It’s no longer news that most cities are looking for opportunities to leverage technology to better manage their resources. They want to become Smart Cities.
Discussion around ownership of data is prevalent in Smart city deliberations. Tech companies want to help cities become smarter, at very affordable cost (or for nothing in some cases) and, in return seek ownership of the data – for target marketing within and outside their industry. Cities want to retain ownership of the data but not sure they have the budget to cater to the entire cost of deployment. Perhaps an arrangement where tech companies help subsidize the cost while local citizens can decide to opt out of the data collection process, by paying a subscription premium to stay off the grid, is one that could also be explored.
I’m a huge proponent of Smart Cities but, I also believe that the data ownership discussion is one that must be handled with care.