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Data Sharing FrameworksTechnical White PaperData Sharing FrameworksTechnical White Paper

Population growth the challenge

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Services share of GDP and knowledge workers’ share of total employed (%)

Projected city population growth to 2051 (million)

Planning for the future

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Population 2051Population 2015

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About three quarters of Australians live in the larger cities

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Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Perth Adelaidelaide

SOURCE: DEPT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

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Strategy Pressure oninfrastructure a keyissue going forward.

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Ian Grayson

If the country had abit more of a visiontowards makingcities . . . moreeffective, then wewould be able toshow GDP growth.Geof Heydon, digital economy andsmart cities consultant

Dr Fang Chen,says the keyelementunderpinning anysmart citystrategy must bedata.PHOTO: DEANSEWELL/OCULI

Continued next page

As public debate grows over what afuture ‘‘big Australia’’ might look like,attention is focusing on the implica-tions continuing population growthhas for the nation’s cities.

Buoyed by the combination of nat-ural births, migration and longer lifeexpectancies, Australia’s urban centresare expected to experience significantchanges during the coming decades.

To cope with these population gains,experts believe urban infrastructureswill have to become more integratedand efficient. The concept of a ‘‘smartcity’’ will need to evolve from a plan-ning concept into reality.

At a recent roundtable event conduc-ted by The Australian Financial Reviewin partnership with the AustralianComputer Society (ACS), participantsagreed strategies and action are neededto guide the nation toward a smart citiesfuture.

Michael Blumenstein, AssociateDean (Research Strategy and Manage-ment) at UTS, says the push needs tocome from both the public and privatesectors. ‘‘I would suggest it probablyneeds to be a partnership,’’ he says.‘‘The federal government has a big roleto play [as well as] other institutions.Everyone’s got a part to play.’’

However, Blumenstein cautions thatthe term ‘‘smart cities’’ is often used as atag line rather than referring to initiat-ives that are actually being put in place.Australia needs to ensure it movesfrom talking about the concept to tak-ing practical actions.

‘‘For smart cities to become a reality,particularly in Australia, there needs tobe some things happening on theground that actually exhibit the smartcity notion. There are pockets ofactivity occurring, but the problem is Idon’t believe that it’s organised in a waythat’s really moving towards a defin-ed goal.’’

Digital economy and smart citiesconsultant Geof Heydon says the termsmart cities has become something of arallying point in Australia, but morepractical steps are required to bring theconcept to life.

‘‘If the country had a bit more of a vis-ion towards making cities ... moreeffective, then we would be able to showGDP growth and we’d be able to show

that the country is massively benefit-ing,’’ he says. ‘‘I think the government –the federal government as well as states– needs to see that as a critical objective.’’

Kylee Anastasi, infrastructure andurban renewal partner at PwC Austra-lia, agrees saying Australia has someway to go if smart cities infrastructureis to become reality.

‘‘One of the things that I’ve noticed

coming back into Australia is this lackof objective or vision,’’ she says. ‘‘Wehave different drivers and reasons forwhy we want to get there, but the gov-ernment [has to] really try to set thatvision and that objective. The privatesector can [then] come and say ‘yes, wealign with your objective’.’’

Anastasi says the overriding

New cultureof sharingthe way to go

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Mark Eggleton

Continued next page

The market for smart city technologiescould be worth more than $2.5 trillionby 2025 according to Frost and Sulli-van, but Australia has work to do whenit comes to riding the smart city wave.

It would seem Australian plannersmight still be smarting from the Hawkegovernment’s plans to build a Multi-Function Polis (MFP) or future city inSouth Australia back in the late 1980s.The MFP plan was eventually snuffedout by the Howard government in thelate 1990s after years of criticism.

Elsewhere in the world, it wouldseem there’s a real impetus to developsmart city solutions for the 21st cen-tury. Moreover, there are already plansafoot to develop an open innovationplatform on a global scale which willsee countries share their research anddata on everything from developingsmarter systems for energy and trafficto water and waste management.

Speaking at the recent Smart Citiesroundtable co-hosted by The AustralianFinancial Review and the AustralianComputer Society (ACS), University ofTechnology Sydney Associate Dean(Research Strategy and Management)Professor Michael Blumenstein spokeabout some of the leading internationalplayers on the international stage andwhy Australia has slipped behind.

He suggested Australia does nothave the right culture to build betterpartnerships between industry, gov-ernment, research and the tertiary sec-tor and to grow ‘‘the smartunderpinnings of a smart city, you doneed those partnerships’’.

