Smart Cities – some additional Info.

A Definition
A smart city uses digital technologies or information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance quality and performance of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens. A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and communications technologies in a secure way to manage a city’s assets – the city’s assets include, but not limited to, local departments information systems, schools, libraries, transport systems, hospitals, power plants, law enforcement and other community services., The goal of building a smart city is to improve quality of life by using technology to improve the efficiency of services and meet residents’ needs. ICT allows city officials to interact directly with the community and the city infrastructure and to tell what is happening in the city, how the city is evolving, and how to enable a better quality of life.
Here’s an interesting article from Cisco Systems who are doing some pioneering work in this field.

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/solutions/industries/docs/gov/everything-for-cities.pdf

Additional info is also available from www.smartcitiesappg.com