Published on 11/11/2016 | Strategy
REDtone is the only provider with infrastructure integration expertise in the industry. We are also a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status company that has garnered more than 24 local and global awards. REDtone holds licenses for Network Facilities Provider (NFP), Network Service Provider (NSP), Applications Services Provider (ASP), LTE (4G), WiMAX and Satellite services.
The main theme of many Smart Cities conferences nowadays is people. The reason is that the millions of people who live in cities have different perspectives and priorities, meaning that offering new Smart City solutions to suit these diverse needs can be very tricky. A successful Smart City implementation in one country does not necessarily mean it can be easily replicated in another city.
For smart cities to be successful, the participation of both parties is required. If residents feel that their complaints will fall on deaf ears, no action will be taken. Meanwhile, the local authorities prefer citizens to channel their complaints into proper channels, where action can be taken, rather than on social media. However, in many cases, even after launching their own city’s citizen engagement mobile app, the take-up, and reports from the people are lukewarm. The problem is in part due to lack of publicity.
If you ask people on the streets whether they have heard of an app designed to report problems to local authorities, it is likely that the answer will be ‘no’. It’s easier to get the message across using social media. It’s also the fault of local councils who use only their official website portal to announce or publicize the citizen engagement mobile app. After such a big hype during the launch of the service, continuous effort must be made to educate the public.
Citizen engagement is only one component in a Smart City. They are many applications which require integration to a smart city platform; thus, it cannot be developed in silo manner. Remember that IoT also requires input from physical sensors (other than the sensors from the smartphones.) A real Smart City needs an integrated platform that collects and aggregates various sources of data (structured or unstructured) to discover the insights of the city and make cities a better and sustainable place to live.
This article is originally published on IBM IoT Blog.
