Smart cities need to overcome data integration challenges

Smart cities can't reach the stage of informationization Although smart cities invest a lot, people in the industry still think that smart cities are still in the conceptual stage. An industry insider who won a lot of smart city construction projects said that smart cities are still in the conceptual stage. They are just new bottles of old wine. Each local government commission office uses the concept to ask for money to do some traditional IT projects. Did not understand.

Which reflects the major issues of smart city construction. First, the demand for traditional IT projects of local governments still exists. Traditional informationization has not yet been completed. In this case, it is still too early to talk about wisdom. Dr. Wang Tao, deputy director of the Center for Consulting and Technology and Evaluation of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, believes that local governments at all levels do not need to think more about the wisdom of cities, because pushing intellectualization is a false proposition. At present, some cities in China have not yet reached informatization. He asked in reverse: "How can we talk about intelligence and intelligence without information? The information system has not been built. How can we build the next smart system on the information system?"

The second is the lack of funds for smart city projects. At present, the government does not have the so-called “Smart City” special funds. Zhao Ying said that although the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development launched smart city pilot cities, it did not provide corresponding financial support, and the financial resources of various local governments were already listed in the annual government budget. Each of them had already decided what to do. The smart city's budget is not included. “We have met many city leaders and there are several types. One is to tell us directly that there is no money, and the other is to allocate a small amount of money, but we want to do more. So to a large extent, the smart city project is It's financially constrained," she said.

Another problem is that data integration caused by isolated information islands and inconsistent standards is very difficult. Zhao Ying mentioned Tongfang Software's goal of being a smart city, hoping to build a city operation center and provide a picture of the city's running situation. But in the past few years, because the data is in the hands of various departments and cannot be integrated, it can only draw a picture of the operation status of a certain area of ​​the city. Some of the reasons for this are that the data between various departments is not open, and there are also business irregularities and data inconsistencies.

Data integration is the core proposition Some smart city projects are now superficial, often mistaken for system integration projects, and it is true that some IT contractors are doing smart cities with systems integration thinking. According to Zhao Ying, the difference between system integration and smart city projects lies in whether the data is processed well and integrated. The essence of a smart city is to integrate data so that data assists decision making and makes cities smarter. If the system integration is like building a house, then the work it accomplishes is to put the framework up. The blood that can flow in the framework and brings wisdom and decision-making value is data. Only by integrating the data can you see the value of the data.

So, how to integrate data? Zhao Ying said that in this field there are some business specifications, not just technical interface specifications. The service interface specification will involve business metadata, resource coding (one item, one code), etc. It is to accurately identify each service data and can have a unified caliber at the time of integration. Otherwise, it is difficult to achieve caliber harmonization. The above specification of technology is relatively easy because there are many protocols and open standards that can be followed.

In order to promote data integration, Zhao Ying believes that relevant government departments can be called upon to do several things. First, from the legislative perspective, legal data should be used to ensure the rational use of data. Second, from the departmental mechanism, a management system and regulations for data sharing and exchange should be established. Third, establish a data transaction mechanism. Because everyone is aware of the importance of data and knows that it is a resource, it can be used to generate value for this resource. Zhao Ying said that he hopes that some people will study and discuss this matter, even if it is to collect service fees on a monthly or yearly basis, or in what way to encourage everyone to share and exchange, and promote the integration of data in various departments. Fourth, use the necessary administrative tools to promote data integration. Because various mechanisms cannot promote sharing in some necessary areas and necessary areas, we must adopt administrative means to solve data integration.

The government sees smart cities not simply from the current situation. The construction of smart cities in China is mainly driven by the government. But if some governments do not have sufficient budgets or enough money to invest in smart city projects, do companies still fail to do these projects? What should companies do? Tongfang Software is actively looking for new business models and operating models for smart city projects.

Zhao Ying mentioned an interesting statement: Today's local governments look at smart city projects, not to see what the project is built on, but to see what value it can bring and whether it can promote sustainable urban development. Therefore, Tongfang also began to consider the use of technology and capital to operate local parks, revolve around the transformation and upgrading of local industries, support local enterprises, and speed up personnel training and employment.

Regarding the issue of how domestic manufacturers compete with foreign giants with smart cities as their strengths, Zhao Ying believes that Tongfang Software is currently leading and even superior to foreign companies, both theoretically and on the basis of integration with the government. The management of urban operating signs is not covered by other foreign companies before. What they did before was the wisdom of each piece, not the overall wisdom.

In her opinion, the current Chinese government has a high degree of trust in domestic companies, and the same side has developed a corresponding application system for smart cities. Personalized and customized software is more suitable for the individual needs of different local governments.