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00:00Let's now look at the second bit of training that we are reviewing now and that's about
00:08the value of open architectures and minimal interoperability mechanisms and that's much
00:12more looking at within the city council how can you unlock that data overall, how can
00:18you set up the right sort of structures and frameworks to do that and how can minimal
00:22interoperability mechanisms help with that whole process.
00:26So we're going to be looking very briefly at the need of an open data architecture, we're
00:31going to be looking at how minimal interoperability mechanisms can help and then we're looking
00:35at how the procurement help desk will be able to provide support to our cities and our communities.
00:42Let's think first then about the open architecture.
00:45So when we're wanting to build a data sharing ecosystem we need to make sure that it's open.
00:53That's not open data that's about an open architecture and what we're talking about there is an architecture
00:59that allows new components to be added or changed very easily which may be coming from many
01:06different other organisations, companies, agencies to be able to adjust that ecosystem to deliver
01:13all the different kinds of things that it might need to deliver as things change and grow.
01:17Now when we say open we don't mean non-proprietary because we know for instance Windows and Android
01:24are proprietary operating systems but they're open in the sense that they're designed to
01:29allow many other agencies to develop applications that can be built on top of Windows and Android
01:37and can therefore make those operating systems even more flexible and effective and provide
01:43even more options for the users and make the whole thing more valuable and that's what
01:48we're talking about here.
01:49It may be that you've outsourced your data ecosystem to a provider that uses proprietary solutions.
01:58That's fine but make sure that whatever solutions they put in place make it easy for you to add
02:04in new applications and services to meet the changing needs of your different ecosystems and so the thing
02:12to do in all of this is to make sure that you step back and you look at the way data needs to
02:20move to, through and around the whole city ecosystem to be able to provide the right data to the right places
02:30in the right way and so it's a very important exercise to spend time in thinking what data do we
02:37need to make sure the city can work well, who owns that data, how can I access it, how can it be accessed,
02:44what kind of data is that data, is it geospatial, IoT, is it databases, what kind of data is it
02:52and is it open data or is it sensitive data that needs to be managed in a careful way. So these sorts of
02:58questions you need to be asking yourself and then when you've done that to think about how we can we
03:04use that data within our own city administration and how can we provide that data more easily to
03:10all the many other agencies and the citizens who could use it to help their lives run better within
03:16the city. So that's the important thing really try and take as comprehensive a view as you can of
03:25all the data that needs to be moving throughout the city, where it needs to be moving to and where
03:31it needs to be coming from and you know here's a very simple way of looking at that but it's just
03:37there to give kind of a start so that you can look at who are my partners, what are the different sector
03:43data spaces that are there or need to be there, what data am I getting from central and regional government
03:48and so on, what data am I getting from IoT, what data am I getting from social media, how am I drawing
03:55that data in to within my own city administration IT functions and so on and making it available to
04:03the different departments within the city council and then how can I be providing what's relevant to
04:09others in the best possible way to help make sure that that data is really free and is really doing all
04:15the kinds of things that could be done and it is important to do that because once you've mapped
04:22where the need to need the data needs to be coming from and where it needs to be going to then it
04:27becomes easy to identify what the barriers are and that's not a theoretical exercise this is about going
04:32to all the different departments in the city council and to all your partners and so on and asking what
04:37are the challenges about getting the data you need is it in is is the data that you're wanting in in
04:44the wrong format or are there other restrictions that make it difficult for you to to use it and
04:50and then once you've done that of course then you can start to say ah here are all the barriers
04:56here are where the barriers are and what they are let's think about the solutions that can help get rid
05:02of those barriers to to make sure the data can be properly used and in that whole discussion the
05:09minimal interoperability mechanisms have a key role in opening up and dealing with the different
05:14barriers that you may well identify so you may say this is a lot of work and it is a lot of work
05:19but it's well worthwhile spending the time needed to do a thorough uh uh if you like a collection of
05:27of information about all of these things because having done that then you could be much clearer about
05:33uh what you need to be doing to to build on a solid foundation and really get um a very active and
05:41helpful ecosystem going and in doing that also it becomes much much clearer about how minimal
05:46interoperability mechanisms can help you achieve your objectives let's think a bit about interoperability
05:52what is it why is it important well interoperability is about where you've got different systems different
05:59partnerships different um agencies different i.t um systems uh that need to be able to share
06:06information and work together and collaborate together and interoperability is is about making
06:11that happen making it possible for that information to be shared and operated together effectively in a
06:19way that's completely predictable and you can be sure will provide what you want it to provide
06:23of course that's not a simple matter there are many issues you need to tackle um here's a list of some
06:30of them uh what how to manage personal data data security uh geospatial data how to how to make sure
06:39that any ai um algorithms that are being used uh use the right data to to enable them to make fair and
06:46transparent decisions what about common ways of describing things in data models data analytics lots of
06:53different issues need to be looked at when you're thinking about ensuring proper interoperability
06:58and even though standards organizations are doing a great job um and are solving individual issues um
07:08the different issues have been dealt with by different committees and therefore very often um there's
07:13problems when you're trying to bridge across between uh different types of data and so on in that while
07:18each one of them may be standards compliant there's no obvious and easy way for you to take data that's
07:24been built using one set of standards and use it with data that's been built using another set of standards
07:30and so um while they're really important and long term uh that's the the way forward we still need other
07:38mechanisms to help us be able to make full use of standards based data so that's what we're talking about
07:46here that interoperability isn't an either or issue uh plug and play is great when everything just works
07:53uh but most often we find when you do your analysis of your existing data ecosystem you'll find many in
