Amsterdam, Barcelona, SF collaborate on smart-city apps

Three cities — Amsterdam, Barcelona and San Francisco — are collaborating with a Silicon Valley-based software company to launch a smart-city software platform for collecting, analyzing and visualizing data.

Cityzenith’s 5D SMART City software, developed by one of the creators of Google Earth, brings together diverse sources of city data into a single point-of-view dashboard.

Under their agreement with Cityzenith, Amsterdam, Barcelona and San Francisco will establish a common platform to use and share data within their cities, with one another and with citizens via mobile apps.

“In Amsterdam we have been working very intensively on open data for the last few years,” said Ger Baron, IT program and cluster manager at the Amsterdam Economic Board. “Now it is time for the next step, a step that we want to take with a couple of the leading cities in the world and our ambition is to help set a standard for smart city collaboration.”

“The Barcelona City Council is presently developing a citywide data management system called the Situation Room that will consolidate real-time information from multiple city agencies in a single point-of-view, empowering leadership to make better decisions and engage with its departments and citizens in more meaningful ways,” said Manel Sanroma, chief information officer of the Barcelona City Council. “Cityzenith’s unique 5D platform will form an important component of our Situation Room solution, and will make sharing information and experience within and between cities easier and more effective.”