Open ROADS Research

SMART CITIES  
 
 
 

IMPLEMENTING THE ROADS EXPERIENCE

WITHIN CITIES

How people are discussing the elements of the

ROADS experience across Cities

November 2016
  
 
   

INTRODUCTION

Digital transformation is now on the agenda of many cities around the world. Citizens
expect their city to move in the same direction as they become increasingly
connected. City leaders are expected to ensure that sufficient infrastructures are in
place, to provide citizens with the ability to interact with them through a ROADS
experience and to utilize technology to ensure that the city is safe and easy to
navigate in.

These new expectations bring forth opportunities for partners to support the growth
of the “connected city”. Partners can play a part by implementing the infrastructures
and operations required to deliver the ROADS experience. The cities that can link
the needs of the emerging market to the voice of their citizens, are best placed to
take advantage of the key industry transformations happening around them and
move from a “Smart City” to a “Social Smart City”.

This paper is designed to capture the voices of people around the world so as to
better understand how they discuss the five elements of the ROADS experience -
Real-time, On-Demand, All-Online, Do-it-Yourself, Social - across the topic of Cities.
This helps to identify trends that are affecting your citizen’s behavior and how new
operating models will affect your city.

We have analyzed over 1.4 million conversations in English over the past 6 months
globally and looked at the five elements of ROADS by analyzing platforms such as
Twitter, Blogs, Forums and News sites.

In the later pages, you will find a snapshot of some of the key topics that has been
driving conversations around the world. You also will gain a better understanding of
how these topics relate to key stakeholders. We hope that this paper would inspire
thoughts and conversations within your department and inspire you to create better
experiences for your valued citizens.
REAL-TIME  

There is a common belief that the city of the future would be one driven by real-time technology. By coupling real-
time data with the necessary infrastructures required to put it to use, cities can now identify problems, increase
safety and enhance how they serve their citizens.

The key topics around real-time include:

CITY HEALTH TRACKING

Real-time health tracking within cities measuring public concerns such as
pollution and city cleanliness is one of the hot topics. Cities are now
seeking to be measurable through data points, to ensure that citizens are
aware of the improvements that are being made and that there are proof
points of the successes.

“Hazardous level of Pollution this #Diwali in India's Capital - @PMOIndia

@ArvindKejriwal - Real Time Air Quality Data - #Delhi”
@HarsimranJulka

THREAT MANAGEMENT
Real-time threat management detectors such as alerts and monitoring
devices are being actively discussed. As this is a highly time sensitive
topic and authorities need to be able to act quickly, timeliness of data is
essential. There should be no downtime between the transmission of
that data.

“Read how @CityOfLasVegas uses @Darktrace for real-time threat detection!

#Vegas #CyberSecurityAwarenessMonth”
@mk_whelehan

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
Cities are looking to reduce congestion in real-time through the use of
technology. There are many solutions to this problem, although many
rely on GPS and location data from mobile phones, which are the key
drivers to the solutions. Accuracy is important for ensuring the
usefulness of the data.

“Let’s bring real time management of public transport and traffic into the digital
age!!!”
@TorontoDiana
ON-DEMAND  

On-demand technology and services are transforming how cities operate. As start-ups such as Uber disrupts
industries, it is essential for cities to come into play to ensure sufficient regulations are in to protect the safety of
their citizens. As “on-demand” becomes an instilled behavior among citizens, city leaders need to ponder on how
a ROADS experience can be implemented such that citizens can interact on-demand.

The key topics around on-demand include:

MOBILITY
“On-demand” mobility is the major topic within cities as there is a
need to regulate and manage the transportation systems. The
development of the discussions from on-demand public transport
(e.g. buses) to other mode of transportation can be attributed to the
evolution of this sector.

“As on-demand mobility grows, cities need to design PUDO (pickup, drop
off spaces on each busy street. @rmchase – I’ll add transit stations!”
@abelaie

CITY REGULATION
As “on-demand” businesses become more popular in cities around
the world, people are beginning to discuss regulations so that they
can become more manageable and taxable. There is an opportunity
for the larger and more established organizations to support the new
“on-demand” start-ups and in return for regulation support, they can
benefit from their innovations.

“it bears repeating that the on-d ema nd and sharing economies biggest
"innovations" are not technological, but about labor and regula tio”
@nkulw

ON-DEMAND EXPECTATIONS
Similar to interactions with businesses, ease of engagement is the
key to having delighted interactions between citizens and the city.
Therefore, departments within cities are now exploring on-demand
services as this behavior becomes more and more instilled in the
citizens of the cities. Whether it’s through apps, kiosks or other
service, a relentless focus on the ease of use is the key to
successful implementations.

“Super cool @Paris ! As of today the cit y now has its own self -servic e
electric scooter service @CityscootPARIS too #travel #lp”
@tripalong
 ALL-ONLINE
   

All-online and connectivity is strongly correlated with IoT and digital transformation. Cities are making an effort to
ensure that everyone is connected so that they are able to access benefits online. With city functions being
accessible online, citizens have the opportunity to interact with ease anytime and anywhere.

