Dive Brief:
- Micromobility data management platform Populus unveiled a new guide, "Micromobility Data Sharing And Cities," to assist cities and private operators in effectively sharing data and managing curb space.
- The report outlines mobility data needs and use cases; methods for data sharing and analysis; and information on data privacy challenges. These sections further detail a number of common topics like data standards and the current micromobility regulatory landscape.
- The report follows Populus' testimony in a California Senate hearing on recently introduced bills that could potentially " restrict cities abilities to access data," Populus CEO and Co-Founder Regina Clewlow told Smart Cities Dive in an interview. She said Populus developed this guide " so cities could very clearly articulate what types of data are needed for what types of transportation policy and planning goals."
The Covid-19 pandemic lays bare the urgent need for a government-driven strategy to propel digital transformation in the public sector and greater South African society.
The South African government’s handling of its response to Covid-19 is highly commendable. If anything, its response has highlighted the very real need to improve access and connectivity for citizens across all levels of our society. It has shown that accelerating South Africa’s digital service delivery strategy is becoming an increasingly urgent aspect of just how to embrace doing things differently.
Smart cities can help us combat the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, in a growing number of countries, smart cities are doing just that. Governments and local authorities are using smart city technology, sensors and data to trace the contacts of people infected with the coronavirus. At the same time, smart cities are also helping in efforts to determine whether social distancing rules are being followed.
On the one hand, such applications of smart technology are exciting and invaluable, particularly in nations that have managed to keep Covid-19 case numbers relatively low, such as South Korea.
The government has decided to constitute “Data Protection Authority" that will work to curb the misuse of data and protect the personal information of the citizens. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has drafted “Personal Data Protection Bill, 2020" and placed on its website for public opinion, proposing up to 25 million rupees fine for those who processes or cause to be processed, disseminates or discloses personal data and sensitive data in violation of any of the provisions of the proposed legislation.
Despite a trend in recent years to centralize enterprise IT, not every jurisdiction is ready to make the move toward consolidation. Here’s a look at several governments’ paths to the IT environment that works for them.
Consolidated. Federated. Hybrid.
Which option is best, and more fundamentally, what does each one look like? The question of how government IT should be structured has no easy answer. It depends on who you ask, and a long list of variables: leadership, staff, services, governance, infrastructure, ideology and multiple other factors across every agency in a municipality or state. And so, settling on an overall IT structure is like making dozens, if not hundreds, of critical decisions. And what goes without saying is that nobody is starting with a blank canvas.