Nowadays, internet of things (IoT) era has transformed most of the human activity aspects. The better internet connectivity makes smartphone penetration is sky-rocketing. The huge number of smartphone users provide good opportunities for internet based business. For instance, the most impactful phenomena of the rising of the internet of things era especially in Indonesia is the emergence of online public transportation i.e gojek. By using our smartphone and thanks to internet connectivity provider we can go anywhere and get anything we want efficiently. So, phone + internet = (smart)phone and city + internet = (smart)city?
-The smart city is not simply adding internet of things (IoT) to the city-
(Prof. Marsudi Wahyu Kisworo)
On March 27, 2018, Management of Technology Laboratory (MoT Lab) SBM ITB held a seminar with the topic Smart City: Its Concept and Business Opportunities. The aim of this seminar is to literate society especially student as the young generation that through leveraging the technology we can generate a solution for the city as a future business. Prof. Marsudi Wahyu Kisworo, a Professor of Informatics Technology also a Senior Advisor of smart city at CitiAsia and Dr. tech. Wikan Danar Sunindyo, a Lecturer at Informatics ITB also smart city practitioners gave the talk about their experience in the process of developing of the smart city in Indonesia also the fundamental concept regarding smart city and how smart city can provide business opportunities for society.
Prof. Marsudi and Dr.tech Wikan emphasized especially on the fundamental concept of the smart city because of sometimes smart city misinterpreted by society. Most of the people think that smart city is simply adding advanced technology to the city and city means only a capital town while in fact, the city is the center of growth. To be growing, a city needs investment and talents, and cities are in the competition for it. Smart city can be defined as the city which has the ability to overcome the challenges effectively and efficiently through the innovative, integrated and sustainable solution to enhance society’s quality of life and provide adequate infrastructure. Furthermore, a smart city needs more than IoT to be ready, IoT only a part of smart city readiness. The integration of a healthy business environment, a good governance of bureaucracy and policy, IoT and other infrastructure are needed as a whole.
There are 6 (six) element of the smart city, namely smart governance, smart branding, smart economy, smart living, smart society, and smart environment. Prof. Marsudi and Dr.tech Wikan said that the 6 elements of the smart city provide large opportunities for society to participate in a solution. For instance, to overcome the traffic problem in the city, traffic and crowd management by using advanced camera technology and integrated analytic tools can be a new business opportunity. Another example is providing digital tools for digital record and archives management for the government institution. By using digital tools, data can be analyzed faster and easier that can provide supporting data for decision making.