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, and @WellyArrivals

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

Questions

You can find me at:

ian@isisgroup.co.nz

www.isisgroup.co.nz

www.whatisitwellington.com

Twitter @ianapperley