ICF report shows big data usage benefits

A new report shows how big data usage can be undertaken for the benefit of all citizens.

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) recently released Humanizing Data: Using Big Data and Open Data to Engage, Help and Serve the Community, which shares successful examples of data usage for the benefit of all citizens in the 2018 class of Intelligent Communities.

ICF selects a theme each year to supplement the six indicators of the ICF Method on which the selection of the Smart21, Top7 and Intelligent Community of the Year is based. In the 2017–2018 awards cycle, ICF focused on humanising data because data has become the heartbeat of the new economy and the lifeblood of smart public policy in the 21st century.

Two words born in the mid-1990s still shape our understanding of data’s central role. Engineers at Silicon Graphics, an early tech innovator, began talking about ‘big data’ at about the same time the words ‘open data’ first appeared in a report which advocated for the free exchange of scientific information. Whether big, open or both, data has become the beating heart of business and government. By fuelling a better-informed society, it supports human hopes and human potential. In this report, ICF provides many examples of what the top Intelligent Communities of 2018 have done to humanise data for the economic, social and cultural benefit of their communities.

“ICF’s goal is to help communities advance from just being ‘smart’ — using technology to improve their processes — to become ‘intelligent’,” said ICF co-founder Robert Bell.

“That means putting people at the centre of development at a time when the economy, society and culture are undergoing massive change. The examples in this report show local government at its best: finding innovative ways to make the place called home the best possible place to live, work, build a business and raise a family.”

The report is available free for ICF members and for purchase for non-members.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/ChenPG

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