Explore the Smart City
Council does not hold all the answers. It is up to all of us to work together to make the City an even better place. Got an idea worth sharing? Have a think about how you can contribute or connect with others to create the Smart City.
A Smart City is a City where great apps are available to help people get around, go about their daily lives, do business and collaborate.
Council is exploring how to facilitate app development by people in the community. This could mean providing real world scenarios for app developers to test their ideas and making 'city data' available.
For example, sharing data for the location of disabled toilets enables app developers to incorporate this information into apps. The more apps that include this data, the more ways the community can access information about the location of disabled toilets.
Council doesn’t hold all possible information about the City, but it can work with other government agencies and organisations and get better at sharing data and integrating data sets to inform decision making processes. Of course, not all data can be made available-much information is bound by commercial in confidence laws. Ensuring the privacy of individuals is also key.
This could mean a greater use of sensors to make it easier to find a parking space, to monitoring the condition of Council-owned assets, or using smart energy efficient lighting to make it safe and inviting to walk and drive at night whilst saving the City money on power bills.
Like many households, Council is installing solar power on its facilities to save the City money. This is called “distributed energy generation” and is an important part of the Smart City, particularly if we are to move to electric vehicles.
High-speed broadband and other new technologies are providing new ways of doing business,such as online bookkeeping, attracting customers using social media and multimedia, and having the ability to share large amounts of information quickly.
Cloud services mean it is becoming easier for businesses to locate in Lake Macquarie, enjoying the great lifestyle of the City whilst having a global reach.
The ability to share more complex information, faster, leads to innovation. The Hunter Region is fast becoming a place for local technology start-ups and creative media industries.
New technologies are leading to innovation in other industries. One future trend is advances in manufacturing, such as 3D printing using plastics, concrete and metals. Local manufacturing will evolve and be more customisable, products may not need to be transported long distances. We need to be thinking about how the City can both accommodate and facilitate these new industries in a sustainable way.
Some people in our community are less confident with using computers and the internet, or may not even have the ability to connect to the internet within their home. As more services and activities move online, helping people understand technology is important. Public places, such as our town centres and libraries, will continue to be important hubs for people to connect.
New apps are connecting communities, allowing people to share information about their concerns and ideas, in turn allowing people to make their City a better place.
Do you have a cupboard or shed of unwanted goods you don’t have the heart to throw into landfill? Surely someone, somewhere might have a use for it? Perhaps you have a great set of tools you use every now and then, but most of the time sit unused? Or maybe you have a spare room you’d like to rent out to travellers?
Good news, there are already many apps that can help you out! This new form of online sharing is part of the emerging “sharing economy”. Sharing existing resources, whether it be objects, labour or space, can have great environmental, social and economic benefits.
Being part of a community means you may often bump into people you know down the street. Providing opportunities for unexpected encounters between neighbours, workers and visitors, strengthens community ties and leads to the transfer of information keeping people connected..
A Smart City is one where it is easy to connect both online and in person. This combination drives innovation.
Spontaneous encounters are difficult to replicate
online, so creating great places for people to meet and connect with
others—online or in person—is important. This means ensuring our libraries and
town centres (parks, cafes) are inviting for both work and fun.
Consultation has concluded. Please see lakemac.com.au/smart-city for the latest updates.
