systems), workshops on social networking tools, change, electrical grid management, banking and
time with top IBM talent, and assistance with more. The game could, in other words, help cities
strategic planning.” pinpoint problems that might be alleviated with a
little help from IBM.”
In addition, cities are also introduced to the IBM
Intelligent Operations Center, a robust tool that
monitors and manages city services, in its effort
to create smarter cities.
Writer Heidi Schwartz noted:
“These pilots leverage IBM technology and will
combine high volumes of data from sensors and
databases (aka “Big Data”) with a layer of analytics
software. This infrastructure will allow officials to
visualize and manage operations more efficiently.”
Source: IBM CityOne Trailer: A Smarter Planet Game
Writer Rachel King pointed out:
In their journey to make cities smarter, IBM
“Essentially, IBM’s concept is to build a new user experts address urban issues ranging from
interface that exists between inhabitants and their city.” administration, citizen engagement, economic
development, education & workforce,
To demonstrate the capabilities of its technology,
environment, public safety, social services,
IBM created the game CityOne – a virtual
transportation and urban planning.
Source: smartercities.tumblr.com
Volume 2, Issue 12, Future of IBM Smarter Cities
January - March, 2013 Citizenship Challenge
5. Then, IBM documents the experience and
learning from each city into an executive report
or case study and shares this on the Smarter
Cities Challenge website – giving other cities and
thinkers the opportunity to explore solutions.
Jen Crozier, Vice President of IBM Global
Citizenship Initiatives, shared:
“While the first two years of the program were
about building expertise and connecting city
leaders, the third year of the program will focus
Source: triplepundit.com
on synthesis, and the ways in which the lessons
learned from one city can be combined with those
from another, to yield unexpected insight into the Data, crowds and smart cities
challenges facing cities.” Entrepreneurs, organizations and governments
are keenly exploring the use of data, connected
IBM’s purpose objects and crowdsourcing to make cities smarter
The Smarter Cities Challenge is an evolution of – especially as cities become more crowded and
both IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative to address congested.
sustainable development, and also the IBM
Corporate Service Corps pro bono consulting
program to assist governments in developing
countrieswith projects that intersect business,
technology, and society.
The challenge reflects IBM’s vision of using
technology to connect, monitor and analyze
systems to create smart systems – smarter grids,
smarter traffic management, smarter cities,
smarter healthcare, smarter food distribution and
so on – to achieve economic growth, sustainable
Source: fastcompany.com
development and societal progress.
IBM’s City Forward is an open interactive platform
As such, Smarter Planet is a part of both IBM’s that allows people explore city data and discuss
business strategy as well as its CSR strategy. findings with the City Forward community.
Edward Boches, Chief Innovation Officer at IBM has also created the community People
ad agency Mullen and professor at Boston for a Smarter Planet to connect thinkers and
University, noted: changemakers around this challenge.
“It’s a tagline, an ad campaign, a social media
program, an attempt to educate customers and
influencers, a library of thought leadership, an
employee motivational program, and a clearly
defined corporate mission. Most importantly
it’s a way to sell IBM and its services by framing
the importance of, and the need to, harness
the intelligence in the world’s and a company’s
connected data.”
Blogger Mary Catherine O’Connor wrote:
Source: City Forward Introduction
“Does this grant project mark the dawn of
philanthropy 2.0? Or is it a handy tool for IBM to Governments too are opening up data and
market its services to urban leaders? It’s both. And problems to entrepreneurs, coders and citizens,
for IBM, it’s also a way to advance its Smart Planet with challenge platforms like Code for America,
platform, which is all about building more efficient Data.gov and Challenge Post in the U.S. and
systems through analytics, sensor networks, cloud Spark Central in the UK.
computing, building automation and other systems.”
5
6. Anthony Townsend, director of research at the Finally, several entrepreneurs have launched
Institute for the Future, argues that cities have a projects to crowdsource ideas on how cities can
lot to gain by opening up to citizens: prepare for the future (see our People’s Insights
report on TED’s The City2.0 platform).
“Why can’t the technology that makes the Web an
intuitive and interactive, yet deeply personalized
and social realm, be grafted onto the physical world
in a similar fashion?...
“In the coming decade each city must strive to be as
good a civic laboratory as it can be. It must provide
a physical and social support system for hackers
and entrepreneurs to experiment within.”
Source: thecity2.org
Volume 2, Issue 12, Future of IBM Smarter Cities
January - March, 2013 Citizenship Challenge
7. People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary comment on other people’s content and
crowdsourcing platform and approach that collaborate to find innovative solutions.
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform insights and foresight approach, which consists
helps organizations build and nurture public of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
label communities around four pre-configured specific insights communities, and ethnographic
application areas: Expertise Request Network, deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Innovation Challenge Network, Research & Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
Insights Network and Contest & Activation capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
Network. Our community and gaming features insights from conversations and communities.
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab