Profiting From "Smart City" APIs

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Profiting From "Smart City" APIs Business opportunities for entrepreneurial developers in the civic tech space @mgboydcom programmableweb.com

description

Mark Boyd, Writer, ProgrammableWeb APIs are increasingly being used by city authorities around the world to connect and share their data. This presentation describes five case studies of how third party developers are leveraging the API advantage to create viable business models. The presentation will summarize case studies across public transport, open 311, urban planning, citizen engagement, and crime prevention. The presentation will document a success matrix, describing the common factors that are making it possible for third party developers to create viable business models by leveraging smart city APIs.

Transcript of Profiting From "Smart City" APIs

Page 1: Profiting From "Smart City" APIs

Profiting From "Smart City" APIs

Business opportunities for entrepreneurial developers in the civic tech space

@mgboydcom programmableweb.com

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Why Now?

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Cities are changing

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/china_modern/html/2.stm

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Cities are changing• “The Great Inversion” (Alan Ehrenhalt)

• Marry later

• Temporal and remote work

• Demand for urban loft > suburban McMansion

• The Rise of the Creative Class and the Startup City (Richard Florida)

• Climate change and oil impacts

• Financial crisis impacts and widening Gini coefficient

The city as disruptive force

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Widening inequality

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/11/04/widest-gap-cities-rich-poor/3431423/

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City Governments are changing

http://www.slideshare.net/ashabook/smartworl-dabr

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City Governments are changing

• Government as a platform paradigm

• Open data support growing

• Emerging shift to some use of cloud services

• Shrinking or maintenance budgets = need to do more with less

• Smart city paradigm (sensors, data, automating workflows and infrastructure)

Government as platform

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Tech is changing

http://mjskok.com/resource/2014-future-cloud-computing-4th-annual-survey-results

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Tech is changing• Cloud: Skok’s Transformative Era

• Hyper-local

• Health data rights

• Open data - corporate, public and social

• Remixing the web

• AI algorithms and predictive analytics

The city as disruptive force

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Why You?

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The Time is Now

• Reliable income source

• Growing market opportunities

• Foster a hyperlocal, platform mindset

• Contribute to open source and API standards

• Satisfaction!

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How?

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Role of local government• public transport

• public service delivery

• transparency/democracy

• civic engagement

• cultural participation

• recreational activity

• crime and safety

• food security

• civic infrastructure maintenance

• business development

• reducing inequality/marginalization

• waste management

• traffic management and parking

• walkability

• disaster recovery/emergency management

• urban planning/land use mix

• bicycle paths and rental schemes

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Learning from successNatural evolution of civic tech startups

open API standards, need to scale to different cities

pushes product into platform play

service/product for a specific

geographic area

app

platform

app

consultant

consultant

app

app

IoT

?

consultancy opportunities integrating

platform APIs into city systems

apps created built off platform API

(emerging) second wave of

innovation

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Entering the spaceQuestions to ask yourself

Are there API stds? Do you need to create an

abstraction layer? Do you have relationships with subject experts? Fo you have r’ships with govt

agencies (or willingness to develop?)

look for local government open data API sources you can use to

create a product/service

app

platform

app

consultant

consultant

app

app

IoT

?

can you become a certified partner or claim a particular regional market?

is the platform market already crowded/strong

contenders?

(emerging) second wave of

innovation

how will IoT/sensors/predictive analytics disrupt/

transform processes?

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Role of local government• public transport

• public service delivery

• transparency/democracy

• civic engagement

• cultural participation

• recreational activity

• crime and safety

• food security

• civic infrastructure maintenance

• business development

• reducing inequality/marginalization

• waste management

• traffic management and parking

• walkability

• disaster recovery/emergency management

• urban planning/land use mix

• bicycle paths and rental schemes

Buses

Bullets

Blight

Bucks

Opportunities

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Buses: TransportAPI

strong relationships with all transport providers to

access data streams

drew on experience working on open data

platform

Screach TV

consultant

consultant

app

Tooth pick

IoT

tube- radar

hyperlocal market opportunities

(emerging) second wave of

innovationX

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Blight: SeeClickFix / Firmstep

became a platform to sell to government, using

open311 standard

built an app to let citizens complain about stuff in their

city

app

platform

app

consultant

app

app

Mojio

AI/ predictive

examples like MapDataServices

have created exclusive agreements with some open311

platforms

apps and visualizations created off the open311 data

collected via SeeClickFix platform

(emerging) second wave of

innovation

fitting sensors to urban fleet to automatically

detect potholes

identifying graffiti hotspots

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Bucks

• OpenSpending

• Data.Gov.UK

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/dec/04/government-spending-department-2011-12

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Bullets

non-existent: OPPORTUNITY for

abstraction layer? (Needs more data science)

hot spot maps and visualizations

app

platform

app

consultant

consultant

app

app

IoT

AI

predictive analytics determine where

street patrols needed

visualizations; incorporated into some

sites like Zillow

(emerging) second wave of

innovation

ShotSpotter

big opportunity to hustle

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participated in open standards for park data,

identified needs and challenges for cities/

counties

service/product for a specific

geographic area, eg/ Transit Trails for

Bay Area Open Space Council

app

platform

app

consultant

consultant

app

app

IoT

?

possibility? To help other cities/counties develop apps or add map visualizations to

their websites

currently inviting app developers to build on

platform

(emerging) second wave of

innovation

.. and Beyond: OuterSpatial

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Where To Start?

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Hackathons

Challenges Incubator programs

Consultancy projects

Self-invested lab

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Challenges

• challenges.gov

• citymart.com

• campus-labs.com

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Incubator programsOpportunities

• fi-ware.org

• Code for.. (America)

• Open Data Institute

• London TravelTech Labs

• Bristol, Leeds?

• NYC BigApps program

• Points of Light

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ConsultancyOpportunities

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Self-invested LabsOpen sourcing tools and proving the need

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How To Start?

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Work in the viability zone

app

platform

app

consultant

consultant

app

app

IoT

?

(emerging) second wave of

innovation

mostly need to start here, but with an eye/time-to-market goal of

the viability zone

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Are there open data APIs?Raw material availability

http://us-city.census.okfn.org/

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Are there emerging API standards?De facto? Committees? Leading cities?

• https://github.com/codeforamerica/civic-tech-patterns

• Open Knowledge Foundation

• Popolo Project

• Open Civic Data

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What data do people wantIdentifying user needs from popular content

https://www.gov.uk/performance/site-activity-department-for-communities-and-local-government

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What data do people wantIdentifying user needs from FoI requests

https://www.london.gov.uk/mayor-assembly/gla/governing-organisation/freedom-information/disclosure-log/2014

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Know the procurement policiesStay under the threshold

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/267937/PPN_1013_-_New_Threshold_Levels_for_2014.pdf

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Build relationships with local government

• Start with the Chief Data Officer!

• Review open data plans and departments working on future tactics

• Review citizen surveys and community needs

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Pro bono and local project opportunitiesIt’s the sharing economy

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City dashboards?Experiential learning

http://citydashboard.org/london/

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Thanks to…• Trailhead Labs

• TransportAPI

• AmigoCloud

• SeamlessDocs

• Firmstep

• Mark Headd

• Emer Coleman

• Dharmishta Rood

• FI-Ware

• New York Transparency Working Group

• Open Knowledge Foundation

• Five by Five

• Michael Skok

• Eric Hysen

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Want more?Follow Mark Boyd on ProgrammableWeb

@mgboydcom !!!!

[email protected]