Liveability and sustainability are best addressed by WA local government in close collaboration with their community of citizens and businesses. The city of Perth has partnered with SimplyCity a local WA IoT start-up born out of the Perth Internet of Things (IoT) Community to capture and unlock the insightful world of smart city sensor data for citizens through the deployment of a ‘Free to Use IoT Network’ covering the Perth CBD.
By engaging the community along and working hand-in-hand with local business, the City of Perth will facilitate common good as it embarks on its smart city journey. It’s an exciting time for Perth to become citizen scientists who can mine sensor-based data to find productivity and sustainability improvements.
Founder of the award-winning ‘Perth Internet of Things (IoT) Community’, Tom Zorde said, “It’s fantastic to have local government support for expanding our community built free-to-use IoT wireless network across the entire CBD. But what is even more admirable, is the local council’s focus to collaborate with local citizens and businesses. WA has an immense opportunity to future-proof our capabilities and lead Australia in how to use sensor data for good.”
Ram Kuppusamy, co-founder of SimplyCity said, “As a local start-up, we are excited to be deploying and leveraging this IoT Communications Network. This will be the first of a kind Australian commercial-grade IoT Communications Network (LoRaWAN) rollout with the best effort in providing maximum coverage for the entire Perth CBD led by City of Perth that will provide a platform for innovation enabling new ‘Data Driven’ products and services in Perth. My family and the Perth community will benefit not just from the liveability and sustainability benefits, but from the feeling, understanding, and connectiveness through live data about the environment within which we work, live and play.”
City of Perth previously engaged 1700+ member Perth IoT Community to inform requirements for the smart city data portal – an open data platform that will support the data-sharing needs of the community. This platform will now publish select sensor data which can be used by STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) school students, academic research, the community and city planners.
In 2016 the Australian federal government announced a $50 million competitive Smart Cities and Suburbs Program to encourage local government agencies and bodies to deliver collaborative smart city projects that improve the liveability, productivity, and sustainability of Australian cities, suburbs, and towns.
External links:
https://www.simplycity.net.au/
