The importance of data in smart cities

During the London 2012 Olympics the Transport for London (TfL) network needed to manage 18 million local journeys made by spectators. One can only imagine the volume of data generated during this time; the data and analytics, mostly from the games, was utilized by TfL to predict the number of people who were likely to use public transport during that time, in order to ensure that the system was running effectively. With the evolution of technology changing the way we live and work, it is only a matter of time before governments around the world upgrade their infrastructure to offer citizens efficient services through smart cities, where enormous amounts of data moves within complex information supply chains. Yet, smart cities are not about constantly introducing new technologies. Data sources are everywhere around us, ranging from smart phones and computers, to Global Positioning System (GPS) and social media sites.