A smart city to drive new business models
Clara Pezuela
FIWARE Foundation Technical Steering Committee, Atos Research Innovation – Innovation Lead
Multi modal transportation
Long-term planning
This is the result of the city’s smart and innovative vision, which was spearheaded by
the 2009 Málaga Smart City project and expanded by the city’s 2018-2022 Strategic Plan for Technological Innovation. The project encourages the creation of solutions and applications for public life, citizen participation, e-government and open data projects focusing on making the city more innovative, inclusive, technological and smart.As part of the initiative, startups, SMEs, multinationals, universities and developers have access to the FIWARE platform — and its supporting tools including a generic enablers catalog, video tutorials, guides for developers — allowing them to easily develop applications and integrate city data. One practical example is the electronic display near San Andrés beach, which accurately shows the number of car slots available in a nearby parking area.Málaga is just one example of how FIWARE is helping cities deliver their digital vision for sustainability, data economy and efficient public service management with solutions ranging from transport and traffic management to waste management. With its open source approach, FIWARE and its growing community is driving the development of smart solutions in a faster, easier, interoperable and affordable way that avoids vendor lock-in.
When solution providers can build solutions in an agile and flexible way on an open platform free-of-charge, financial resources can be deployed on other aspects of business — such as hiring talent, expanding the product line and launching marketing campaigns. Then, there are the technological advantages: the free FIWARE software allows developers access to the source code and enables them to enhance application performance, add features and fix errors for everyone’s benefit.
Collaboration is at the forefront of the smart city movement
Although FIWARE is all about tech like big data, Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain, we believe that smart environments can only thrive if public administrations move away from inward, fragmented organizational structures towards highly collaborative frameworks. To deliver seamless public services, these frameworks must include private businesses, not-for-profit organizations, social enterprises and citizens — thus driving the advancement of an information society.To do so, it is vital that common standards are in place. An important element of data infrastructure worldwide, common standards are at the heart of interoperable platforms and digital infrastructures. By publishing and using data in a standard way, technology users and providers can drive new business models, create open ecosystems and help public administrations to implement policy goals to deliver more effective public services and boost citizen living standards.
Each country has its own goals and challenges, and the word “smart” means different things across continents. However, by establishing sustainable structures and offering new approaches to engage citizens, authorities, local companies and other stakeholders, public service providers can pave the way for economic development and improve the quality of life for their citizens and visitors.
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