The Economist: CitySDK making city life better

The Economist Special report on Technology and geography article entitled “Open-air computers: Cities are turning into vast data factories” mentions few interesting initiatives world-wide on how huge quantities of data by connected devices, densely concentrated in cities, are turning cities into vast data factories.

The Economist Special report on Technology and geography article entitled “Open-air computers: Cities are turning into vast data factories” mentions few interesting initiatives world-wide on how huge quantities of data by connected devices, densely concentrated in cities, are turning cities into vast data factories. The Economist specifically mentions the CitySDK-project (Service Development Toolkit for City services), which ENoLL is partner in, and its pilots on smart mobility, smart participation and smart tourism.

“[…] quite a lot of things to make city life better can be done inexpensively by residents themselves. Many governments and cities are encouraging this by making public data available. The European Union is sponsoring a project called CitySDK, involving eight cities from Manchester to Istanbul, to give developers data and tools to create digital urban services. One pilot, in Helsinki, is meant to make it easier for citizens to report problems. Another, in Amsterdam, will use real-time traffic data to allow people to find the best way around town and avoid traffic jams. A third, in Lisbon, will guide tourists”.

About CitySDK

Helping cities to open their data and giving developers the tools they need, the CitySDK aims for a step change in how to deliver services in urban environments.

With governments around the world looking at open data as a kick start for their economies, CitySDK provides better and easier ways for the cities throughout the Europe to release their data in a format that is easy for the developers to re-use. Taking the best practices around the world the project will foresee the development of a toolkit – CitySDK – that can be used by any city looking to create a sustainable infrastructure of “city apps”. CitySDK (running for 30 months with a budget of 6,84 MEUR) partners are from Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and United Kingdom. It is partly funded by the CIP ICT PSP programme of the European Commission.