The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (Atis) and smart city accelerator US Ignite have published a resource to help cities leverage data exchanges to achieve greater usability and application of their evolving smart cities infrastructure.

The Smart Cities Data Catalog Specification recommends a common data sharing approach for smart cities to enhance the value of city data assets and third-party data. Using the specification, for example, governmental agencies, developers and data partners could easily access data to explore a neighbourhood’s business development potential.

“Making smart cities data easily discoverable, useable and more valuable is key to creating opportunities in this area,” said Atis vice president Mike Nawrocki. “The Smart Cities Data Catalog Specification helps advance these goals. It introduces the role of data enrichers who will put innovation into action through advanced analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to increase the value of smart cities data.”

The document also introduces a blueprint for a common framework to help cities achieve their data-sharing goals. A set of critical components needed for advanced data sharing is provided.

“The value of city data doesn’t end at the borders of municipal control,” said Praveen Ashok, technical programme manager at US Ignite. “Whether people are monitoring traffic patterns to understand mobility demands, or analysing resource availability to develop economic strategy, they need data sets that extend beyond governmental boundaries. We’re gratified to produce this data sharing framework in collaboration with so many dedicated partners, and we look forward to seeing how city leaders put it to use to address challenges and improve quality of life in their communities.”

Atis and US Ignite have already been engaged in dialogue with city officials seeking opportunities to use the specification.

“The city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, is a smart city leader,” said Vaughan mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua. “In our community, smart city initiatives are creating enhanced opportunities by improving the way data are collected, understood and utilised to safeguard and elevate the quality of life for citizens, as well as enhance the delivery of public services people and businesses rely on each day. The smart city data exchange will provide opportunities for analytics companies and other businesses in Vaughan to access and navigate the city’s data, which will be valuable to include in the development of software applications.”

Smart city architect of the city and county of Denver Jim Lindauer added: “The smart data city exchange and data catalogue standards are a foundational data framework that will accelerate the sharing of data between public and private entities at a regional and national level. It has been an honour to work with esteemed colleagues in the creation of this document over the last several years.”

As a technology development organisation, Atis brings together global ICT companies. Its 150 member companies are working to address 5G, smart cities, robocall mitigation, artificial intelligence-enabled networks, distributed ledger and blockchain technology, cyber security, IoT, emergency services, quality of service, billing support, operations, and more. These priorities follow a fast-track development lifecycle – from design and innovation through standards, specifications, requirements, business use cases, software toolkits, open source and interoperability testing.

Atis is accredited by Ansi and is the North American organisational partner for the 3GPP, a founding partner of the OneM2M initiative, a member of the ITU and a member of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (Citel).

US Ignite is a high-tech non-profit with a mission to accelerate the smart community movement.