Internationally, Singapore has astrong digital roadmap and integratedplan between all sectors of the econ-omy, as does Israel.

Even further afield, Finland’s six-citystrategy covers 30 per cent of theFinnish population and whole urbancommunities participate in developingand testing innovative concepts on an

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www.afr.com | Tuesday 1 May 2018

Special Report

Smart citiesEdited by Jason Clout: jclout@fairfaxmedia.com.au

In partnership with Australian Computer Society (ACS)

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AFRTuesday 1 May 2018The Australian Financial Review | www.afr.com

24 Special Report Smart cities

Hubs can spur the digital economy

Geof Heydon: ‘‘We need to accept that learning by doing is the journey we’re on.’’ PHOTO: DEAN SEWELL/OCULI

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Urbanisation Growthwill drive need forsustainable solutions.

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Mark Eggleton

Smart Citiescombine the cloud,big data and theInternet of Things.

By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s pop-ulation will be living in cities. Urbancentres from Mexico City to Tokyo toNew York will need to accommodatemore people than ever while managingfinite natural resources. The popula-tion of many Australian cities is risingquickly. The Department of Prime Min-ister and Cabinet has formulated anational Smart Cities Plan designed toensure Australia’s urban hubs thrive inthe digital economy.

While this enormous growthpresents a challenge, it is their scalewhich makes our cities incubators forsmart, sustainable solutions. More per-tinently, technology is already provid-ing solutions as we build smarterbuildings and building managementsystems through the power of data andthe Internet of Things.

In fact, while much of business hasfocused on the cloud, big data and theInternet of Things, the development ofSmart Cities combines them all.

The cloud has meant the develop-ment of huge data centres to crunchthe data and the Internet of Things nowencompasses everything from oursmartphones to traffic lights, industrialmachinery and home appliances. Inthe smart city of the future, technologycan improve it all.

At a recent Smart Cities roundtableco-hosted by The Australian FinancialReview and the Australian ComputerSociety, participants included MichaelBlumenstein, Director, TechnicalAdvisory Board, ACS and AssociateDean, UTS (Research Strategy andManagement), Head of School, Soft-ware, Engineering and IT as well as DrFang Chen, Research Group Leaderand Senior Principal Researcher

Data61; Paul Edwards, Group GeneralManager – Workplace Experiences,Mirvac; Kylee Anastasi, Partner – Infra-structure and Urban Renewal, PwCAustralia; Jack Archer, CEO RegionalAustralia Institute, and Geof Heydon,smart cities expert and founder ofIoTAA and Creator Tech.

An excerpt features below:

On the data story:Dr Fang Chen: The story of getting dataright, it’s always the starting point ofeverything ... and one of the big chal-lenges now is that we have a lot of datain the silos. We need a coherent andsynchronised system to look at data ina way that is beneficial for industry, cit-ies and society.

On creating smart cities:Geof Heydon: You can’t say that there is

a blueprint anywhere in the world wecan copy. That is not a practical thing todo. We need to accept that learning bydoing is the journey we’re on and we’vegot plenty of examples in Australianow where learning is happeningbecause doing is happening.

On community involvement:Kylee Anastasi: This is less about tech-

nology and more about policy and thecitizens and how we as a communityreally want to utilise technology goingforward. If we put the community atthe centre of some of this [smart city]decision-making with support fromentities such as government and alsofrom the private sector then I think thatwill really help to get things moving.

Paul Edwards: I think to move us

from just being a buzzword aroundsmart cities we have to collaborateacross different sectors both privateand public. Across different levels ofgovernment and the community as awhole, and [hopefully] this will allow usto feel safe in sharing our data whichwill activate opportunities for newbusinesses and for new ways ofworking.

Michael Blumenstein says partnerships generate new businesses, new technologiesand new products. PHOTO: DEAN SEWELL/OCULI

New culture ofsharing the way to go

From previous page

open shared platform. Companiesacross the six cities can freely experi-ment with their innovative smart citysolutions and all the data and end-userexperiences are shared between stake-holders. The aim is to ensure wholecommunities will flourish as willindustry and the local start-up com-munity.

Blumenstein says if we look to thosecountries you can see those partner-ships are recurring, and ‘‘they are fruit-ful, and they are generating newbusinesses, new technologies and newproducts’’.

And if we can get the mix right, Aus-tralia can become a leader in the spaceand not just be the slavish followers ofother nations’ initiatives but before wesee that happen, ‘‘we need to get thebasic infrastructure right’’.

