A Smarter Planet Blog

As Open Cloud Standards Take Hold, Get Ready for the Next Technology Revolution

2013-05-17T13:44:50Z

Jim Smith, General Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures

By Jim Smith

Take a second to think about how much of our daily activity takes place online. And I don’t just mean at work. In 2012, $225 billion of retail purchases happened virtually. In the U.S., 55 percent of us book worldwide travel solely through the Internet. Even our personal relationships, from organizing social activities to calling our relatives across the country and overseas, are maintained on the web. The rise of the Internet Revolution has had such a profound impact on our lives that most of us can’t even imagine how the world would revolve without it.

Many of the activities we perform online – whether staying on top of the 24-hour news cycle or managing our bank accounts – are made possible by the Internet’s open architecture. The Internet Revolution was catalyzed by the establishing and adopting of open standards. Linux, Apache, PHP: these are just a few examples of standards that made it possible for us to do almost anything online.

Cloud computing is now at this same inflection point. In Silicon Valley and other hotbeds of innovation, the idea of an open-architecture cloud is becoming a reality. This will be transformational on a level equal to that of the Internet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Open cloud computing will provide the infrastructure that supports our increasingly interconnected world. And as collaboratively driven technologies such as OpenStack, Quantum, Ceph and Swift establish open standards in the cloud, the pace of technology innovation will become even more rapid. These standards will unlock boundless opportunities for startup and large companies alike, as well as the individuals they serve.

So get ready. Once this revolution ignites, things that seem futuristic today will rapidly move from theory to reality – dramatically impacting our daily lives. The open cloud will serve as the catalyst for many things, big and small, that today may seem impractical or unimaginable, but tomorrow will be pervasive.

Take, for example, the sensor in the tire of your car. Today, it tells you if the tire needs air. Tomorrow? Powered by open cloud computing, that sensor will be able to not only tell you that the tire is going flat, but will check your dealership’s inventory. The dealership may, in turn, talk to the smartphone connected to your car, checking your calendar to install a replacement. This is only the start of what’s possible once as the open cloud lifts off.

Open Standards enable essential powerful computing capabilities at entrepreneur friendly cost points, and reduce the high licensing and operating expenses that closed software and hardware solutions impose. The open cloud provides startups the reach, speed, and scale that support entrepreneurial creativity and agility. It is the canvas for developing the revolutionary mobile, social and big data technologies that will change our world.

Next generation cloud standards are breaking the chains of high-cost, difficult-to-use networking, database and storage technologies. They provide the framework for entrepreneurs to build analytic platforms that will enable vastly more effective and personalized healthcare, widespread demand response systems that will lower energy consumption, and advanced and broadly adopted video communications that will more tightly connect us with friends and family.

Startups not only use open technologies to redefine the world of what is possible, but also serve as the incubators of new technologies that enable the next wave of startups. As open standards in the cloud take hold, a tremendous stream of innovation is gathering speed. This will not only ignite future technology waves, but will transform daily lives the world over.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, cloud computing, IBM SmartCloud, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, Open Standards, OpenStack, Smarter Cloud

Add Your Voice: The Growing Ecosystem of Innovation in Africa

2013-05-16T14:52:13Z

Steve Hamm, IBM Writer

By Steve Hamm

Earlier this month, IBM opened the Nairobi IBM Innovation Center, the 41^st center of its kind worldwide and the first in East Africa. This Innovation Center is a prime example of how IBM is helping to accelerate growth in Africa from the ground up with an ecosystem of highly skilled partners. IBM is working to support the growing network of entrepreneurs, academics, developers, and students by providing technology, business resources and a hub where they can come together to work with technology and business experts from around the world

But the opening of the NairobiIBMInnovationCenter is just the beginning of IBM’s work in the emerging ecosystem of tech and business in Africa.

To keep the conversation going and hear from expert voices, we will be hosting a Smarter Friday Facebook Chat this Friday, May 17^th, from noon to 5 p.m. East Africa Time (4 a.m. – noon Eastern Standard Time).

The session, focused on East Africa’s growing technology industry and ecosystem, will be hosted by me and Julian Kyula, CEO of Nairobi-based mobile startup MoDe and IBM’s Global Entrepreneur of the Year.

We would love your perspective on emerging technology markets in East Africa, and IBM welcomes your participation in the chat at any point throughout the day. Here is how you can participate:

1. Login to Facebook.

2. “Like” the People for a Smarter Planet Facebook page.

3. Check out the page this Friday, May 17th, during the hours mentioned above, and respond to the questions posed by our chat hosts! Respond and discuss by writing in the comments section of their posts.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, IBM Research, IBM Research Africa, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, Nairobi

Hands-On Linux Training, New Power Center, to Help China Handle Big Data

2013-05-16T16:36:29Z

Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, The Linux Foundation

By Jim Zemlin

Businesses across China are adopting Linux at a brisk pace. According to the latest figures from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker (Q4 2012), Linux growth in the country outpaces the worldwide average where share has grown from 9.2 percent to 33.2 percent over the past decade.

The reason? Globally, businesses like those in China are looking more closely at Linux for new computing workloads such as Big Data, cloud and mobile. Linux is an easier and more cost effective choice than other operating systems, like Windows or iOS. Plus, it already powers most devices and key infrastructures such as smartphones, sensors, data centers, social media sites, and even automobiles.

My organization – The Linux Foundation – recently surveyed over 1,200 businesses for our 2013 Enterprise End User Report. We found that 80 percent of enterprises have long term Linux commitments, 73 percent are using Linux to run mission critical applications, and 72 percent are planning to use Linux for Big Data.

For reasons like these, it should be no surprise that IBM this week is opening its first Power Systems Linux Center in China. The company is working with Red Hat and SUSE at the center to help software developers put their applications on the Linux operating system using the latest IBM Power Systems.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the new center will be the focus on Linux skills development for clients, business partners, academics and students. The hands on training and support from RedHat, SUSE and IBM experts are certain to produce new software applications that we haven’t seen before. It can also lead to further innovation of Linux itself, which is one of the lasting benefits that will continue on through this center.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, IBM Power Systems, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, Linux, Linux Foundation

‘Smarter Care’ Drives Holistic Focus on Individuals

2013-05-16T16:30:10Z

Karen Parrish, Vice President, Industry Solutions, IBM

By Karen Parrish

This week, professionals from around the world are attending eHealthWeek to discuss trends, innovations and solutions to address the ongoing challenges in healthcare. There certainly won’t be a lack of data and discussion about cost, wellness, aging populations and dealing with chronic conditions. While there are plenty of opinions, what’s missing from this deluge of points of view is a holistic approach to meeting needs of individuals – an approach IBM calls Smarter Care.

We’ve known for decades that health and social systems are interdependent and have a critical impact on each other. Yet the complex matrix of public and private stakeholders in the health and well-being of citizens still operate largely within silos, providing separate and disparate care.

For example, does your grandmother’s home health aide understand the new therapy prescribed to her? Does the social services worker have insight into the medical issues behind her disability? Does the social security office understand how her benefits should be determined at this stage in her life? Does the pharmacist down the street realize that her doctor just gave her a sample for a new blood thinner that may interact with her other medications? While these caregivers, agencies and social services support organizations all have her well-being in mind, many times – not necessarily to any fault of their own – they lack insight and collaboration to see the bigger picture.

The promise of Smarter Care is that the health and well-being of an individual can be mapped out over a lifetime, helping him or her make informed decisions and just as importantly, aiding the healthcare and social services ecosystem to know what to do. At each state of an individual’s life, the end goal is to know when to incorporate preventive care, thereby lowering risks and everyone’s costs. The result: healthier and more prosperous citizens and communities.

So how do we get to Smarter Care? With access to unprecedented amounts of Big Data, forward- looking organizations and governments are creating new opportunities to observe, analyze and coordinate the interconnections between social determinants, clinical factors and lifestyle choices.

Take the case of Catalonia, Spain. Sixty percent of its population over 65 has chronic diseases and consumes 70 percent of the region’s healthcare resources. Through a pilot program, the Catalan Institute of Health is working closely with the Catalonian government to tackle the problem through a more coordinated chronic disease management process. The organizations are pulling together information that previously resided in more than 20 databases and many custom and commercial applications to provide a holistic view of each patient.

In the Region of Southern Denmark (RSD), 22 percent of the citizens suffer from some form of a chronic illness, including about 70,000 who suffer from heart disease. To combat this problem, RSD is launching a pilot program with IBM to facilitate real-time communication among patients, physicians, pharmacists, mental health professionals and specialists so all parties have insight into patient care plans.

Smarter Care is a new way of thinking for private and public sector organizations. It delivers on the promise of holistic and individualized care, focusing on people, not programs. This is our opportunity to help address quality, costs and outcomes, and drive individual wellness and community vitality.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, healthcare, holistic care, IBM Smarter Planet, patient care, Smarter Healthcare

Cloud Analytics: A CIO’s Lessons Learned

2013-05-16T16:26:36Z

Jeanette Horan, CIO, IBM

By Jeanette Horan

Most CIOs will tell you that one of their top priorities is helping functions like sales, marketing, and HR stay agile, collaborative and equipped to make data-driven business decisions.

Take IBM for example. The information that IBM’s many departments need to do their jobs resides among more than one petabyte of Big Data (that’s one million megabytes). That’s a lot of data and business opportunities to be analyzed. For the past few years, IBM has called upon the cloud for business analytics to boost resource flexibility, departmental collaboration and enable faster, more informed business decisions.

At IBM we’ve been able to save $25 million over the past five years. Here’s what we’ve learned…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Standardized cloud services boost resource flexibility

The cloud standardizes the way computing resources are made available and enables complex organizations to consolidate a plethora of different products into one consistent model.

IBM now uses fewer than five standardized business intelligence tools for the more than 200,000 IBMers who call upon its analytics cloud. This has not only helped IBM cut significant costs, but has also afforded us immense resource flexibility, as the company is now enabling our teams to be more productive and manage fewer computing resources.

Look to analytics for small wins to drive big victories

Whether you are IBM, a big bank or a startup, all of your company programs must contribute to the bottom line. The only way your workforce can drive revenue growth on a consistent basis is if they can make fast, informed business decision backed by solid data.

IBM’s marketing organization, for example, has cloud-based software to manage and integrate cross-company marketing campaigns (and the sales leads that follow) across digital, social, mobile and traditional marketing channels.

This approach has helped us increase direct interactions with first time customers by 32 percent. IBM has also increased customer responses to our marketing outreach tenfold while running fewer campaigns, illustrating the targeted effectiveness that data driven insight can deliver. These types of internal metrics have helped me drive new value and forge a closer relationship with our CMO.

Get more advocates by asking the right set of business questions

So how do you start? One way to increase the relevancy of the CIO office is to ask critical business questions like, What are your business objectives with this project? And, What are the key performance indicators?

For IBM, this meant identifying specific goals and obstacles. So, if a marketing manager in a local country wants to minimize “spray and pray” emails in favor of more targeted offerings, we’ve got to ensure customer profile data is up to date and readily available. By revealing the key performance indicators and starting with the end objective in mind, IBM’s technology office is now joined at the hip with its marketing leaders.

IBM can cite how a game-changing technology like cloud-based analytics is playing a key role in breaking down business silos. And for me personally, driving new value and tighter collaboration with my peers inside the business is a metric I (and any CIO) would be proud to sign up for.

Technorati Tags: Big Data analytics, CIO, cloud analytics, cloud computing, IBM smarter cloud, IBM Smarter Planet, Smarter Cloud

Inspiring Social Sustainability One Village at a Time

2013-05-16T16:21:15Z

Vince Ward, Project Officer at the Southern Housing Group

By Vince Ward

What started out as a community-based energy project on the Isle of Wight has morphed into a bona fide social movement.

Encouraged by the work of IBM Distinguished Engineer, Andy Stanford-Clark, who created a “smart” house that monitored, managed and optimized energy use, three years ago the Village of Chale created the Chale Community Project, which seeks, among other things, to reduce home energy costs by up to 50 percent. While the project has indeed raised awareness and helped residents lower costs, it has also had a serendipitous outcome – it has brought the community together.

From the very beginning of the Chale Community Project – during planning and roll-out phases – we worked on ensuring the local community was on board. Going from door to door, the team would communicate with residents about the plan of action, encourage participation and try to boost morale.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With confidence growing we continued by introducing schemes that would improve quality of life for the village. Local residents embraced the training schemes we provided on renewable technologies which not only offered new skills but opened up employment opportunities in areas previously unavailable. The schemes also benefited other parts of the island as residents could now act as ‘local green champions’ to educate other villages that were developing plans to become more sustainable.

These successful early activities encouraged the village to grab hold of the project and take it further. For example, local resident Peter Atkinson now manages a new data centre filled with computers donated from a local school that had closed. The computers are being used to train residents in core IT skills to help them use the Internet to pay bills and access online Government information. Atkinson believes that around 50 percent of the village is without Internet access in their homes, so the project has made a massive difference to people’s lives in that respect.

These activities have provided a solid foundation from which we built and expanded our sustainability project. In addition to the aforementioned, the team has:

Persuaded the local transport company to halve bus fares to encourage the use of public transportation for residents
Seen a dramatic drop in rent arrears as energy monitoring has made utility bills more manageable; some residents have reported reductions of up to 50 percent
Created an allotment area in the village, where young and old residents are brought together to reinforce a new sense of community spirit

Planning For The Future

Though we have achieved so much so far, we still have a lot of plans for the future.

