Mixed data, smart cities' future

From October 2018, France, with its law on the " Digital Republic ", requires from communities with more than 3500 inhabitants to "open their data by default". If in the wake of Paris, cities like Rennes, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Lyon have already developed this type of initiative since 2010, but they are still too few to do it

In addition, data must be understood in a more global context in order to develop smart city services. Every day, citizens, private companies and public actors generate Big Data which are collected by sensors, captured by computer or shared on social media.

Those raw data which comes from different origins must be routed and have to transit to processing platforms which generate new information - Smart Data - to feed innovative services. Thus, by placing themselves in a logic of harvesting Big Data and by joining forces with different partners, cities discover glimpses of new managing ways.

Power suppliers can, from energy data, detect housing to be renovated or those which are vacant. Telecom operators can determine the number of people in an area and all their moves, as much information useful for planning transports.

Lille has teamed up with Waze. In exchange for city data on events and public works, the collaborative GPS provides real-time traffic data, including accidents which are declared by users in an average time of 4 minutes 30 minutes before the emergency services are aware of them.