Page 10 - July- August 2018

Smart Cities from page 9
during the last five years cities across
Tennessee have invested in 50 million feet
of conduit and micro conduit for fiber
optic network infrastructure. Cities all
over the U.S. are installing conduit and
using microducts to override existing
ducts. Cities are considering their options about purposefully collecting data
for owning their own conduit pathways
which can be leased to generate revenue
and how to fairly allow private companies
to establish their own networks. Many
cities are adopting policies that are in
line with the new federal “Dig Once”
law, where conduit and fiber are laid
at the time of road construction, then,
crews only have to dig once, which
eliminates up to 90 percent of the cost
of fiber and broadband. The U.S. DOT’s
Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint
Program Office estimates the average
cost of deploying fiber-optic cable is
about $27,000 per mile. According to
the Federal Highway Administration,
90 percent of that cost is when the work
requires significant excavation of the
roadway.
Takeaway Applications
No matter how your city chooses to
implement a Smart City strategy, it all
starts with a fiber infrastructure, and if
it is placed in conduit, then it is easily
upgraded without the major hassle of
construction as technology evolves.
Automated self-driving vehicles, 5G,
public security cameras, and more all rely
10 TPW July/August 2018
on the lowest common denominator
of a fiber network. With a fiber
network, data can be collected and
analyzed.
But, data out of context gives
you nothing. City official after city
official repeated lessons learned
around a measurable objective and the
importance of clear reporting.
Nick Walker, Performance Data
Manager for the City of Memphis,
emphasized aligning the things
that they are measuring with the
things they want to have happen.
For example, on an operational level
most cities are measuring how many
potholes are filled each year, but now
data can be used on the strategic
level for a goal as big as ending
homelessness.
“Look at new places to measure,”
he said. “It took a while to figure out
where the most important things were
to measure.” The soft side of data can
be even more important than the data
itself. “Asking the right questions.
That’s really hard,” he said.
In order to build the culture of
data-driven decisions and make
it sustainable, he said the issue is
about the city’s growth, not about
that mayor’s next election. For him,
becoming a Smart City is as simple as
leveraging technology to make things
better for the residents of Memphis.
Deputy Performance Officer for
the City of Kansas City Julie Steenson
said she wished she had talked to other
cities who were on parallel paths and
shared a list of resources for connecting
with others on the Smart City journey:
John Hopkins University Cities for
Excellence, Bloomberg Philanthropies,
Sunlight Foundation blog which shows
maps of the cities doing work, Seattle’s
Open Data Playbook, Socrata’s group
which is free even if you are not a
customer, vendor communities, and
networking at conferences.
Steenson also offered three practices
to sustain data.
Leadership Support: No matter
which department or what the job
title is, every position uses data as
a framework for making decisions.
Without that culture reinforced by
leadership, we couldn’t integrate data
into what we do, she said.
Consistency: We report monthly at
public meetings, which are archived.
These reports are used as a touch point
to reinforce goals, and in turn the
analytics and process reporting are
important for budgeting.
Framework: With the financial
forecast, the data is used as a framework
with a strategy wrapped around it
to create goals and objectives. The
outcome data gives a good visualization
and a great narrative for what the city is
doing and where it is going.
Preparing for the Not-So-Distant
Future
Cities in Tennessee and around the
world are facing challenges, such as
competition for talent and corporate
investment, as well as the rapidly
growing and aging population. The
dramatic trend towards urbanization
coupled with concerns over limited
natural resources, economic inequality,
and the digital divide are propelling
local governments to offer services that
connect disparate operations and siloed
processes. Today’s Smart Cities started
with smaller, focused, department-
level projects and grew to larger more
encompassing scale. Those at the
cutting edge are thinking regionally, not
just locally.
Want to get smarter faster? The Smart
Cities Connect fall conference is from
Oct. 23-25 in Tampa, Florida.