Big data, open data and telepathy: building better places to live, work and travel

Editor's Notes

• #3: As a company that delivers services to the public sector organisations and regulated industries that support the daily lives of millions of people, why do we need to do things differently? One answer is the “Barnett Graph of Doom” in the top left of this slide. Barnett were the first local authority in the country to project ahead the rising costs of providing social care to an ageing population, and the falling level of income from central government. They predicted they would run out of money for everything except critical social care by the mid-2020s – there would be no money left for parks, libraries, business development and community support. Some local authorities expect to reach this crisis much more quickly. This illustrates the general point that with an ageing population, meaning more people out of work and requiring support services and less people in work paying taxes, the cost base of public services has to change. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/15/graph-doom-social-care-services-barnet At the same time, though, there is a widespread belief that simply finding a way to afford to deliver what we already deliver is not good enough, and the graph in the top right illustrates why that is the case. This work from UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analytics plots life expectancy at birth today across London, against the Underground network. The graph shows that babies born today in the least wealthy part of London are likely to die on average more than 20 years younger than those born in the most wealthy areas. That astonishing discrepancy is repeated in all of our major cities. There are many complex factors that lead to it, but many of them – fuel poverty, the quality of the urban environment, the opportunity to reach places of education and employment – are affected by the services we deliver. http://life.mappinglondon.co.uk/ And we need to address these issues in a context of increasing competition for basic resources and economic activity. Between now and 2050 the United Nations estimate that about 2 billion more people will live on the Earth; that population rise will be accounted for almost entirely by the growth in the population of megacities of populations between 10 and 35 million in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Over the same time period, about 2 billion more people around the world will acquire the affluence to afford what we would consider a middle-class lifestyle; as they do so their diets will change to include significantly more meat, which requires considerably more water to produce than plant and fish-based diets. To feed a growing population and to address existing food shortages, the UN estimate that about 70% more food needs to reach people’s plates than it does today; but we already use 60% of the world’s fresh water supplies to produce food. These numbers don’t add up unless we change the way we support our lifestyles: especially when we take into account the rising sea levels caused by global warming, which will reduce the fresh water and land available to us to produce food in the future – this is why Asda reported last year that 95% of their supply chain of fresh produce is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. What all of these figures add up to is a future in which there is more competition everywhere for economic activity, jobs and resources; and the need for more resilient and efficient public services and infrastructure to support and supply them. http://esa.un.org/unup/ http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/35571/icode/ http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats https://water.usgs.gov/edu/wuir.html http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/asda-food-waste-risk-climate-change?CMP=new_1194#start-of-comments
• #4: As a company that delivers services to the public sector organisations and regulated industries that support the daily lives of millions of people, why do we need to do things differently? One answer is the “Barnett Graph of Doom” in the top left of this slide. Barnett were the first local authority in the country to project ahead the rising costs of providing social care to an ageing population, and the falling level of income from central government. They predicted they would run out of money for everything except critical social care by the mid-2020s – there would be no money left for parks, libraries, business development and community support. Some local authorities expect to reach this crisis much more quickly. This illustrates the general point that with an ageing population, meaning more people out of work and requiring support services and less people in work paying taxes, the cost base of public services has to change. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/15/graph-doom-social-care-services-barnet At the same time, though, there is a widespread belief that simply finding a way to afford to deliver what we already deliver is not good enough, and the graph in the top right illustrates why that is the case. This work from UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analytics plots life expectancy at birth today across London, against the Underground network. The graph shows that babies born today in the least wealthy part of London are likely to die on average more than 20 years younger than those born in the most wealthy areas. That astonishing discrepancy is repeated in all of our major cities. There are many complex factors that lead to it, but many of them – fuel poverty, the quality of the urban environment, the opportunity to reach places of education and employment – are affected by the services we deliver. http://life.mappinglondon.co.uk/ And we need to address these issues in a context of increasing competition for basic resources and economic activity. Between now and 2050 the United Nations estimate that about 2 billion more people will live on the Earth; that population rise will be accounted for almost entirely by the growth in the population of megacities of populations between 10 and 35 million in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Over the same time period, about 2 billion more people around the world will acquire the affluence to afford what we would consider a middle-class lifestyle; as they do so their diets will change to include significantly more meat, which requires considerably more water to produce than plant and fish-based diets. To feed a growing population and to address existing food shortages, the UN estimate that about 70% more food needs to reach people’s plates than it does today; but we already use 60% of the world’s fresh water supplies to produce food. These numbers don’t add up unless we change the way we support our lifestyles: especially when we take into account the rising sea levels caused by global warming, which will reduce the fresh water and land available to us to produce food in the future – this is why Asda reported last year that 95% of their supply chain of fresh produce is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. What all of these figures add up to is a future in which there is more competition everywhere for economic activity, jobs and resources; and the need for more resilient and efficient public services and infrastructure to support and supply them. http://esa.un.org/unup/ http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/35571/icode/ http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats https://water.usgs.gov/edu/wuir.html http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/asda-food-waste-risk-climate-change?CMP=new_1194#start-of-comments
• #5: As a company that delivers services to the public sector organisations and regulated industries that support the daily lives of millions of people, why do we need to do things differently? One answer is the “Barnett Graph of Doom” in the top left of this slide. Barnett were the first local authority in the country to project ahead the rising costs of providing social care to an ageing population, and the falling level of income from central government. They predicted they would run out of money for everything except critical social care by the mid-2020s – there would be no money left for parks, libraries, business development and community support. Some local authorities expect to reach this crisis much more quickly. This illustrates the general point that with an ageing population, meaning more people out of work and requiring support services and less people in work paying taxes, the cost base of public services has to change. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/15/graph-doom-social-care-services-barnet At the same time, though, there is a widespread belief that simply finding a way to afford to deliver what we already deliver is not good enough, and the graph in the top right illustrates why that is the case. This work from UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analytics plots life expectancy at birth today across London, against the Underground network. The graph shows that babies born today in the least wealthy part of London are likely to die on average more than 20 years younger than those born in the most wealthy areas. That astonishing discrepancy is repeated in all of our major cities. There are many complex factors that lead to it, but many of them – fuel poverty, the quality of the urban environment, the opportunity to reach places of education and employment – are affected by the services we deliver. http://life.mappinglondon.co.uk/ And we need to address these issues in a context of increasing competition for basic resources and economic activity. Between now and 2050 the United Nations estimate that about 2 billion more people will live on the Earth; that population rise will be accounted for almost entirely by the growth in the population of megacities of populations between 10 and 35 million in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Over the same time period, about 2 billion more people around the world will acquire the affluence to afford what we would consider a middle-class lifestyle; as they do so their diets will change to include significantly more meat, which requires considerably more water to produce than plant and fish-based diets. To feed a growing population and to address existing food shortages, the UN estimate that about 70% more food needs to reach people’s plates than it does today; but we already use 60% of the world’s fresh water supplies to produce food. These numbers don’t add up unless we change the way we support our lifestyles: especially when we take into account the rising sea levels caused by global warming, which will reduce the fresh water and land available to us to produce food in the future – this is why Asda reported last year that 95% of their supply chain of fresh produce is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. What all of these figures add up to is a future in which there is more competition everywhere for economic activity, jobs and resources; and the need for more resilient and efficient public services and infrastructure to support and supply them. http://esa.un.org/unup/ http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/35571/icode/ http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats https://water.usgs.gov/edu/wuir.html http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/asda-food-waste-risk-climate-change?CMP=new_1194#start-of-comments
• #6: As a company that delivers services to the public sector organisations and regulated industries that support the daily lives of millions of people, why do we need to do things differently? One answer is the “Barnett Graph of Doom” in the top left of this slide. Barnett were the first local authority in the country to project ahead the rising costs of providing social care to an ageing population, and the falling level of income from central government. They predicted they would run out of money for everything except critical social care by the mid-2020s – there would be no money left for parks, libraries, business development and community support. Some local authorities expect to reach this crisis much more quickly. This illustrates the general point that with an ageing population, meaning more people out of work and requiring support services and less people in work paying taxes, the cost base of public services has to change. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/15/graph-doom-social-care-services-barnet At the same time, though, there is a widespread belief that simply finding a way to afford to deliver what we already deliver is not good enough, and the graph in the top right illustrates why that is the case. This work from UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analytics plots life expectancy at birth today across London, against the Underground network. The graph shows that babies born today in the least wealthy part of London are likely to die on average more than 20 years younger than those born in the most wealthy areas. That astonishing discrepancy is repeated in all of our major cities. There are many complex factors that lead to it, but many of them – fuel poverty, the quality of the urban environment, the opportunity to reach places of education and employment – are affected by the services we deliver. http://life.mappinglondon.co.uk/ And we need to address these issues in a context of increasing competition for basic resources and economic activity. Between now and 2050 the United Nations estimate that about 2 billion more people will live on the Earth; that population rise will be accounted for almost entirely by the growth in the population of megacities of populations between 10 and 35 million in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Over the same time period, about 2 billion more people around the world will acquire the affluence to afford what we would consider a middle-class lifestyle; as they do so their diets will change to include significantly more meat, which requires considerably more water to produce than plant and fish-based diets. To feed a growing population and to address existing food shortages, the UN estimate that about 70% more food needs to reach people’s plates than it does today; but we already use 60% of the world’s fresh water supplies to produce food. These numbers don’t add up unless we change the way we support our lifestyles: especially when we take into account the rising sea levels caused by global warming, which will reduce the fresh water and land available to us to produce food in the future – this is why Asda reported last year that 95% of their supply chain of fresh produce is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. What all of these figures add up to is a future in which there is more competition everywhere for economic activity, jobs and resources; and the need for more resilient and efficient public services and infrastructure to support and supply them. http://esa.un.org/unup/ http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/35571/icode/ http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats https://water.usgs.gov/edu/wuir.html http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/asda-food-waste-risk-climate-change?CMP=new_1194#start-of-comments
• #7: Why is technology part of the answer to these challenges? Today, there is a phenomenal variety of data available to us to help us understand and address them. As everything from our cars to our boilers to our fridges to our clothing is integrated with connected, digital technology, the Internet of Things, in which everything is connected to the internet, is emerging. As a consequence our world, and our cities, are full of data. The data tells us about the waiting time at road junctions; the location of buses; the number of free parking spaces and bicycles available to hire; sentiments expressed about the city through social media; and – as you can see in this visualisation of check-ins from Foursquare in New York and Tokyo – how people are moving about and transacting. We have never before had this level of insight available into our cities, economies and communities and it creates new opportunities to provide innovative, efficient services and infrastructure to support a high quality of life and accessible opportunity.
• #13: The roads that we maintain are not just tarmac surfaces: they connect people with their homes and offices, support community life, and are are used by a wide variety of people with different interests – pedestrians, office-workers, delivery drivers, schoolchildren and cyclists. By using a “Smart City” technology platform we are combining information about the condition of the roads we maintain, and our plans to carry out corrective work, with information about the surrounding area – its communities, businesses, schools, hospitals and parks. We can take into account environmental and demographic information, as well as the plans of other organisations – such as telecommunications and utility companies – to carry out work in the same area. All of this helps us to plan our work in a way that takes into account its impact on local communities and the issues that are important to them: we can identify areas that require a high level of maintenance and where renewal may be requried; we can identify preventative maintenance to reduce the impact of predicted weather or flooding events; and we can prioritise work to address issues on routes of particular importance to local communities, such as those between homes, schools, places of employment and local shops. We are also exploring how we can make some of this information available as Open Data, where doing so in a responsible way can create mutual benefit for our customers, and for local residents and businesses. This approach can give residents, businesses and other stakeholders better visibility of our knowledge of current road conditions and plans to address them, and the opportunity to express their opinion. We are trialling the use of both Smartphone and Social media technologies as tools to do this, complemented by programmes of “real world” education and engagement with local communities. This improved understanding of our own operations and the local communities and businesses around us gives rise to new opportunities for collaboration: for including local people and businesses in our supply chain; for planning work in ways that takes into account a better knowledge of the impact it will have; and by better understanding the issues that have the most importance for local people.  