08:00many instances a lot of their work of integrating different data is being done manually spending lots
08:05of time of key officers making sure that the different data sets are properly aligned to work well
08:11together and what we're looking for here is what are different tools that we can use to help make that
08:19manual work a bit less uh to make it just that bit easier to be able to align these different kinds of
08:25data and so that's what we're really talking about here it's about interoperability that can be put in
08:31place with minimal user intervention uh taking away as much of the manual work as we can and making as much as
08:38possible to be able to done automatically so that's what the mims really developed for um they started
08:45out when cities were beginning the process of of using iot data in particular to develop smart applications
08:52and the idea there was simply to provide some basic tools to help cities gather and use data in
08:58consistent ways so that any useful application developed in one city could be easily ported uh and
09:05without too much work into another city but of course over the years cities are using data in
09:11more and more sophisticated ways the challenges are changing there's much more big data cities are
09:16using for instance traffic management systems that are collecting huge amounts of data from every
09:21aspect of the city traffic lights um level crossings all kinds of things like that in order to get that
09:28uh really good picture of what's happening huge amounts of data of different types need to be brought
09:34together and so the memes are continuing to evolve to be able to address the new challenges that cities
09:40are facing we've got 10 memes that we've been working on over the last few years um as we're you know
09:46we've been revising them recently we see effectively there are two kinds of memes there are foundational
09:52memes which uh cover kind of generic issues if you like data security data access data representation and
09:58so on that are basic ways of dealing with interoperability between any kind of data but then we
10:05also need to look at particular application areas like personal data management or geospatial data to
10:11look at any particular challenge about integrating and aligning data in those areas that needs to be
10:17dealt with by more specialist means and so we're working hard to make sure there's sets of tools that will
10:24enable you and city administrations to be able to more quickly be able to tackle the challenges and
10:29the barriers you find in in building and developing your local data ecosystem the memes are are um are
10:36built in a very consistent way this has been standardized through uh the itu the um un agency for telecoms who
10:45one of the three main international standards bodies in the world and so this has been standardized as
10:50a process where you start with a clear objective you divide that into capabilities you see what the
10:55requirements that are needed are in order to deliver on those capabilities what are the different
11:00optional mechanisms that cities might use to deliver those requirements and then once we've once we've
11:05agreed once we've identified what are the different ways that cities are using to meet a common set of
11:10requirements how can we start to bring interoperability between those different mechanisms and how can we check
11:18that the requirements are indeed being met so the aim of the mims is to by identifying the key
11:24capabilities needed for data sharing and translating those capabilities into requirements then you can
11:30start then enable cities to see here are the different alternatives that we could use what are the
11:36right ones for us we can see much more easily the pros and cons of the different mechanisms into how well
11:41that address the particular needs that we have but it also once we've been able to describe these different
11:50mechanisms in a common way we can much more easily find out what commonalities there are whether for
11:55instance these different approaches still use some basic standards that are in common as an example or
12:03whether there's some common interfaces that we can identify across which open api's application program
12:08interfaces can be used to help uh bring data from different kinds of sources uh to in to be and
12:16being able to be used for particular purposes so this is a really important uh thing that we need to be
12:22doing in in in in developing the mims and with your help we can make sure these tools are precisely the
12:28kind of tools that you need so the value they provide is it enables you to much more easily share and reuse
12:34the data that comes from partners that may use different approaches it makes it much easier for
12:40you to compare and contrast the value of different approaches offered by vendors in procurements and
12:45it makes it easier to develop a path to change technical approaches because you've got a clear
12:49sense of what you need to achieve so if that technical approach is no longer the best way of doing that
12:55because you're clear about what you need to achieve it's much easier to work out how to change that with
12:59another different way of delivering that to that same objective and the procurement help desk can
13:06have a a a a key role here in helping you put all of these many different complicated things
13:11uh into practice uh they are developing procurement templates that will first of all provide you with
13:17the opportunity to systematically capture the functional and technical requirements that you need
13:22to address when you're procuring a product or service related to data spaces or local digital twins
13:28and in each of those procurement templates there's a section which addresses how the mims can help with
13:33that whole process so that that will also help you be able to much more easily use and get the gain
13:39value for the minimal interoperability mechanisms and and uh as part of all of this process uh we we are
13:46developing a set of self-assessment and technical tools to help also to be able to to check that uh the
13:53products and services offer offered by vendors comply with these requirements and so that you can
13:59confidently procure them and bring them into your data ecosystem and be sure that they'll work properly
14:05and these are going to be incorporated as well into the procurement templates to enable vendors to be able
14:10to demonstrate to you uh that their products and services are indeed the kind of things that you need
14:16within your local data ecosystem so um hopefully uh this has given you a a a really good sense of
14:23the importance of that open architecture for your data sharing ecosystem and how the mems can help you
14:29address the key issues the key barriers that may be getting in the way of sharing that data properly
14:35and and the fact that these memes are based on existing standards and so by implementing them you're if
14:41you like putting in place a great foundation that you can continue to continue to build on
14:46in the months and years uh to come so i hope this has been useful um if you want to find out more
14:52about the memes uh the memes the memes plus are um what the memes if you like focused on the european
14:59context and you can look on the living in the eu website and find out the latest version of the
15:04memes so that you can get the detail of what's needed but of course you can also come to us
15:08um in open and agile smart cities and we'll be delighted to help you see how memes can be part
15:14of your key strategies in delivering using data to deliver what your citizens and what your business
15:20is and what your organizations need in your city and in your community thank you very much indeed