Category Archives: Blogs

Smart, smarter and smartest. Transform post #12

Next week I am, together with Joost Brinkman of Accenture, one of the speakers at the Smart City event in Amsterdam.

We have about five minutes each to tell about our great Transform project.

That is impossible!
Is it?
Can we be smart for 10 minutes?
And what is our story?
Can our story be that smart?

Last week I wrote a blog about Paris.
One of the smartest cities in the world.
Dealing with smog and air pollution.
It taught me that being Smart is incredibly difficult.

This is what Transform is as well: a difficult task.
Transforms’ focus is about Smart Energy Development.
About actions needed.
Action needed to change.
Change energy systems in cities.

And since it is difficult

We seek collaboration.
We need to work together
We need citizens’ involvement
We need bottom up as well as top down approaches.
We need help from other cities,

From business, from citizens, from you!

This is why we want to invite you to discuss with us.

To tell your best stories,
To share your best practice.
To share your success.
To teach us how to change.
To help us transform.

We will share our experience as well.

We invite you to meet at our website: www.urbantransform.eu.

Kind regards and hopefully we meet at our website! to be smart, to become smarter and hopefully too be the smartest……… one day.

Ronald van Warmerdam
Sr project manager Projectmanagement Bureau, city of Amsterdam / lecturer TuDelft / Coordinator TRANSFORM

https://twitter.com/rvwarmerdam

More than ever. Transform post #11

The yearly “World Energy Outlook” of the IEA (International Energy Agency) is the bible for energy policy makers. Last year’s report is clear about the way the world is going: making more sustainable energy but, also burning more and more coal. And the bad message is that burning coal is growing faster than the production of sustainable energy worldwide. Time to act! More than ever!

Due to the fact that the US produces more and more shale gas, the prices of coal form the US dropped during the last years. And in the Netherlands, gas fired power plants are shut down because they don’t produce profitable energy due to the high price of gas in Europe and the low price of imported coal. And you understand that the simple solution for the producing companies is to import coal and burn it to make electricity. Not the sustainable way planned.

More than ever, we need to work on sustainable solutions!
More than ever, we need smart energy solutions!
More and more our cities need TRANSFORM solutions!

- Solutions for Energy Efficiency for houses and buildings.
- Speeding up wind energy and solar energy.
- Solutions for smart energy grids.
- Effective heat recovery solutions and heat grids for our old cities.
- Climate neutral new buildings and city districts.
- Electrification of transport and its infrastructure.

We need to try to scale up replicable sustainable energy solutions. MORE THAN EVER WE NEED TO TRANSFORM!

Ronald van Warmerdam
Sr project manager Projectmanagement Bureau, city of Amsterdam / lecturer TuDelft / Coordinator TRANSFORM

https://twitter.com/rvwarmerdam

Critical infrastructure and Smart City network security

The discovery of a critical programming mistake in OpenSSL (the program that generates the lock symbol when you are buying something online) by a Google security researcher two weeks ago exposed a vulnerability shared by over 66% of all internet servers and sites in the world. The Heartbleed bug allows hackers to steal not only passwords, bank information, and other sensitive or privileged information, but also the security certificates that are at the core of trust networks on the Internet. Worst of all, the bug allows people to access all of this information and leave absolutely zero trace that anything was missing.

This bug is one of thousands that are detected each year, both in open source and propriety software, and will most certainly not be the last. As many of the early adopters of Smart City systems and networks are built upon existing open standards, there needs to be more coordinated and sophisticated security protocols in place for critical infrastructure such as electricity, heat, gas, fresh- and waste water systems, and traffic signals. Closed source software is not the answer, since much of the existing and future software platforms are built upon open standards anyway, as are the sensors and network transmission protocols such as WLAN, Bluetooth, NFC, and other forms of wireless transmission. Wired transmissions are no safer, since much of the telecoms switching equipment provided by Cisco, Ericsson, and Huawei is riddled with intentional security holes.

Among the many revelations that have resulted from the actions of Edward Snowden is that the NSA has cracked a majority of the encryption and security protocols in existence, including Secure Socket Layers, RSA encryption, and https. The NSA broke Google’s security layers and intercepted all traffic for search, documents, pictures, and anything else on Google Drive, without their knowledge. The reality today is that encryption of data may be possible, but it is unlikely to be of much use to dedicated individuals or, even more, state actors.

Smart Cities will need to develop far more sophisticated and standardized security protocols in order to protect their citizens, systems, and data. This includes a comprehensive risk management and contingency operations plan in collaboration with leading software firms, dedicated security firms such as Cloudflare, F-Security, and Kaspersky Labs, as well as creating legal grey zones for so-called grey hat and black hat hackers to try to break Smart City security protocols and systems. Additionally, cities will have to carefully consider the types of network connectivity will be acceptable given the risk, likelihood, and impact of a malicious attack. For example, the system protocols for “dumb” infrastructure such as rubbish bins will not necessarily require the same level of security as those for traffic lights or the transmission grid. But even dumb infrastructure in a wires network provides a potential access point to other, more critical systems.

