New podcast episode: Smart City Lab
IoT Sweden’s strategic project Smart City Lab focuses on building municipalities’ technical and organisational capabilities in order to collect and make data available in a secure, scalable and controlled manner. In the latest episode of IoT Sweden’s podcast we discuss smart cities with one of the Project Managers of Smart City Lab: Claus Popp Larsen.
Smart City Lab is sprung from the project City as a Platform (CaaP) which was part of another Strategic Innovation Programme, Viable Cities. Smart City Lab aims at increasing the use of IoT data in the public sector.
Gap between guidelines and practical everyday life
An important experience from the City as a Platform project is that there is a gap between guidelines from national authorities on the one hand, and the municipalities’ practical everyday life on the other hand, especially around components linked to the soft digital infrastructure. It is this gap that the Smart City Lab aims to bridge.
“Many municipalities use IoT data in their operations, however, there are few examples of IoT data being shared outside the suppliers’ systems, thus contributing and benefitting other purposes than what was originally intended,” said Claus Popp Larsen, Project Manager for Smart City Lab.
Silos inhibit data-driven development
Today there is a discrepancy in data management that limits data-driven development and the scaling-up of use of IoT in Swedish municipalities. A low degree of digital maturity is the standard situation in many, if not all, municipalities resulting in locked-in and unstructured data as well as in a lack of prevailing, agreed standards regarding data format etc.
“There is still too much work in “silos” within administrations and municipal companies. We want to help municipalities move forward. We want to increase collaborations, sharing of experiences and avoiding reinventing the wheel every time”, said Claus Popp Larsen.
Listen to Episode 4 about Smart City Lab. Available where podcasts live, for example here:
