Title
Staff Report for Resolution Affirming the City of San Leandro’s Commitment to the “City as a Platform Manifesto,” to Support the Development and Implementation of Smart City Technologies and Innovation
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution affirming San Leandro’s commitment to the “City as a Platform Manifesto” to further San Leandro’s ongoing Smart City efforts and our commitment to working in partnership with other like-minded communities around the world.
BACKGROUND
It is an established goal of the City Council to “advance projects and programs that promote sustainable economic development, including transforming San Leandro into a center for innovation.” San Leandro has made significant progress in advancing this goal in the past several years. The deployment of the Lit San Leandro fiber optic network made San Leandro a worldwide leader in broadband availability. More recently, the City has sought opportunities to leverage that technology for the benefit of the community. This includes connecting schools to the fiber network, deployment of free public Wi-Fi, and implementation of a connected LED street-light system that can serve as a platform for additional technologies. Additionally, San Leandro has implemented new tools for community engagement, offering digital options for residents to provide feedback if they are unable to attend community meetings in person.
The City recently began work on a Fiber Optic Master Plan which will serve as a road map for future Smart City initiatives. The Master Plan is expected to include a strategic plan for expansion of the fiber optic network and identification of emerging technologies to pursue in the coming years.
In September 2017, Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter and Assistant City Manager Jeff Kay attended the Smart City InFocus conference in Yinchuan, China. The conference was organized by the TM Forum, a non-profit organization that describes itself as “the global industry association that drives collaboration and collective problem-solving to maximize the business success of communication and digital service providers and their ecosystem of suppliers.” San Leandro’s attendance at the conference was fully funded by the organizers and offered an opportunity to connect with representatives from over 60 countries around the world. Conference attendees shared a common goal of embracing Smart City technologies for the betterment of their communities.
Analysis
The Smart City InFocus conference included presentations on numerous topics of significance to San Leandro, including:
• Deployment of intelligent transportation systems, including traffic monitoring and signal optimization;
• Smart parking technologies;
• Potential impacts of the upcoming shift to 5G cellular systems;
• Open data and data analytics - how cities can partner with their communities and the private sector to unlock the value of public data;
• The role of Smart City technologies in municipal efforts to improve environmental sustainability and disaster preparedness;
• Recent advancements in the implementation and efficiency of bike-sharing systems; and
• Implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to improve municipal service delivery.
In addition to San Leandro, three other California cities were represented at the conference; Chula Vista, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The Stanford University Center for Legal Informatics (“Codex”) was also represented. San Diego, in particular, offers an opportunity for collaboration and shared learning because they are currently implementing a smart lighting project that shares many of the technological characteristics of San Leandro’s Climatec lighting project. Both projects offer connectivity between street lights that could be used to expand Wi-Fi, or install sensors to monitor things like air quality, noise, and transportation networks.
As part of the conference, TM Forum is looking to identify communities to sign on to the “City as a Platform Manifesto.” This effort is intended to help cities coalesce around a common set of principles and goals related to Smart City development. Overwhelmingly, the tenets of the manifesto are consistent with the approach that San Leandro has been taking for several years. For example, the recent implementation of an Open Data policy and portal is very much in line with the goals of the Manifesto.
The full text of the Manifesto is as follows:
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We love our cities, and the people who make them great. We share a common desire to improve the quality of life for people and the planet, knit local communities closer together, and offer a new economic agenda for local governments by using digital platforms. We believe that, by itself, technology will not solve the challenges facing cities around the world. We believe that we need a shared collaborative framework between residents, the public and private sector to drive the desired outcome of sustainability, inclusivity and targeted innovation that benefits cities and their residents.
By understanding, adapting and applying platform business model principles, cities can become regional or global knowledge hubs and innovation centers. Cities that do this will become better places to live and be better equipped to manage urban challenges - with more insight, precision and transparency. They will attract talent, create jobs and unleash innovation.
By signing this Manifesto, we are committed to drive this future by adhering to the following principles when deploying city platforms managing the vast reservoir of data offered by sensor networks, enterprises, city agencies and residents:
1. City platforms must enable services that improve the quality of life in cities; benefitting residents, the environment, and helping to bridge the digital divide
2. City platforms must bring together both public and private stakeholders in digital ecosystems
3. City platforms must support sharing economy principles and the circular economy agenda
4. City platforms must provide ways for local start-ups and businesses to innovate and thrive
5. City platforms must enforce the privacy and security of confidential data
6. City platforms must inform political decisions and offer mechanisms for residents to make their voices heard
7. City platforms must involve the local government in their governance and curation, and are built and managed by the most competent and merited organizations
8. City platforms must be based on open standards, industry best practices and open APIs to facilitate a vendor neutral approach, with industry agreed architecture models (see below for examples)
9. City platforms must support a common approach to federation of data or services between cities, making it possible for cities of all sizes to take part in the growing data economy
10. City platforms must support the principles of UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
This Manifesto supports the use of Open APIs and common standards, such as those supported by the European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and TM Forum, which offer a direct path to creating an open, flexible and interoperable city platform model.
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By approving the attached resolution, the City Council will direct staff to sign the Manifesto on behalf of the City.
ATTACHMENT(S)
None
PREPARED BY: Jeff Kay, Assistant City Manager