The internet of things can appear double-edged. By connecting billions of devices, it is generating a great volume and variety of real-time data that makes it possible to create insight, improve services and deliver better outcomes for citizens, cities and business.
On the other hand, says Nick Monnickendam of Flexeye, the IoT introduces massive complexity. It increases the need for interoperability and collaboration. Hypercat is playing an important role in addressing both challenges.
Hypercat is an Innovate UK backed consortium that is tackling the challenge of interoperability in the internet of things and smart cities. The Hypercat standard makes it easier to discover and combine data from connected “things” to create valuable new apps and services.
Solving these and other interoperability challenges could unlock $trillions in value worldwide. The standard is open and accessible to all which is also fostering widespread collaboration. Indeed, Hypercat already has over 900 members including leading technology players, SMEs and public sector organisations.
We’re a year into an 18-month programme. The standard is currently being implemented across 11 vertical “spearheads” from logistics to smart lighting. Flexeye is leading the overall Hypercat programme and will use its technology to demonstrate interoperability across the spearheads. The standard is also being implemented in several cities in the UK, including Milton Keynes and recent IoT competition winner, Manchester.
The level of collaboration has grown well beyond what was envisaged when the programme was originally conceived. A great example has been Hypercat working with Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) to create the interim Smart Strategy for Old Oak and Park Royal, the UK’s largest urban redevelopment. The thinking for the report was “crowdsourced” through 37 workshops, across six different domains, to feed the best ideas from hundreds of smart thinkers into the interim strategy.
Development of the report by Hypercat was supported by a strong set of individual organisations including Innovate UK, the Mayor of London’s Office, the OPDC, BT, KPMG, Cisco, Flexeye, Symantec and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Victoria Hills, OPDC’s CEO commented, “The collaboration with Hypercat has helped us to tap into the expertise of a huge number of smart city experts in a very short space of time.”
The OPDC project also represents a great opportunity to introduce smart thinking right from the start of a major infrastructure project – from planning, through construction and into the operation of physical “things”.
You can find out a lot more about Hypercat and the smart strategy for the OPDC at the Hypercat Summit at the Royal Festival Hall, London on the evening of 20th June. The event is hosted by Lords Erroll, Evans, Harris and Arbuthnot as well as and Justin Anderson, Exec Chair Flexeye.
The Summit will convene over 2,000 smart thinkers from across Europe, including government ministers, FTSE 100 leaders, CIOs, city managers and planners, engineers, artificial intelligence experts, philosophers, IoT entrepreneurs, designers and many more innovators. Together, we will explore how technology is solving global challenges and transforming whole industries.
We’d love it if you can join us on the night.
The author of this blog is Nick Monnickendam, marketing director, Flexeye.
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