Fellow roundtable participant PaulEdwards agreed Australia does nothave the right infrastructure in place tocreate smart cities. He says we need tocreate more smart precincts that pro-mote collaboration and innovation.

Edwards, who is the group generalmanager – workplace experiences forMirvac, also cites Singapore as a nationthat is investing in education and thestart-up community as well as smarthubs or precincts.

He says smart cities need smart pre-cincts where innovation can flourishand he does not believe we have any ofthose precincts in Australia yet.

Mirvac is working towards one atSydney’s Australian Technology Park(ATP) where it hopes to create an envir-onment that enables organisations towork together to create smart city solu-tions.

One idea Mirvac has is the concept ofproviding shared testbeds, which is inits nascent stages.

‘‘At the ATP, you provide a testbed,

which might include lots of sensorswhich then provides data, and then youprovide a governance layer so that peo-ple can access that data and use thatdata to create new businesses.

‘‘For example, we’re going to haveone of the first urban farms on the roof-top of one of our buildings down there.We can put sensors in the soil, we cando food testing and we’re talking toData61, who are based there, abouthow we create lots of data which wecan gift to the citizens who actually canthen drive new businesses out of it.’’

Smart cities consultant as well asfounder of Creator Tech and Internet ofThings Alliance Australia, Geof Hey-don, also agrees sharing data acrossopen platforms is integral to creatingthe smarter urban areas of the futurebut unfortunately, ‘‘our culture is not sogreat at sharing’’.

Referring to the start-up ecosystem,Heydon suggested Australia does have

a great incubating environment butwhen you look at the ecosystem inother countries, ‘‘people with intellec-tual property as a start-up find ways ofsharing it with others to create biggerand better intellectual property’’.

‘‘Unfortunately, we have an oppositetendency here in Australia. If you havea great idea, you want to sit on it andnot let anybody steal it.’’

Heydon believes part of the problemis the start-up funding model here inAustralia sees plenty of investment infirst-round funding but when start-upsmove to the next stage of their develop-ment and are looking for second-roundfunding, the investors are staying away.

The upshot is start-ups are sitting ontheir ideas and looking internationallyfor the next round of funding and welose them overseas.

‘‘We have a lot of incubators gettingthat first step but the real challenge isthe next step in their development.’’

Population growtha major challenge

There are [already]some greatinitiatives inNewcastle and somegood things withenvironmentalsensing in Cairns.Jack Archer, chief executive of theRegional Australia Institute

From previous page

objective of a smart cities initiativeneeds to be less about the technologiesand products that need to be put inplace and more about targets such asreducing the impact of climate change,lowering traffic congestion and boost-ing a city’s overall productivity and thequality of life of its citizens.

‘‘Those [are the] sorts of things thatthe community can sign up to andendorse,’’ she says. ‘‘Then it’s over tothe private sector to come up with theinnovations that help drive that tobecome a reality.’’

Dr Fang Chen, research group leaderat Data61, says while smart cities issomething of a buzz phrase at themoment, progress is already beingmade in a range of areas. She says thekey element underpinning any smartcity strategy must be data. It’s onlythrough the collection, analysis and useof data that effective strategies can beevolved from theories into practicalprojects.

‘‘My daily job is working on data,and what we can do with the data,’’ shesays. ‘‘From that perspective, I actuallythink Australia is not in a bad place.’’

Chen points to the example of atraffic control system developed inAustralia that has been exported to cit-ies around the world. She says main-taining a focus on data and how it canbe used will lead to the development ofother smart city components in thefuture.

She says while the process of creat-ing a smart city needs to begin with asolid base of data, this must be linkedwith an overall vision and used to aidthe creation of a standard platform tosupport targeted initiatives.

While attention around smart citiestends, naturally, to focus on our largesturban centres, the roundtable dis-cussed the potential for the strategies to

also add significant value in regionalcentres.

Jack Archer, chief executive of theRegional Australia Institute, says manypeople do not realise that 50 per cent ofregional Australians live in cities ofmore than 50,000 people.

He says these small cities are greattestbeds for smart city initiatives asthey do not become bogged down byhaving to deal with multiple local coun-cils and other authorities to becomeestablished.

‘‘There are [already] some great initi-atives in Newcastle and some goodthings with environmental sensing inCairns,’’ he says. ‘‘There’s [already] a lotof innovation going on in these places.’’

