This past week, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) made a presence in London to help launch the Data City, Data Nation initiative from the Digital Catapult Centre.
The Data City, Data Nation initiative aims to deliver a data sharing initiative that will unlock smart solutions to real-world problems and drive business growth across both areas.
The Data City, Data Nation initiative will host monthly data innovation challenges linked to specific themes such as Mobility (February), Safety and Security (March), Healthcare and Lifestyle (April), Energy and Construction (May), and Population (June). In July 2016, Singapore will host a showcase in July to celebrate the best of the best from this initiative.
This initiative launch was hosted by British High Commissioner Mr Scott Wightman at Eden Hall, London. Over 90 representatives comprised of several MNCs, startups, research institutes, and government agencies were present for the launch.
The IDA team had been present at unBound London to share the story of Singapore as it embarks on its Smart Nation journey, and to work with its partners involved in the Data City, Data Nation initiative.
IDA’s involvement in the Data City, Data Nation initiative is valuable. This is because Singapore is striving to be a test bed, or a living laboratory of the city of the future. Ms Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director of the IDA, expressed this sentiment during the launch of Data City, Data Nation.
“To build Singapore into a Smart Nation, data is the most critical gateway to enable co-creation and problem-solving,” stated Ms. Poh, “We are thrilled with this opportunity for our data.gov.sg open government data sets to be used to enable public-private sectors to build innovations in the healthcare, transport, energy, safety arenas.”
IDA works to make public sector data more accessible through its data.gov.sg portal. This portal granulises datasets, making them more useful through visualisations and availability of API, Ms. Poh emphasised.
On the other hand, the UK has also worked to promote data sharing with its London Datastore 2. Datastore 2 was launched by London Mayor Boris Johnson in 2014. It serves as a open and free resource giving the public access to data sets related to the city of London. Over 200 mobile apps have been created with the resources provided by Datastore.
People keen to join the initiative can register their interest online at: http://www.digitalcatapultcentre.org.uk/open-calls/singapore-london-data-exchange/
The closing date for the application is 31 January 2016.
