Glasgow is one of four European cities and twenty other cities around the globe to be working 'smart' courtesy of IBM. The US city Boston opted for Urban Mechanics.  IBM is in just that sort of race and its grants (approximate value equivalent to as much as $400,000) provides global community of winning cities with access to IBM's top experts  analysing and showing ways that these can become even better place in which to live, work and play. 

The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge is a competitive grant program in which IBM is awarding a total of $50m of technology and services to 100 municipalities worldwide over the next three years.

"Teams of specially selected IBM experts will provide city leaders analysis and recommendations to support successful growth, better delivery of municipal services, more citizen engagement, and improved efficiency" explained Kildare in his talk.  "Cities that made the strongest cases for participating in the Smarter Cities Challenge, were those selected by IBM.  

"During the engagements, IBM technical experts, researchers and consultants immerse themselves in local issues, offering a range of options and recommending next-steps. "

The city topics
Issues examined are healthcare, safety, education, social services, transportation, communication, energy,  utilities, sustainability, and budget management. 

IBM Smarter Cities Challenge winners 2011
Antofagasta, Chile
Boulder, CO
Bucharest, Romania
Chengdu, China
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Delhi, India
Edmonton, Canada
Eindhoven, Netherlands
Glasgow, UK
Guadalajara, Mexico
Helsinki, Finland
Jakarta, Indonesia 
Milwaukee, WI
New Orleans,
LA
Newark, NJ
Nice, France
Philadelphia, PA
Providence, RI
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sapporo, Japan
St. Louis, MO
Syracuse, NY
Townsville, Australia
Tshwane/Pretoria

"We selected these cities because of their commitmentto the use of data to make better decisions, and for their desire to explore and act on smarter solutions to the their most pressing concerns," says (below) Stanley S. Litow, IBM VP Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, and President of IBM's Foundation.

"The cities we picked are eager to implement programs that tangibly improve the quality of life in their areas, and to create roadmaps for other cities to follow. The stakes have never been greater but we're excited at the prospect of helping cities tackle the most pressing challenges of our time."  

Cities competing for the  Smarter Cities Challenge grants described areas of focus in applications as diverse as its residents. One city wanted IBM to study the feasibility of delivering school coursework to mobile devices. Another desired to study how analytics might determine the wisest use of land, relative to its plans for developing a planned community. Others want to improve public transportation, and  link public safety explicitly with school education.

Data: collect, share, analyse & act 
Consistent theme in these projects is the collection, sharing, analysis and action from data generated by urban interactions and transactions. Such information can include everything from school test scores, smartphone adoption, crime statistics, foot and vehicle traffic, to tax revenue and library usage.  

Correlations are then made that link seemingly unrelated aspects of urban life to develop innovative and cost effective strategies and address persistent challenges. 

IBM's consultants and technology specialists will help municipalities analyse and prioritise their needs, review strengths and weaknesses, and learn from the successful strategies used by other cities worldwide. 

After studying the role that intelligent technology might play in uniting and advancing different aspects of city life, IBM then outlines a range of concrete strategies designed to help make cities healthier, safer, smarter, prosperous, and attractive to current and prospective residents and businesses.
 
During Smarter Cities Challenge engagements, IBM will help recipients become comfortable with a free Web site called City Forward. The site site gives policy makers, citizen-advocates and the public a new perspective on how their respective cities are performing compared with others.

It serves up easy-to-use data to help them make more informed decisions that improve services and make their citizens and businesses healthier, happier, safer, more productive and prosperous. 
 
It captures vital statistics on the performance of many specific services such as education, safety, health, transportation, land use, utilities, energy, environment, personal income, spending, population growth and employment. 

Users can then gather, compare, analyse, visualise and discuss statistical trends, giving them real-world insight that can help shape public policy. 

The need for better city management has never been greater. In 2008, according to the United Nations, more than half the world's human population began living in cities for the first time in the world's history.  

Smarter Cities Challenge draws upon IBM's intrinsic technological savvy, but also upon the field experience accumulated by IBM over the last three years from the company's ongoing pro bono Corporate Service Corps grant program. 

Corporate Service Corps has deployed 100s of teams teams from the top 1,000 IBM employees from around the world with skills in technology, scientific research, marketing, finance, and business development. These work with local government, non profit civic groups, and small business to develop blueprints that intersect business, technology, and society.