Interesting conclusions below- that local government leaders are liable to focus on smart city technology rather than the priorities and outcomes of their resident population and businesses.
Similar mistakes often repeated with analytics and BI- teams that get carried away with the eye-catching visualisations. Or use self-service data discovery and analytics to prove that they are right and foes are wrong. I mean, how often do you come across meetings where everyone argues that the other guys must have the wrong data?
That is a theme a friend of old, Mike Briercliffe, often reviews. Before starting to analyse or buy new BI tools what will you do with these new insights? What is it that you want to change and why? Who else do you need to involve when considering digital transformation?
Analytics and BI are there to help leaders manage. And to manage they have to live the managerial cycle:
- Plan
- Organise
- Direct
- Measure and Control
- Revise the plan
You can only plan effectively if you clearly enunciate goals, goals that shared and agreed internally and externally.
Too often analytics and BI tools are adopted before these goals are clearly defines and without that being accomplished how can you decide what to measure (analyze) to effectively have control?
Specifically, local leaders must recognize that many smart city innovations are providing benefits to the better off segments of society. Meanwhile, those citizens struggling with poverty may not see much benefit at all from technology that makes the morning commute more pleasant. “A lot of our focus has been on moving the top 20% of the market,” said Kimberly Lewis, senior vice president of the U.S. Green Building Council. “We thought the trickle-down effects would really begin to affect low- and moderate-income communities.” She says key challenges are being exacerbated by assumptions that any smart city technological advancement automatically creates mass impact on the entire city population. However, it’s becoming clear that smart city technology is not a magic wand that can be waved to eliminate persistent challenges faced by poorer citizens.
unknownx500
