National Public Radio’s Parallels program has story on how the Spanish city of Santander is wiring itself as a ‘smart city’ with a network of sensors wiring everything from garbage bins to parking spots.
The hope with the sensors is they’ll will improve local government’s services, allowing things like more efficient garbage collection and better pricing of parking meters.
What’s notable about the story is that smartphones are included as ‘sensors’ with Santander residents being able to submit data from their handsets.
The idea of smartphones as sensors isn’t new — pothole reporting apps were early to the iPhone — the increased sophistication of handsets and improved tracking technology is making them more powerful.
So we have another Big Data problem with local councils being flooded with information.
Processing all this information is going to require the community pitching in so the data is going to have to open.
Once governments make the data open it also creates opportunities for smart entrepreneurs to create new services and technologies.
Creating new opportunities is a hope of government sensor programs around the world, including Tasmania’s Sense-T project .
With factors like water quality and weather being monitored, existing sectors become more efficient and new industries are being created.
Hopefully the urge to hoard this rich, community data will be resisted by governments.