Prior to rolling out an interlinked network of sensors, hardware, software, and systems at the city scale, it would make sense to test the vulnerabilities at a smaller scale with dumb, low risk infrastructure first. This may also have the beneficial effect of introducing a security element into the larger governance framework that includes privacy, transparency, rights not to be tracked, and ownership of data.

Patrick Driscoll
The Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment
[email protected]

Smart when the wind is blowing. Transform post #10

Last Sunday I decided to throw away my old newspapers. I piled them up since the beginning of January and it was time to do so. Like always, I checked them quickly on interesting articles to use for lectures on university or for a blog post.

Running through the old news, I noticed several articles about smog in Beijing, Brussels and Paris some weeks ago. Since I started as coordinator of TRANSFORM my senses are open for things relating to Smart City issues. The smog of Paris could be one of them.

Hereby my reasoning.

In Paris smog occurred, due to the fact that there was hardly any wind blowing over the city for days. The remedy was to diminish car traffic, by only allowing people to enter the city if they had a certain car plate number. Even numbers one day, uneven numbers the other.

The first remarkable thing is that the smog was as bad as it was in Beijing. While I was convinced that Europe, in the last decades, implemented successful measures to reduce pollution and particles.

The second remarkable thing is that Paris is a Smart City and ranks fifth on “Co-Exists list of European Smart Cities. And, as I learned, Smart Cities strive to improve livability by working on diminishing pollution, citizens involvement, reducing particles, reducing CO₂ emissions, improve cycling, increasing public transport, being innovative, etc. It seems that Paris looks smarter when there is wind blowing the pollution away.

The third remarkable thing was that electrical vehicles were allowed to enter the city regardless of their car plate number.

WOW! That’s Smart People living in a Smart City!

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3024721/the-10-smartest-cities-in-europe

Ronald van Warmerdam
Sr project manager Projectmanagement Bureau, city of Amsterdam / lecturer TuDelft / Coordinator TRANSFORM

https://twitter.com/rvwarmerdam

State your idea and ask for data

Who are you with respect to data? In everyday life you are more likely to be an app user rather than a data user. Having fun with your smart phone, tablet or laptop, finding out what to buy and where to go on the internet. In this situation you often do not know what data is used or where the data comes from. No big deal, you would say. You use the app, have fun with it or make better decisions by using (open) data. But are you aware of how the app builder decided what your question was? And is the app you are using really suited for your specific needs?

App builders rely on available data and try to figure out what they can do with that. Fact is that, with the currently available data, this is probably not sufficient to have your specific needs satisfied. Nor will it bring out the full potential of the mountain of ideas and data we are all sitting on as a community. The obvious apps are now built for a public of millions of people, all without asking someone “what are you exactly looking for”?

So will present and future apps cover all your needs? Presumably not. For the less obvious ideas or solutions, your knowledge and initiatives are crucial. The ideas that no one will think of at first. Or ideas that are just too sophisticated to be developed by someone, or even an organization, alone. Not to speak of stakeholders that are reluctant to cooperate.

That is the point where you come into the spotlight. You, with the specific knowledge of what is necessary in your daily life. You most probably know perfectly well what problems you want to be addressed. My point is: address them!

For example. Call or mail your Health Care insurance or Hospital and ask them to make a comparison between the queue time before treatment or number of people treated (including their customer experience) for several locations in your neighborhood. It probably brings you useful information on what to expect and where to go. However no hospital has brought out the idea yet. But the data is there! But if there is no good reason to use this data, no one will ever use it.

The same goes for organizations and government. Lots of knowledge, questions and ideas are latent and thereby invisible. No one mentions them in public or asks them at the right place. This results in unanswered questions and unsolved problems. These problems will only get solved, when you speak out and address the right organization or people. Be the one who lets others think: Why on earth did no one think of this before and asked for it?

To conclude my argument: spill your ideas. Point out your problem to your organization or interest group and ask for the data that could provide you the solution to your problem. Solutions mostly start with a question and when you are a group asking the question, organizations rarely hesitate. The answer will be available soon.

Paul Juffermans
Liander Open Data Initiative

www.liander.nl/opendata

Ambidexterity. Transform post #9

According to the World English Dictionary “ambidextrous” means: “equally expert with each hand” Ambidextrous is what cities and industries need to be during transition to a low carbon society.

Let me explain.

