Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Let's now look at the second bit of training that we're reviewing now and that's about
00:09the value of open architectures and minimal interoperability mechanisms and that's much
00:14more looking at within a city council how can you unlock that data overall, how can
00:20you set up the right sort of structures and frameworks to do that and how can minimal
00:24interoperability mechanisms help with that whole process.
00:27So we're going to be looking very briefly at the need of an open data architecture, we're
00:32going to be looking at how minimal interoperability mechanisms can help and then we're looking
00:36at how the procurement help desk will be able to provide support to our cities and our communities.
00:43Let's think first then about the open architecture.
00:46So when we're wanting to build a data sharing ecosystem we need to make sure that it's open.
00:55That's not open data that's about an open architecture and what we're talking about there is an architecture
01:01that allows new components to be added or changed very easily which may be coming from many different
01:08other organizations, companies, agencies to be able to adjust that ecosystem to deliver
01:14all the different kinds of things that it might need to deliver as things change and grow.
01:18Now when we say open we don't mean non-proprietary because we know for instance Windows and Android
01:25are proprietary operating systems but they're open in the sense that they're designed to
01:30allow many other agencies to develop applications that can be built on top of Windows and Android
01:38and can therefore make those operating systems even more flexible and effective and provide
01:44even more options for the users and make the whole thing more valuable and that's what we're
01:49talking about here.
01:50It may be that you've outsourced your data ecosystem to a provider that uses proprietary solutions.
02:00That's fine but make sure that whatever solutions they put in place make it easy for you to add in
02:05new applications and services to meet the changing needs of your different ecosystems.
02:12And so the thing to do in all of this is to make sure that you step back and you look at
02:20the way data needs to move to, through and around the whole city ecosystem to be able to provide
02:29the right data to the right places in the right way.
02:33And so it's a very important exercise to spend time in thinking what data do we need to make
02:39sure the city can work well, who owns that data, how can I access it, how can it be accessed,
02:45what kind of data is that data, is it geospatial, IoT, is it databases, what kind of data is it,
02:53and is it open data or is it sensitive data that needs to be managed in a careful way.
02:59So these sorts of questions you need to be asking yourself and then when you've done that to think
03:04about how we can we use that data within our own city administration and how can we provide that data
03:11more easily to all the many other agencies and the citizens who could use it to help their lives run
03:16better within the city.
03:18So that's the important thing, really try and take as comprehensive a view as you can of all the data that needs to be moving
03:28throughout the city, where it needs to be moving to and where it needs to be coming from.
03:33And here's a very simple way of looking at that, but it's just there to give kind of a start so that you can look at
03:42who are my partners, what are the different sector data spaces that are there or need to be there,
03:47what data am I getting from central and regional government and so on, what data am I getting from IoT,
03:53what data am I getting from social media, how am I drawing that data in to within my own city administration,
04:00IT functions and so on, and making it available to the different departments within the city council.
04:07And then how can I be providing what's relevant to others in the best possible way to help make sure that
04:14that data is really free and is really doing all the kinds of things that could be done.
04:18And it is important to do that because once you've mapped where the data needs to be coming from
04:26and where it needs to be going to, then it becomes easy to identify what the barriers are.
04:31And that's not a theoretical exercise. This is about going to all the different departments in the city council
04:36and to all your partners and so on and asking, what are the challenges about getting the data you need?
04:41Is the data that you're wanting in the wrong format or are there other restrictions that make it difficult for you to use it?
04:51And then once you've done that, of course, then you can start to say,
04:56ha, here are all the barriers. Here are where the barriers are and what they are.
05:00Let's think about the solutions that can help get rid of those barriers to make sure the data can be properly used.
05:07And in that whole discussion, the minimal interoperability mechanisms have a key role in opening up
05:14and dealing with the different barriers that you may well identify.
05:17So you may say this is a lot of work and it is a lot of work,
05:21but it's well worthwhile spending the time needed to do a thorough collection of information about all of these things,
05:31because having done that, then you could be much clearer about what you need to be doing to build on a solid foundation
05:39and really get a very active and helpful ecosystem going.
05:43And in doing that also, it becomes much, much clearer about how minimal interoperability mechanisms can help you achieve your objectives.
05:51Let's think a bit about interoperability. What is it? Why is it important?
05:56Well, interoperability is about where you've got different systems, different partnerships, different agencies, different IT systems,
06:06that need to be able to share information to work together and collaborate together.
06:10And interoperability is about making that happen, making it possible for that information to be shared and operated together effectively in a way that's completely predictable.
06:22And you can be sure we'll provide what you want it to provide.
06:26Of course, that's not a simple matter.
06:28There are many issues you need to tackle.
06:30Here's a list of some of them.
06:33How to manage personal data, data security, geospatial data,
06:38how to how to make sure that any AI algorithms that are being used, use the right data to enable them to make fair and transparent decisions.
06:49What about common ways of describing things in data models, data analytics?
06:53Lots of different issues need to be looked at when you're thinking about ensuring proper interoperability.
07:00And even though standards organizations are doing a great job and are solving individual issues,
07:09the different issues are being dealt with by different committees.
07:12And therefore, very often there's problems when you're trying to bridge across between different types of data and so on,
07:19in that while each one of them may be standards compliant,
07:22there's no obvious and easy way for you to take data that's been built using one set of standards
07:27and use it with data that's been built using another set of standards.
07:31And so, while they're really important and long term, that's the way forward,
07:38we still need other mechanisms to help us be able to make full use of standards based data.
07:45So that's what we're talking about here, that interoperability isn't an either or issue.
07:51Plug and play is great when everything just works.
07:55But most often we find when you do your analysis of your existing data ecosystem,
08:00you'll find in many instances a lot of the work of integrating different data is being done manually,
08:06spending lots of time of key officers making sure that the different data sets
08:11are properly aligned to work well together.
