A Smart Manifesto for the South
This is a guest post by Chris Cooper. Chris has been involved in smart community projects for almost a decade at KnowNow Information and prior to this at IBM. Chris is a member of the SDS/2 committee at the BSI, creating and applying smart community standards. Chris is the co-creator of a number of products from consent management – Consentua; through to automated building management – Entelligently. Recent projects include participation in the Digital Twin for the Hydrogen Demonstrator at Portsmouth International Port.
The content of this post is solely the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Southern Policy Centre.
A Smart Manifesto for the South
This blog is highlighting the benefits for the South Central England region to adopt a smarter communities manifesto. Our world is rapidly changing around us and technology is going to play an ever-growing part in our future. We love our social media, we play online, we stream Netflix & Spotify, and we talk to Alexa and Siri. Are we tech ready?
The thing is, we are barely scratching the surface regarding technology adoption and adaptation. The next decade[1] will see as much change as previous decades. More in fact. How the South exploits the region’s world-class technical resources in these next decades is in our hands.
Yet this technological change is being conducted against a background of some striking structural changes that our society has to deal with, including improving resilience to climate change; shifting to a net zero footprint and living within the envelope of resources that our world provides.[2] Technology has an important role to play in facilitating the shifts that are already happening. However, those communities that put people first, focus on the desired outcomes and stay secure will be the ones that have the greatest success.[3]
The challenge, therefore, is to deliver these twin aspects of requiring a step change in our use and consumption of data; along with requiring this data to have a purpose, be safe, and secure and where it involves citizens have our consent.[4] But how? Firstly, those commissioning these new services have to ask for the right type of digital solution that handles this complex set of requirement and have a system of systems approach; secondly, those organisations providing said technology needs to follow certain rules and obligations – e.g. they provide interoperable and secure systems.
How technology is being used today.
The digital world surrounds us, sometimes without us realising we are interacting with it. From the environment being sensed, including having a parking sensor indicating a space is available[5]; or a building’s energy consumption[6] being tracked for billing and well-being purposes.
A first for our region is the new Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) application called Breeze[7], which was recently launched in the Solent. Having an ‘app’ is great, but we could do more real-time bus information displays for all our bus stops. Not all folk have a smartphone. Giving travellers trusted information increases customer satisfaction[8] and increases ridership. We need to keep control over the version of truth involved in data creation (e.g. where is the bus?), but be open to multiple places using and displaying this information; e.g. a bus stop and an app.
The step change in data exploitation that we are on the cusp of taking is when our silos of information are brought together. So data from one silo can be seen and accessed by data from another silo. An example of this is linking health data to life insurance[9]. Or, new services were using a homeowner’s EV as a source of energy and offering the choice of free energy or free travel[10], but only if they keep the EV plugged in at certain times. A new normal of life will be a series of incentives to change behaviour with nudges in place to encourage us to do something different.[11]
Yet this could require access to more personal data. In this case, having consent to use this data is paramount. An easy-to-understand explanation of what data is required and for what purpose. As services become ever more interconnected, the use of our personal data requires very careful ongoing consideration, handling and active governance. Let alone, the sophisticated engineering and secure digital infrastructure that we need to invest in to keep our personal data safe.
This leads to an urgent check between current capability and need when it comes to designing, developing, deploying and then running our existing and new tech platforms and services. The areas to focus on can be broken down into three distinct buckets.
- Digital Infrastructure, security readiness and capacity to grow this infrastructure.
- Skills to leverage the digital capacity, be they developers, analysts, users, creators and engineers.
- The ongoing governance of our digital infrastructure and services. Whilst ensuring the skills to do these roles are always available.
Call to Action
From a regional perspective, our digital infrastructure and security readiness requires ongoing, forever iterative investment. All homes and businesses would ideally have gigabit fibre to the premise by 2030. This is slowly happening, but could always be faster. Rural communities require stable and pervasive 4G coverage. Plus, more 5G mobile networks in our urban communities[12] in the not-too-distant future to facilitate the adoption of autonomous vehicles. Alongside taking advantage of LoRaWAN networks[13] for low-powered, low-latency data collection.
Harnessing this digital infrastructure to encourage economic activity is the key step. Via the digitisation of our high streets [14]to improve the visitor experience to make people stay longer and spend more; using patient-centric healthcare that links our doctor’s surgeries to hospitals to the district nurse; smart office buildings and factories via ‘industry 4.0’, embracing automation, delivering improved timeliness, increased productivity and reduced risk. Or by sensing the environment around us to inform, educate and shift our behaviour towards more sustainable use of the ecosystem.
The region successfully produces cohorts of digital engineers in its colleges and universities. Yet, the region also sees many of these skilled folk leave the region. Encouraging more digital-savvy people to stay is going to be imperative for the long-term competitiveness of the region. Plus, there is a growing demand for more and more digital-ready[15] employees. As more of our services are digitised and made interoperable the need for having trained talent that can design, develop and maintain these services requires a more robust and proactive response. TechSolent, with their Connect – Develop – Promote mantra is an example of being active on the skills agenda. TechSolent is helping the industry have access to digital talent and this talent than having access to a broad set of support.
The last element requiring attention is governance. The quick answer is to adopt standards. Yet, this requires leaders, executives and administrators, to be standards aware and have the incentive to use these standards. To that end, the call to action here is for any new solution to take a security-minded approach (e.g. adopt BSI PAS185)[16]; where it involves personal data to gain consent as that builds trust and engages citizens in a positive manner.
The next phase of governance requires leaders to specify smarter solutions that deliver interoperable outcomes, and procurement teams align purchase criteria based on outcomes. Those organisations provide new services that meet these outcome requirements. Interoperability along with sustainable system design is held together through the adoption of a common set of rules – aka ISO37106/PAS181[17]. This will reduce the risk of technical debt, (i.e. when old technology is left in place with no one able to keep it up to date); ensures smart stuff stays secure and encourages citizen engagement, an outcomes-first focus and ongoing positive legacy.
In summary, our region has fantastic wealth in terms of talent creation; has some great industry champions and leaders across a number of ‘high tech’ domains (aerospace, defence, marine, finance, retail and leisure). Yet to be really smart, by harnessing our capabilities more effectively, the region has to go a step further.
To take this step, therefore, requires a shift in focus towards being more joined up; working more collaboratively, whilst simultaneously putting security and citizens front and centre. Using ISO37106/PAS 181 as the roadmap for this journey is a great starting point for our region’s new smarter manifesto.
Chris Cooper
December 2022
[1] https://identityreview.com/top-5-smart-city-trends-in-2022/
[2] https://doughnuteconomics.org/
[3] https://technologyadvice.com/blog/marketing/what-makes-a-community-successful/
[4] https://consentua.com/
[5] https://gunwharf-quays.com/centre-info/our-car-park
[6] https://entelligently.com/
[7] https://breezeuk.app/
[8]https://www.railway-technology.com/contractors/operation/dysten/pressreleases/passenger-information-real-time-displays/
[9] https://www.vitality.co.uk/rewards/partners/active-rewards/
[10] https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/smart-charging-electric-vehicles/
[11] https://octopus.energy/saving-sessions/
[12] https://www.smartcitiesworld.net/opinions/the-case-for-an-open-access-5g-network
[13] https://www.barterforthings.co.uk/
[14] https://southernpolicycentre.co.uk/city-centres/
[15] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/quantifying-the-uk-data-skills-gap/quantifying-the-uk-data-skills-gap-full-report
[16] https://www.cpni.gov.uk/resources/introduction-pas-1852017
[17] https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/smart-cities/Smart-Cities-Standards-and-Publication/PAS-181-smart-cities-framework/