Some weeks ago I was invited for a brainstorm session about future challenges, with Vaillant, the German based manufacturer of boilers. This multi-billion euro company is worldwide leader in its field and it is good, because of its 140 year of experience and making the best boilers money can buy. But Vailliant is smart and modern company that knows the world is inevitably changing if it comes to energy and the heating of buildings. They need to invent and build low or non-carbon solutions but, at the same time, during transition, they need to make and sell the stuff there are good in for more than a century as well: ambidexterity is needed.

For a city it’s the same. In my city, Amsterdam, about 40% of the energy needed is for living. Our houses need heat and electricity and it’s almost all fired by natural gas. If we want to change this into low or non-carbon systems, we need to adapt all of the 400.000 houses in the city. An enormous challenge, and it is not done overnight. This is why transformation will be slow and ambidexterity is needed. The city needs to keep on doing what it’s good in: delivering gas to all buildings not changed, and at the same time starts developing good solutions for the future: Ambidexterity.

Ronald van Warmerdam
Sr project manager Projectmanagement Bureau, city of Amsterdam / lecturer TuDelft / Coordinator TRANSFORM

https://twitter.com/rvwarmerdam

Der Europäische Landbote. Transform post #8

Der Europäische Landbote is the title of an essay, written by the Austrian novelist, Robert Menasse. I am impressed by this important book with a positive look on the value of the European cooperation.

The subtitle of the book is :”Die Wut der Bürger und die Friede Europas oder Warum die geschenkte Demokratie einer erkämpften weichen muss”. That is to the point, because the sentiment about Europe has changed during the last years, due to the economic crisis and populist and nationalist movements in several European counties. And I know things are always changing. So, with the upcoming EU elections, I wanted to rethink my views and read this book.

Menasse explains the history of the European Union and its importance for European welfare and peace. This is what Europe bottom line gives: Peace and Welfare. Not always, not always as good as promised, but basically.

More important, Menasse explains the value of European collaboration in solving future problems. National governments can’t solve the big problems of our times alone. Populist movements would like to think so, but transnational problems like pollution, the economic crisis, climate change, energy solutions and security, data protection and immigration are problems of supranational scale.

TRANSFORM, a joint project of six European cities and thirteen partners, works under the umbrella of the FP7 program of the EC. It is about Smart City Development and the energy transformation of cities. This is a future we’re heading. Fighting climate change and making our cities resilient, is a complex challenge that influences almost every part of our lives. The challenge is so vast that my city, Amsterdam, is not fully equipped to solve this alone. Working together with other cities, knowledge institutes and international operating companies gives us the opportunity to look beyond borders and to find solutions elsewhere; solutions on a technical level, on a political level, on the level of DATA gathering, on the level of finance, governance or on a legal level.

TRANSFORM is a group of nineteen partners looking for ways to make our cities more smart, more sustainable and more liveable. All in the spirit of the EC which Robert Menasse so well describes in his book.

I read the essay in Dutch because I could not find an English translation.

(Transform is: The cities of Vienna, Genoa, Copenhagen, Grand Lyon, Hamburg and Amsterdam, and Accenture, AIT, ARE, ARUP, DTU, ENEL, ERDF, HESPUL, HOFOR, Hamburg Energie, IBA_Hamburg, ÖIR and Siemens.)

Ronald van Warmerdam
Sr project manager Projectmanagement Bureau, city of Amsterdam / lecturer TuDelft / Coordinator TRANSFORM

https://twitter.com/rvwarmerdam

WHO NEEDS BIG DATA?

Laura Hakvoort and I were on a national meeting on Energy and Open Data, organized by the Social Economic Council. We presented our Energy Atlas and showed the way the data will be downloadable from a website. Just push the button “Open GEO-Data”. Other organisations showed their work as well.

It did not take long to conclude that – even though we live in a small country – there is an enormous amount of BIG DATA available. Not very surprising: no one has the overview and – more stunning – no one actually knows who will use the data and what for. Only the grid company LIANDER told that someone actually used the data and made an app for the mobile phone. With the app it is possible to see the actual energy use of new build houses in contrast to the expected use where is paid for.

So, this raises an interesting topic. As “Data => Knowledge” and “Knowledge = Power”, what will be the consequences of Open Data in the field of Energy? Who will be winners and who will be losers? The ones who make the data and offer them for free, are the ones paying for them. This does not necessarily mean they are benefitting themselves from opening up the data. Actually, the chance is big that they are not even influenced by them. Mostly they are government agencies and grid companies. In the case of ‘Lianders’ app: the consumer is benefitting, while the electricity producer will be facing complaints.

But does the potential beneficiary of open data actually know that somewhere on the web there is data, that can be useful, if they are processed in the right way? And will it be the effort to invest in it? Who needs the big data? And does the data make it to there?

Geert den Boogert
Urban Designer
City of Amsterdam