Overview of open source, smart cities, IoT and how they can all work together to build a participatory smart city sensor platform

2. 2AGENDA
Introduction to smart cities, IoT and open source
The vision
Why now?
Challenges
Introducing The Things Network
Beyond The Things Network
Potential use cases
Summary and discussion

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WHAT IS A SMART CITY?
A smart city is an urban area that uses different types
of electronic data collection sensors to supply
information which is used to manage assets and
resources efficiently.
- Wikipedia

4. - Image Credit: Cisco
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WHAT IS THE INTERNET OF
THINGS?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical
devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items
embedded with electronics, software, sensors,
actuators, and connectivity which enables these things
to connect and exchange data.
- Wikipedia

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WHAT IS THE INTERNET OF
THINGS?
- Bruce Schneier
We’re Building a World-Size Robot,
and We Don’t Even Realize It

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There are already 2x as many
things connected to the internet
as there are people on the
planet.
Revenue from IoT solutions will
equal or surpass that of apps

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WHAT IS OPEN SOURCE?
- Wikipedia
Open-source software is a type of computer software
whose source code is released under a license in which
the copyright holder grants users the rights to study,
change, and distribute the software to anyone and for
any purpose.

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- Source: GitLab Dev Survey

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OPEN
PLATFOR
M
Open source is the foundation for open
access smart cities platforms. Open
hardware and protocols keep barriers low.
Open platforms generate enormous volumes of
data, making this data open empowers the
citizens of a city to explore novel approaches to
problems. By opening smart city data to all, we can
synthesize new insights and share them
with each other.
OPEN
DATA
OPEN
INSIGHTS
BEYOND OPEN SOURCE
OPEN PLATFORMS POWERED BY OPEN
SOURCE
OPEN PLATFORMS GENERATE
OPEN DATA
OPEN DATA LEADS TO OPEN
INSIGHTS

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THE EQUATION
Open
Source
Open
Platform
Open
Data
Open
Insights
Open Smart
City+ + + =

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Zurich
Barcelona
Sentilo
Platform:
Open Source
IoT
OPEN IOT
AROUND THE
WORLD
This isn’t a new idea, and we aren’t
conquering new territory. Other cities around
the world have successfully deployed varying
types of open IoT networks, platforms and
data policies, building and releasing open
source tools along the way. Barcelona
developed Sentilo as an open IoT platform,
and The Things Network has community run
IoT LoRa infrastructure operating in
hundreds of cities. London makes a trove of
data from their Transport for London IoT
deployment available to all.
Amsterdam
The Things
Network
Communities
London
Transport for
London Open
IoT Data

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A SMART CITY PLATFORM BY
THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE
Imagine a city driven by information. A place where decision making is supported by a city-wide sensor network
that provides real time data about the state of things. Imagine the platform that runs the network, built and owned
by the citizens, measuring the things that we think are important and giving us the insights we need to make our
city the best it can be.

14. 14WHY NOW?
A
SMARTER
CITY
IoT is Getting Easier
Birmingham is an Ideal PilotSmart Cities are Maturing
Cloud Reduces Costs
Open standards and open hardware
platforms are mature and accessible.
Cloud capabilities around IoT, data
management, analytics and
intelligence have driven costs down.
•Practices for building smarter cities are
becoming more widely understood and
embraced.
A smaller city like Birmingham
presents a unique opportunity to test
concepts in citizen driven IoT.

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- Source: Gartner

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We are a diverse and experienced team
of engineers, entrepreneurs, artists,
user experience experts, technology
leaders, financial wizards and
interested community members united
around the goal of using technology
and data to improve the lives of those in
our city.
We are creating a community owned
and operated open IoT platform for
smart cities projects. We will pair this
with a participatory governance model
and open source / data policy to spread
the benefit of our work as broadly as
possible.
Smart cities applications have the
potential to improve health, services
and quality of life in the city, while at the
same time improving efficiency. By
doing it in an open fashion we can
encourage the community to participate
in shaping the future of their city.
INTRODUCING
SMARTERBHAM
WHO ARE WE? WHAT ARE WE
DOING?
WHY ARE WE DOING
IT?

17. 17CHALLENGES
THE LAST MILE
How do we connect devices in places where
WiFi isn’t available at a cost and power budget
that is less than cellular?

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Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world; indeed, it is the
only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
Everything that carries power will be connected to Internet eventually.
Controlling the network that makes this possible means controlling the world. We believe that
this power should not be restricted to a few people, companies or nations. Instead this should be
distributed over as many people as possible without the possibility to be taken away by anyone.

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47829 Contributors
4445 Gateways
29401 Applications
1 Global Community

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Purchased or
built (workshops,
DIY)
Provided by
SmarterBham
Provided by TTN
Global
Provided by
SmarterBham

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BEYOND THE THINGS
NETWORK

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CONNECTING TO
SMARTERBHAM
Tell us about
your device
• What it is
• Where it is
• What it does
Tell us how it
will connect
• TTN
• WiFi
• Cellular
Get your
keys
• TTN app key
• AWS
Certificate
Get
connected!

25. 25POTENTIAL USE CASES
Street level monitoring of environmental
factors affecting quality of life, including
temporary or flexible deployments.
Measure spot occupancy for routing, city
planning and ease of navigation purposes.
Smart light solutions that automatically report
status for maintenance, soil sensors that
monitor watering status.
An open platform provides opportunities for
our citizens to learn about smart cities and
participate in that new part of the economy.
Collect spot data on how people move
through and interact with the city, can we
measure “gross domestic happiness”?
ENVIRONMENTAL
MONITORING
PARKING
IMPROVEMENTS
SMARTER
INFRASTRUCTURE
COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT
EDUCATION
Can we use an open IoT platform to enable
new types of public engagement via
connected artworks?
PUBLIC ART

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Our
Product
INTRODUCING THE CITY SENSOR
Light sensing to measure light
pollution, street lighting levels
Microphone for measuring noise
pollution.
Particulate pollution sensor for
measuring airborne particles, a
major source of health concerns
Temperature and humidity
sensor for measurement
correction and mapping heat
islands

29. Idea arose
WHAT IF...

30. STARTS TO GET SERIOUS

35. 35WHAT COMES NEXT?
Put a governance
structure in place
Set up regularly
scheduled meetups
Release v1 of the City
Sensor
Grow The Things
Network

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HOW CAN I GET
INVOLVED?
1. Bring your ideas! What frustrates you
about city life?
2. Support partner organizations
3. Host a TTN Gateway
4. Help us test the network
5. Attend a workshop
6. Spread the word (#SmarterBham)

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