Key topics driving all-online conversations include:

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AGENDA

The efforts of India with their Digital Transformation agenda is driving a
large amount of conversation around all-online. India’s Prime Minister is
very vocal in sharing his ambition for a digital nation. There are great
opportunities for partners to support in this development, by helping
with the implementation of the infrastructures needed to make this a
reality.

“Now everything is online… #digital India.., all thanks to #OnJio”

@habibrehman009

INTERNET OF THINGS: THE ENABLER OF SMART CITY

As cities become more connected, more people are starting to talk
about IoT. IoT is seen to be the enabler of smart city through a mixture
of smart sensors and cloud computing, which has the ability to add
intelligence to a variety of applications across cities including energy,
public services, mobility and more. Building infrastructures prove to be a
major challenge, as IoT requires the right sensors and high-speed
networks to be successful.

“Most of the current #IoT projects are in connected industry, followed by

#SmartCity & smart energy.”
@AJedusik

CONNECTED CARS
Being a step away from transforming into an everyday necessity,
connected cars are a hot topic that is being actively discussed around
the world. The main topic around this discussion is “What is required
to make this a reality?”. While manufacturers are already developing
the cars, we need to rethink about the network infrastructure required.

“Connected cars are likely to have a material impact in large urban areas.”

@clh002
 DO-IT-YOURSELF  

One of the key benefits of a city that has successfully digitalized itself is the ability to enable citizens to gain access to
DIY or self service functions. DIY brings forth many benefits such as the reduction of man hours and improvement in
customer satisfaction due to decreased waiting time. These services can come in the form of platforms, apps, kiosks
and more. Through this research, we can see that the citizens desire to interact with the city in this manner.

Key topics driving do-it-yourself conversations include:

BLOCKCHAIN
Blockchain is a hot topic right now. It is seen as the key enabler to a
self-service city. It can dramatically reduce the time and cost needed
to gain the trust of citizens when it comes to applying for deeds/tiles
on property, application processes for permits and more, through the
creation of a trusted network. Telecom companies such as Orange
and Verizon are already exploring blockchain, to see how it can
provide them with a competitive advantage within ICT.

Could the Bitcoin b lockchai n one day run your entire cit y?  
http://bit.ly/2fu3gQf via @ExtremeTech

@masturaishak1

“WHENEVER” / “WHEREEVER” CITY

Citizens want a “Whenever”/ ‘Wherever’ DIY city, where they have the
ability to interact with self-service options. This aligns to an all-online city,
where citizens are seeking the ability to access self-service platforms
online. To avoid errors and frustrations, self-service platforms should be
able to provide a seamless service experience.

“Detroit is winning! The DIY culture of the cit y is not only inspiring, it can be
financially rewarding.  http://bit.ly/2eBsLSg”
@cathmiller01

MEDICINE ATMs
South Africa and India are now exploring self-service ATMs for
medicine distribution. This technology will reduce a significant amount
of pressure on public health system and on the other hand provide
people with quick and easy access to health.

“Self-service medicine-dispensing machine launched at International AIDS

Conference in South Africa #MedTech”
@MikeStoker
SOCIAL  

The ability for citizens to interact and have a voice is essential for a city to run successfully. Cities should be
creating digital channels that allow their citizens to engage with them. They can also introduce collaboration
platforms that would encourage citizens to play a part in enhancing the city.

Key topics driving social conversations include:

SOCIAL SMART CITY

In order to be truly “smart”, we need to shift our focus from being a
“Smart City” to a “Social Smart City” with participatory governance and
social inclusion. This requires cities to think about how they can open
up channels for communication, in order to receive feedback from
citizens that would guide the city’s developments.

“Moving from #smartcities to social cities, from capitalist economy to

#sharingeconomy”
@AriannaGriffa

SOCIAL NETWORK FOR CITY ISSUES

City leaders are looking to provide the opportunity for citizens to have a
voice through building a social network around governance issues. The
MyGov platform in India receives 45% of its discussions around Smarter
Cities. This is a first step towards a Social Smart City. It also provides the
opportunity for businesses and partners to identify where they can help to
enable digital transformation.

“Use social me di a to let the cit y of Tampa know about p rob l ems.
#socialgiants16”
@aegorlick

HACKABLE CITY
“Hackable City” is a new term being used to explore collaborative city
making, where people are getting together to re-think cities. By
providing access to open APIs and being collaborative, cities can get
access to innovative solutions developed by these active citizens.

“From #smartcity to #hackablecity, great keynote by @kresin fr @waag

bit.ly/redbullbasement, waking up the hacker in me”
@cpjfb
  

CONCLUSION

It’s becoming clear that globally, citizens, employees and businesses are looking
to their cities to implement a ROADS experience. With many citizens feeling that
city functions are difficult to deal with, digital transformation provides cities with
the opportunity to reinvent themselves and become more user-centric so that the
interaction would be an enjoyable experience.

However, cities are not able to transform by themselves. They require the right
partners to help implement infrastructures and operations in order to make this a
reality. Telecom partners are uniquely placed to support the digital transformation
efforts of cities, as they are the connective tissue that underpins the ability to
deliver these services and infrastructures.

Openness and collaboration among cities and their citizens are the key to a
brighter future. Businesses, citizens and cities should join hands in transforming
the world we live in. Taking advantage of these partnership is the first step in
becoming a “Social Smart City’.