Ben and Pavel were at Future Cities Catapult HQ yesterday to participate on a high-level working group developing new standards for Smart Cities. The event, co-organized by the FCC with the British Standards Institute, brought together a group of 25 Smart City experts from a range of domains to discuss the far-reaching possibilities for standards in the domain.
21c has been championing for many years the need to put Open Data at the forefront of Smart City standards. From our work with more than 80 cities around the world, we know first-hand that data is the fuel that makes Smart Cities run. Data is the foundation of every service, every behaviour and every decision that makes cities better places to live and work. Without access to reliable, uniform Open Data, prospective Smart Cities are at a real disadvantage when it comes to driving new services. This message was warmly received by the standards team, who agreed that more needs to be done to guide cities through the release of Open Data. 21c was happy to provide our extensive experiences to this process and will. We continue to advise cities on the best way to open their data and, together with the FCC and BSI, are now contributing to the development of a new standard to formalise our advice for the benefit of Smart Cities everywhere. To find out more about how 21c can help you become a Smarter City through Open Data, get in touch here.