During the roundtable discussion,Heydon cautioned that a sustainableAustralian smart city strategy would

need to be more than simply a series ofone-off projects. He says some centrescall themselves a smart city when allthat has been done is the implementa-tion of smart street lighting.

‘‘It’s very difficult for one business orone product, or even several products,to change something,’’ he says. ‘‘It has tobe done in partnership. For cities toreally change, it does need a strong gov-ernment with vision and strong action.’’

The roundtable participants con-cluded that, while there is significantscope for Australia to glean advantagesfrom smart city projects, thoroughplanning and co-ordination will beneeded to ensure their success.

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25Special ReportSmart cities

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James Sherbon

Jack Archer: ‘‘Small cities are great test beds.’’ PHOTO: DEAN SEWELL/OCULI

We can be globalleaders and taketechnologies allaround the world.Jack Archer, CEO, Regional AustraliaInstitute

Australia’s regional cities should play totheir strengths when it comes to beinginnovative in the digital economy, sug-gested a number of participants at therecent Smart Cities roundtable co-hosted by The Australian FinancialReview and the Australian ComputerSociety.

Chief executive of the Regional Aus-tralia Institute, Jack Archer, says play-ing to their strengths just makescommon sense rather than trying toachieve the scale of change talkedabout in the larger cities.

‘‘Australia has 31 small cities fromCairns through to Hobart where4.5 million Australians live. Thesesmall cities are great test beds forinnovation because you’re dealing withone local government,’’ Archer says.

‘‘Cities like Newcastle, Rockhamptonand Cairns are starting to lead in thesmart cities movement and they’replaying to their strengths.’’

According to Archer, one of thosestrengths is the lifestyle advantages ofeach of these cities. For example, theyare all popular with retirees and Archerbelieves there is real potential for themto become powerhouses in aged careand create smart aged-care communit-

ies. Moreover, it is an area with enorm-ous export potential as many of theregion’s populations are ageing.

‘‘We’re having a big discussion aboutsmart homes for old people, but whatabout smart communities in places likePort Macquarie or on the Sunshine

Coast, the Gold Coast or the FraserCoast? These places are magnets forpeople retiring and downsizing out ofthe city.

‘‘There is a great opportunity for theseto become smart cities where peoplecan access a whole lot of services andhave a city that really works for them.We can be global leaders and if some ofour smaller cities can help develop thetechnologies, we can take those techno-logies all around the world.’’

Smart cities expert and founder ofadvisory firm Creator Tech, Geof Hey-don, agreed every city needs to workout what makes it unique so people aremade aware of why they would want to

work and live in a particular city.‘‘There’s this really big problem that

there is almost a generic smart-citystatement for every council or everycity across Australia,’’ Heydon says.

In many ways, it’s a little like thePixar film The Incredibles when the vil-lain Syndrome suggests that ‘‘wheneveryone’s a super[hero], no one willbe’’. There is a lack of differentiation, sowhat Heydon does when cities want totalk smart is to ask ‘‘what are yourunique assets that you’re going to makemore attractive to society’’.

‘‘You can go to many councilsaround the country and they haven’tgot a clue what is unique about them,or when they do tell you what is uniqueit’s that gold mine, or it’s somethingthat isn’t actually that helpful.

‘‘Every place has something great tostart from and when a person doesn’twant to live in a congested city, they’rechoosing from other characteristics.

‘‘I really don’t think anybody is reallyputting enough thought into what aretheir assets which form the base tobuild smart from.’’

Kylee Anastasi says data can assist in making a city smarter. PHOTO: DEAN SEWELL/OCULI

Huge potentialof IoT but alsosome concerns

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Security No room forcomplacency when itcomes to breaches.

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Mark Eggleton

People want to seedata used in a real-life context.Dr Fang Chen, Data61

When World Bank Group presidentJim Yong Kim stood up in front of theMobile World Congress earlier thisyear in Barcelona, he spoke of thepower of the Internet of Things andhow big data could be used for thegreater social good.

While he was emphasising thepotential of increased connectivity toalleviate poverty, Kim was also draw-ing attention to 5G technology beingthe engine that will drive the fourthindustrial revolution.

Speaking with Fairfax Media inMarch, the global head of Samsung’smobile business, DJ Koh, also spokeabout the potential of 5G and how itwill deliver unimagined experiences.He likened 4G to a bicycle and 5G to amotorbike, giving us extraordinaryconnectivity.

Frost and Sullivan also spoke of thebenefits of 5G and how it will drivethe Internet of Things technology in‘‘smart cities, smart infrastructure andenhanced connected living concepts’’.