08:13And what we're looking for here is what are different tools that we can use
08:19to help make that manual work a bit less, to make it just that bit easier to be able to align
08:25these different kinds of data.
08:27And so that's what we're really talking about here.
08:29It's about interoperability that can be put in place with minimal user intervention,
08:35taking away as much of the manual work as we can,
08:38and making as much as possible to be able to done automatically.
08:42So that's what the MIMS really developed for.
08:46They started out when cities were beginning the process of using IoT data in particular
08:51to develop smart applications. And the idea there was simply to provide some basic tools to help
08:57cities gather and use data in consistent ways, so that any useful application developed in one city
09:04could be easily ported without too much work into another city.
09:09But of course, over the years, cities are using data in more and more sophisticated ways.
09:14The challenges are changing. There's much more big data.
09:16Cities are using, for instance, traffic management systems that are collecting
09:20huge amounts of data from every aspect of the city, traffic lights, level crossings,
09:26all kinds of things like that. In order to get that really good picture of what's happening,
09:32huge amounts of data of different types need to be brought together.
09:36And so the MIMS are continuing to evolve to be able to address the new challenges that cities are
09:41facing. We've got 10 MIMS that we've been working on over the last few years.
09:46As we're, you know, we've been revising them recently, we see effectively there are two kinds
09:51of MIMS. There are foundational MIMS, which cover kind of generic issues, if you like,
09:57data security, data access, data representation, and so on, that are basic ways of dealing with
10:03interoperability between any kind of data. But then we also need to look at particular
10:08application areas like personal data management or geospatial data to look at any particular
10:13challenge about integrating and aligning data in those areas that needs to be dealt with by more
10:19specialist MIMS. And so we're working hard to make sure that there's sets of tools that will enable
10:26you as city administrations to be able to more quickly be able to tackle the challenges and the
10:31barriers you find in building and developing your local data ecosystem. The MIMS are built in a very
10:38consistent way. This has been standardized through the ITU, the UN Agency for Telecoms, who are one of
10:46the three main international standards bodies in the world. And so this has been standardized as a
10:52process, where you start with a clear objective, you divide that into capabilities, you see what the
10:56requirements that are needed are in order to deliver on those capabilities, what are the different
11:01optional mechanisms that cities might use to deliver those requirements, and then once we've
11:06agreed, once we've identified what are the different ways that cities are using to meet a common set of
11:12requirements, how can we start to bring interoperability between those different mechanisms, and how can we
11:18check that the requirements are indeed being met. So the aim of the MIMS is to by identifying the key
11:26capabilities needed for data sharing, and translating those capabilities into requirements, then you can
11:31start then enable cities to see here are the different alternatives that we could use, what are the
11:37right ones for us, we can see much more easily the pros and cons of the different mechanisms into how well
11:43that address the particular needs that we have. But it also, once we've been able to describe these
11:50different mechanisms in a common way, we can much more easily find out what commonalities there are,
11:56whether for instance, these different approaches still use some basic standards that are in common,
12:02as an example, or whether there's some common interfaces that we can identify across which open APIs,
12:09application program interfaces can be used to help bring data from different kinds of sources
12:17into being able to be used for particular purposes. So this is a really important thing that we need
12:23to be doing in developing the MIMS, and with your help, we can make sure these tools are precisely the
12:29kind of tools that you need. So the value they provide is it enables you to much more easily share and reuse
12:36the data that comes from partners that may use different approaches. It makes it much easier for
12:41you to compare and contrast the value of different approaches offered by vendors in procurements,
12:46and it makes it easier to develop a path to change technical approaches, because you've got a clear
12:51sense of what you need to achieve. So if that technical approach is no longer the best way of doing that,
12:56because you're clear about what you're doing to achieve, it's much easier to work out how to change that with another
13:01different way of delivering that to that same objective. And the procurement help desk can have
13:07a key role here in helping you put all of these many different complicated things into practice. They're
13:14developing procurement templates that will first of all provide you with the opportunity to systematically
13:20capture the functional and technical requirements that you need to address when you're procuring a
13:25product or service related to data spaces or local digital twins. And in each of those procurement
13:30templates, there's a section which addresses how the MIMS can help with that whole process. So that
13:36that will also help you be able to much more easily use and get the gain value for the minimal
13:41interoperability mechanisms. And as part of all of this process, we are developing a set of self
13:49assessment and technical tools to help also to be able to check that the products and services offered
13:57by vendors comply with these requirements and so that you can confidently procure them and bring them
14:02into your data ecosystem and be sure that they'll work properly. And these are going to be incorporated
14:08as well into the procurement templates to enable vendors to be able to demonstrate to you that their
14:14products and services are indeed the kind of things that you need within your local data ecosystem.
14:19So hopefully, this has given you a really good sense of the importance of that open architecture for
14:27your data sharing ecosystem, and how the MIMS can help you address the key issues, the key barriers that
14:33may be getting in the way of sharing that data properly. And the fact that these MIMS are based on existing
14:40standards. And so by implementing them, you're if you like, putting in place a great foundation that you can
14:45continue to continue to build on in the months and years to come. So I hope this has been useful.
14:52If you want to find out more about the MIMS, the MIMS Plus are what the MIMS, if you like,
14:59focused on the European context. And you can look on the Living in the EU website and find out the latest
15:05version of the MIMS so that you can get the detail of what's needed. But of course, you can also come to us
15:10in Open and Agile Smart Cities. And we'll be delighted to help you see how MIMS can be part of
15:16your key strategies in delivering using data to deliver what your citizens and what your business
15:21is and what your organisations need in your city and in your community. Thank you very much indeed.