Agenda item

Dr Terry Norman, Wireless Explorers gave a presentation on the Internet Of Things.

In the discussion the following points were made:

·         The internet of things was the enabling technology of smart cities.

·         In smart city designing, it was important to combine data, make it available to others, record times, places, locations, people and numbers to see how people were using the city.

·         Assets could be put on a network with information being collected from each asset through the network and applications used to optimise performance by monitoring, controlling and enriching.

·         The internet of things optimised business processes, led to efficiency improvements and cost savings. It also had the potential to improve the environment and could have health benefits.

·         There was a need for a holistic approach to the internet of things to combine various types of data together. A technology strategy should straddle departments and bring about transformational change in procurement, business models and project approval – business case assessment.

·         Concern was raised about councils selling WIFI as they would need street furniture for the internet of things in the future. It was important to protect the council’s right to earn revenue from data and focus on long term rather than short term gain.

·         Projects should be made Internet of Things Ready by:

1)    Aligning the project with the wider strategic objectives of the authority e.g. citizen engagement, management of the environment, sustainability etc.

2)    Establishing the project within a strong data management policy framework to ensure data integrity, protection of an individual’s privacy and secure storage.

3)    Understanding he opportunity to effect transformational change upon existing business processes, e.g. choice of funding, procurement approach.

4)    Analysing the financial benefits in full, including indirect and long term benefits.

·         It would be at least 5 years until the internet of things would be sufficiently mature to provide technology infrastructure. Currently data science and data management policies were immature.

·         There was a need for a trusted organisation to take responsibility for individuals’ data.

·         In time, legislation would have to be updated to address privacy and security of data.

·         In the long term technology would create employment although there could be a displacement from lower skilled jobs to higher skilled jobs. Technology would create training opportunities. Work was being done in schools to teach children coding which would help with technology in the future.

·         The council had tight controls on personal data. A lot of organisations wanted data but monetising it had to be an opt in process for the individual.

·         In the future CCTV analysis would become more advanced and would monitor road usage, cycle usage, HGV usage, the safest route to travel for cyclists etc.

·         It was important to manage peoples’ perceptions when managing data and ensuring it was made anonymous.

·         Smart cities and the internet of things had three tangible benefits:

1)    It would help to deal with population growth and sustainability without additional resources.

2)    The cost of services would reduce.

3)    There would be a lot of new services required in the future.

·         There was a need to engage with good quality engineers on the practicalities of smart cities.

RESOLVED:

That the evidence be noted.