<p>This Initiative arises from the agreement between Barcelona City Council and Cisco Systems for the implementation of the BIT-Habitat (Barcelona Institute of Technology for the Habitat), and the City Protocol, an alliance of cities, businesses, and international organizations to develop a new public/private framework of collaboration.</p>
Large metropolitan areas play a key role in the innovation systems that must make it possible for innovative enterprises and institutions to appear in different activity sectors and clusters. At the same time, local and metropolitan governments are also one of these sectors or clusters that must promote the introduction of innovations in their services and activities.
Arising from the proposal of Commission 5: Partnership for Urban Innovation, Metropolis signed a collaboration agreement to develop public/private activities and projects in the field of urban innovation. Following this preliminary agreement, Barcelona City Council and the firm Cisco Systems signed a first agreement in May 2011 to implement an R&D center in Barcelona to work on the increasingly important issue of Smart Cities, ratified with a new agreement on 1 March 2012, whereby Cisco also supports the creation of the BIT – Habitat, the definition of the City Protocol, and the development of next-generation urban services.
Phase 1 of this project, which culminated recently, consists of making a sensorization and data-merging demonstrator in the city. Phase 2, presented as a “Metropolis Initiative”, addresses a framework of common relations to develop initiatives between the two entities and to put said framework into operation.
The objectives of the Initiative are:
Creation of the BIT - Habitat Foundation to foster the innovation of new urban services with new public/private relationship formats, a highlight of which is the relationship with Cisco, which will form part of the Foundation as a Gold sponsor, contributing human resources, thought leadership, foundation fees, and technological equipment.
Development of the City Protocol which will be a blueprint for defining the city ideal via key indicators and processes. Cisco will focus on the development of a reference technology architecture that will define the technological aspects of the Smart City Protocol.
Development and testing of seven pilot services and creation of a City Control Room that will run on the reference architecture defined above on a common Service Delivery Platform for them all. The services to trial are:
- Pay per light (New model for the management of public lighting)
- Self-sufficient city blocks for energy
- Energy monitoring of public buildings
- Optimization of rainwater use
- Smart bus network
- Smart parking for the city
- The Internet of the neighborhood
Cisco’s collaboration both in the development of the pilot urban services and the work with the BIT - Habitat Foundation will be coordinated from the new Cisco Innovation Center to be established in the new campus of 22@ (Smart City Campus).
- Barcelona City Council, by improving the efficiency of its services.
- Cisco Systems, by creating an urban innovation center in a pioneering city.
- The citizens of Barcelona, who will see an improvement in the urban services they receive.
- The business fabric of the city, which will benefit from an economic boost and the improvement of service provisions to their companies.
Because it is a reproducible model, other beneficiaries could be:
- Citizens of other cities where the collaboration model is replicated or the new developments could be applied.
- Other businesses that apply or expand on the collaboration model.
- Creation of the BIT - Habitat
- Development of the City Protocol
- Creation of the new Cisco Innovation Center
- Development of the services to trial
- Contracting of the personnel to develop the activity.
Calendar
| Date | Duration | Phase / action |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2012 - May 2012 | Creation and start-up of BIT – Habitat activity | |
| Jan 2012 - Dec 2012 | Development of the preliminary version of the City Protocol to be presented at the Smart City Fair of Barcelona. |
Diverse international events to present the initiatives over coming months
- Agility in the process of developing joint initiatives, rolling out a stable framework of relations.
- More in-depth mutual knowledge with the goal of correctly aligning the entity’s objectives.
- Provide legal and business coverage to all of the joint initiatives.
- Establish a common frame of reference for future agreements of this type in the city.
- Development of a model that can be extrapolated and applied to other cities in the world.
The creation of the BIT – Habitat is an ambitious project of public/private collaboration in which different initiatives will be developed to improve the management and integration of services and infrastructures related to mobility, energy efficiency, security, telecommunications, etc. which will favorably impact the city of Barcelona.
Through the Metropolis cities network, it will be possible to disseminate the knowledge and solutions provided by the BIT – Habitat and the public/private collaboration model established.
Institutions, members of the public, and businesses from other cities may also benefit from this Initiative, and can also participate and contribute new ideas.