Susie Ruston McAleer, 21c Managing Partner, was invited to address delgates at Italy’s largest Smart Cities conference, Smart Cities Exhibition Bologna 2014, on the topic of using open data to deliver smart mobility across Europe. Sharing a panel with mobility experts from Rhiental, Brussels, the Oxford Internet Institute as well as the host city Bologna, Susie showcased the power of Geospatial Information (GI), otherwise known as Geo-data, to drive smart city innovation in the transport domain. By acknowledging the challenges that small businesses and entrepreneurs face in harnessing geo-data, let alone using it, Susie introduced new European project OpenTransportNet (OTN) as a solution for aggregating, harmonising and linking GI and open data in a way so that it could be easily understood and interpreted. The insights from the combined data sets are then used to enhance policy or planning decisions within local authorities, or to kick start the development of new services and solutions. The talk concluded with Susie inviting the 70+ delegates to follow the development of the project on social medial. As a result meetings with Italian engineering companies who were present at the panel, who wish to explore new avenues for transport innovation have been set up for this November.
Find out more about OpenTransportNet, or view the presentation (Italian only) here.