Yet Frost and Sullivan also warn thatas more devices become networked,the potential for security breachesexpands exponentially.

Cyber security attacks cannot onlycause operational disruptions;breached or malfunctioning devices canalso be commandeered to launch cybersecurity attacks on other devices andsystems, posing significant risks to con-sumers, businesses and societies.

As Koh says, ‘‘data security is No.1’’and it was discussed extensively at therecent Smart Cities roundtable co-hosted by The Australian FinancialReview and Australian ComputerSociety.

Speaking at the roundtable, smartcities consultant and founder of Cre-ator Tech Geof Heydon said if we arecomplacent about security, ‘‘we couldhave a potential disaster’’.

‘‘Everything we aspire to from thetechnology side of things when itcomes to enabling citizens, could actu-ally fall down at the blink of an eye ifwe’re not prepared,’’ Heydon says.

We are already seeing the potentialpitfalls of massive security breachesand blatant misuse of data. A recentstudy by the University of Surrey in Bri-tain titled Into the Web of Profit(Understanding the Growth of theCybercrime Economy) suggests cyber-crime is worth over $1.5 trillion a year –making it equivalent to the world’s13th-largest economy.

And it is not just individuals’ data atrisk. According to the report, last year12 Saudi government agencies werediscovered to have been victims ofespionage-directed spear-phishingcyber attacks. The attacks aimed toplace malware on computers to mineor steal data from them.

In the last few years, Saudi busi-nesses, especially in the energy sector,have also been victims of spyingattacks from malicious actors such asthe Greenbug cyber espionage groupor the Shamoon hacking group, whowere able to disrupt over 35,000 com-puters at the Saudi Aramco oil com-pany in 2012.

It is also happening closer to home,where recent reports have outlinedmassive health data breaches.

All these reports are worrying, espe-cially when we realise the smart citiesof the future will rely heavily on the useof data and the sharing of data to makeour cities run more efficiently.

Participants at the roundtable sug-gested while a degree of paranoia iswarranted around security, sometimesit is inappropriate.

The general consensus was govern-ments have to educate people aboutdata usage and obviously establish a

strong degree of governance around itsusage. University of Technology Sydneyassociate dean (research strategy andmanagement), Michael Blumensteinsays data is the key to harnessing thepower of the collective intelligence.

Blumenstein, who is also the directorof the ACS Technical Advisory Board,says while privacy is vitally important,it’s the use of data which will engage

citizens to help create smarter cities.The challenge is how do you get thatengagement with a lot of privacy?

He says once people give up theirdata, they want to get some assurancethat it will be used appropriately.

Research group leader and seniorprincipal researcher at Data61 Dr FangChen suggests it is more of an educa-tion process. She says people want tosee data used in a real-life context suchas public transport and on-demandtransport services.

‘‘If you live on an island by yourselfand you aren’t willing to give anyinformation about yourself and yourmovements, there is no way of estimat-

ing the demand and time you mightneed to leave and ensure a service likean Uber is nearby.

‘‘Now if there is 10, 20 or 100 people,we can give you a profile of the com-munity. It’s about sacrificing a little bitof privacy so you can have a betterservice.’’

PwC Australia’s infrastructure andurban renewal partner Kylee Anastasiagrees people would be more thanhappy to give up their transport datathrough their mobile device if theyknew their transport would be therewhen they needed. It’s the ideal exam-ple of how data assists in making a citysmarter.

‘‘You’re giving that information upbecause you’re receiving – you’re see-ing a very tangible link between whatyou’re giving and what you’re receivingas the citizen,’’ Anastasi says.

‘‘If you can understand the trade-offs,you’ll make your own decision.’’

While people might happily give theirdata to a transport provider, the deeperprivacy issue is with whom the trans-port provider then shares your datawith. Roundtable participants agreedefficient smart city infrastructure wouldneed data to be shared widely.

Chen said if it is used wisely it canthen be used to inform traffic move-ments, consumer behavioural changesand more. She says technology willimprove the interpretation of data and

once that happens it will give peoplemore confidence to share data.

‘‘We need to craft a policy on how weshare the information and then thatinformation can be used in whole cityplanning,’’ she says.

The key is winning people’s trusteven when it comes to them anonym-ously sharing their data.

For example, Mirvac’s group generalmanager of workplace experiencesPaul Edwards says people basicallygive their data away to Facebook orApple ‘‘when they say yes to the termsand conditions’’.

