Stockholm is one of Europe’s fastest growing cities and by 2040 it aims to add the title “world’s smartest” to it’s lavish list of accolades.
To achieve this intellectual divinity, the city of Stockholm held a Smart City Sprint Hack, a contest where a selected group of IT & creative visionaries had the chance to build new innovative digital services using open data (Data Portalen) provided by the city.
We had the pleasure to participate in this interesting one day event held at the Waterfront Hotel in the heart of Stockholm city. With the event’s main focus on IoT, my colleagues and I began theorising on a concept based on connected smart wearable devices, targeting Stockholm city’s economic and ecological sustainability.
The idea in short is the creation of a digital assistant in the form of a smart wearable device. We are becoming an integral and organic part of the so-called IoT and this power piece of technology will provide a new dimensional experience.
One swipe payments, auditory & visuals cues when interacting with the city. In essence, the city will know what you want, when you want it. It will know if you require medical attention or are just fatigued from the party it recommended the night before.
So what does the future bring?
The possibilities are truly endless and with the explosion of social networks this has made people more comfortable than ever with sharing a bewildering variety of personal information.
One positive and completely unintended result of this across the board lowering of people’s privacy thresholds is a new opportunity for governments to roll out more comprehensive, more effective and more tailored services to greater numbers of citizens. After all, if people are already sharing what they are eating on Facebook, there is little reason to be uncomfortable with, for example, completing a government survey on the subject, which may well help health authorities take steps to improve nutrition or reduce obesity.
Together with increased smartphone and broadband proliferation, this “Facebook effect” could mark a turning point in enabling governments around the world to fully leverage the potential of the Internet and serve citizens more efficiently and cost-effectively.
We commend Stockholm City for taking a brave step into the unknown. The Smart City Sprint Hack is a great initiative and we will hopefully bear fruit to countless innovations that will help better the lives of millions of people.