• #16: To achieve these objectives, we are investing in the creation of “Smart” technology platforms that integrate a rich and very interesting set of data sources, from obvious references such as geographic and asset data, to data from remote sensors and crowdsourcing. Because our contract objectives often relate to the social, economic and environmental impact of our work, we are also integrating economic, demographic and community information into those platforms too.
• #17: Our customers in national and local government are aware of all of these possibilites. From County Councils to City Councils to national government to islands such as Guernsey, they are expressing visions for harnessing emerging technologies to create more vibrant communities and sustainable equalities in which opportunity is more fairly distributed. The challenge is how to win investment in the technology infrastructures that are required. Many of the cities with the highest profile initiatives – Glasgow, Bristol, Milton Keynes for example – are supported by research and innovation grants. The UK benefits enormously from these grants, both from the UK government and the European Union, but research and innovation grants are there to support the exploration of new ideas, not to fund their widespread deployment across the company. In Amey, our job is to take on outcomes risk for our customers and partners – the quality of the environment, the timeliness of transport, the availability of public assets, the successful functioning of utility services such as water and electricity. To serve our customers well and to operate successfully in our market, we are driven to invest in the Smart technology infrastructures that can support our customers’ expectations.
• #19: As a consequence we have seen a series of technology capabilities emerge that are dramatically changing the way that cities, infrastructure and services operate. Airb’n’b was founded in 2008, a year after the iPhone introduced us to the touchscreen and the “always-on” mobile internet connection; it built on the availability of Cloud platforms, free Open Source software and Open APIs that allow developers to create new services for the vast networks of people using online social media platforms. In 6 years they created a service that provides travellers with access to a greater choice of accommodation than the Hilton Hotel group built in the best part of a Century, with 0.2% the number of employees. Of course these are very different business models, and the comparison isnt a direct one; but the example does illustrate how astonishing quickly the technologies we are inventing today can thoroughly change and disrupt the world we are used to. (And the question we should be asking is: what has been invented after 2007 that’s now being exploited by the new disruptive business we’ll all be talking about next year?)
• #21: This is what happens when you give city data to people with the skills and passion to do something about it. These people spent a weekend together in 2012 asking themselves: in what way should Birmingham be better? And what can we do about it? They wrote an app that connected spare food prepared in professional kitchens each day with soup kitchens in need of more food. So what came of this?
• #22: The Smart City Alliance came together to promote “massive / small” innovation by creating a network of networks so that great ideas from one place can find great support from another. We convened a set of “unusual suspects” to explore how we could take the ideas generated in the hackathon forward, and create a systematic change to food culture in Birmingham.
• #23: Major James Swanston!
• #24: Introduced the Open Street Maps movement to city institutions, in particular the Longbridge development. In the Midlands, Open Street Maps now includes full coverage of all buildings in Birmingham and Solihull, with full postal address - the largest regional open address data set in the UK. Open Street Maps has 100% coverage of correct road names for all local authorities in the West Midlands except Coventry, including correction of all errors in Ordnance Survey mapping. The closure of Charles Street Queensway tunnels during the summer schedule was recorded and helped to achieve correct routing for participating navigation systems.
• #27: … and Two years later, it led to the Harborne Food School, which opened this month, offering training courses in cookery, sustainable food production and running small food businesses. And it intends in the near future to operate a local food distribution service based on the ideas from the Hackathon.
• #29: They will be like the concrete roads we built in the past that cut through cities and communities, and didn’t nurture and support them We can learn from the past. When concrete and cars were our new toys, this is what we did to Birmingham Town planners have learned from this – Kelvin Campbell’s “Massive / Small” smart urbanism – ref his role in Birmingham
• #30: In recent decades, town planners and urban designers have driven forward our understanding of how to build cities and infrastructure in a way that is responsive and adaptable to local communities at the same time as meeting the large scale economic, transport and resource requirements of the city as a whole. Kelvin Campbell's "Smart Urbanism" movement asks the question: "What are the characteristics of large-scale urban environments and policies that give rise to massive amounts of small-scale innovation - I.e. That do not cut through cities and communities as Birmingham's old ring-road did  but that enable people, businesses and communities everywhere to do better for themselves.
• #32: http://queenelizabetholympicpark.co.uk/the-park/homes-and-living/sweetwater