‘‘Yet when we actually ask someonefor data for a specific purpose such astracking someone around one of ourbuildings to work out space utilisationand space optimisation, most peoplewill say no.

‘‘I’ve been at conferences and askedwhether people would sign up to beinganonymously tracked. I tell them wedon’t know who you are, we don’tknow anything about what you’redoing, other than where you are mov-ing around the building, but when I askthat question to a room full of people,only 10 per cent would volunteer.’’

For Edwards, people do not under-stand the value proposition. They willgive everything up to some things, butare more worried about having theirboss maybe knowing where they are –even though it is anonymous.

AFRGA1 A026

AFRTuesday 1 May 2018The Australian Financial Review | www.afr.com

26 Special Report Smart cities

Singapore, Bristol show what’s possible

Detailed planning has helped Singapore in its goal to become a smart city.

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Inspiration ‘Problem-solving’ cities areleading the way.

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Ian Grayson

It’s a long journey,and you’ve got to[work together] tosolve problems.Paul Edwards, Mirvac

While the creation of a truly smart cityin Australia may appear to be a com-plex and long-range task, proponentsare finding inspiration in successfulprojects established in other parts ofthe world.

Participants in a recent round tablehosted by The Australian FinancialReview and the Australian ComputerSociety on the topic pointed to initiat-ives underway everywhere from Bri-tain to Singapore as evidence thatprogress was not only possible but ledto demonstrable benefits for the urbancentres involved.

General manager workplace experi-ences at Mirvac, Paul Edwards, says agood example of what is possible canbe seen in the British city of Bristol.

There, the council is undertaking amulti-phase smart city projectdesigned to improve everything fromtraffic flows and rubbish collection toair quality and health services.

‘‘They’ve branded themselves the‘problem-solving city’ and they’ve donethat through setting up all the networkunderneath that allows [data] to begathered in a consistent way,’’ he says.

‘‘But, far more importantly, they’vegot the platform that goes across all ofthat, so they can look at the data fromanywhere.’’

Edwards says Bristol City Councilhas successfully built a model whereindustry, local government and theuniversity work hand-in-hand with thestart-up community. If a projectrequires research then the universityleads, it and if it’s an industrial projectthen industry leads.

‘‘I like that model because they’verecognised that ... it’s a long journey,and you’ve got to [work together] tosolve problems,’’ he says.

Smart city projects are also rapidlygaining steam in the Asia-Pacificregion. Associate Dean (Research,Strategy and Management) at UTS,Michael Blumenstein, says Singaporeis a solid example of what can beachieved with thorough planning.

‘‘What’s interesting there is they aregoing for the big problems and lookingat things like transport,’’ he says. ‘‘Theyare designing smart, autonomouselectric trams that will be runningaround the city in the form of pla-toons.’’

The trams will connect and discon-nect on the basis of changes in passen-ger demand across the city.

However, Blumenstein says a trulysmart city requires not just selectedhigh-tech projects but an overall visionfor what it wants to become.

‘‘I suspect that there are lots of cities

trying to use showpieces like that toarticulate their maturity in the smartcity space, but none – to my knowledge– has all the pieces together,’’ he says.

Edwards says cities with a strategyof becoming ‘‘smart’’ are taking aphased approach to implementations.In this way the success of early activit-ies can add value to other initiativesthat follow.

‘‘The first phase is doing the reallysimple things like putting sensors onbins to make rubbish collection moreefficient,’’ he says. ‘‘That’s easy and lotsof councils are doing it all over theworld. It’s not that smart, but it’s animportant first step.’’

Edwards says a second step is oftenlooking at the lighting in public spacesand adding sensors and controllers to

make its operation more efficient. This,in turn, leads to the deployment of arange of other sensors that can monitoreverything from traffic flows to airquality and the movement of crowds.

With multiple sensor networks inplace, the next phase is looking at howthe different data streams being collec-ted can be combined and add value in

more complex ways. This couldinvolve, for example, traffic manage-ment systems that alter traffic flows intimes of poor air quality.

‘‘One of the good measures of matur-ity [in smart cities] is data sharing andthe policies wrapped around that,’’ saysJack Archer, chief executive of theRegional Australia Institute. ‘‘A lot ofpeople say that the oil of the digitaleconomy is data [so] you have to havepolicy wrapped around that.

‘‘You can’t just say we’re collectingdata from all these sensors and we’llmake it available willy-nilly.

‘‘You have to know when it’s too riskyto share some data, when it’s too per-sonal [or] when it’s inappropriate fornational security.’’