For example, we are very excited to be the first village on the island working on a roll out of SMART meters that will replace electricity meters.

Additionally, we are talking to residents about launching a new electric vehicle project in the village which establishes clusters of electric vehicles (EV) to mimic a future network. If residents take part, we will offer the use of a brand new electric vehicle at a discounted rate for an 18-month trial period and install an EV charging point free of charge for each trial participant.

For us, the emphasis in all of these activities is on the community helping itself to live more sustainably. That is why we are pleased to be working with IBM to support the Business in the Community’s Start campaign called Be the Start. Start is an initiative inspired by HRH The Prince of Wales and the campaign is running throughout May with over 40 brands and organisations inspiring people to live sustainably by demonstrating how it can be rewarding and meaningful.

On 14 May IBM will bring sustainable living to life with a Chale focus on www.smartertrends.co.uk. IBM supported the installation of energy monitoring technology in the village which helped save energy and water so I’ll be hosting a Twitter chat with Andy Stanford-Clark on 14 May at 10:00AM ET to provide insights and top tips. So please come and join us by following @smartertrends or #IBMChale to find out more about the Chale Community Project.

Technorati Tags: Andy Stanford-Clark, Big Data, environmental stewardship, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, Isle of Wight, smarter analytics, Smarter Cities, Smarter Energy, sustainability

Dialing for Data: How Big Data is Transforming Telecom

2013-05-16T16:18:56Z

Robert Fox, Global Telecom, Media and Entertainment Industry Leader
IBM Global Business Services

By Robert Fox

Cut throat competitiveness has been with the telecom industry since its inception nearly 140 years ago when Alexander Graham Bell beat Elisha Gray in a race to the U.S. Patent Office to lay claim to inventing the telephone.

Fast forward to today and we see a highly complex, competitive telecom environment where voice services have taken a back seat to a growing range of data-intensive services such as streaming music, radio and video, high definition video, online gaming and social media.

Transporting all of this data through their networks is resulting in shrinking margins and network congestion for the carriers. But don’t hang up on them yet! Mindful of protecting customers’ privacy and preserving their trust, many of the carriers are annonymizing their data, or offering opt-in programs, as they start to embrace and leverage advanced analytics for competitive advantage.

A new IBM study on how telcos are using Big Data highlights this trend: 85 percent of the respondents indicate that the use of information and analytics is creating a competitive advantage for them – a 124 percent increase in the last two years.

And what types of data? That is changing too.

According to the study more than half of the telecom respondents reported using internal data as the primary source of big data within their organizations. Traditionally this has meant data extracted from phone calls, transactions, call center interactions and call detail records, like who made the call, who received it and duration of the call. But the proliferation of smartphones opens up a whole new category of transaction records, called XDRs which capture other transactions such as the purchase and download of a song or a video clip, a recharge on a prepaid account, or a mobile payment. Carriers are already using this type of information to improve customer experience, align solutions to customers’ needs and help predict the potential for up-selling or cross selling products and services.

Forty-six percent of the study’s respondents with Big Data efforts said they extract data from social media sources such as Twitter, Facebook, message boards and other online locations where consumers chat and post opinions. It enables them to quickly detect customer issues and consumer sentiments, and to increase revenues, reduce costs and protect their brand. And 45 percent of the carriers with active Big Data efforts use location data to do things like support intelligent marketing campaigns, detect fraud and improve network quality. The new trend is not only to understand who the customer is, but to have a more contextual, location-based and real-time view of them.

While telecoms’ extensive use of Big Data in itself may not be surprising, what is intriguing is how they’re increasingly using this competitive advantage to drive new revenue streams in completely different industry areas. For example:

A major U.S. network operator is combining its customer record data with sentiment analysis. They’re able to determine what type of people pass by a billboard at a particular time of day, and what products or services they might be most interested in. The carrier can then sell the information to a digital billboard operator which will be able to more accurately target its billboard ads to the demographics of the actual traffic.
In Europe we are working with Deutsche Telekom on a collaboration to help build smarter cities. By combining IBM’s expertise from thousands of smarter city engagements with Deutsche Telekom’s global M2M capabilities and advanced network connectivity we’re able to offer cities solutions designed to help them improve the quality of life for citizens, who will be able to anticipate traffic delays and bus or train arrivals when travelling, find public parking spots more easily, and gain improved access to a wide array of relevant city information and services.
On the retail front, telcos are also looking at a number of ways to develop multi-channel marketing campaigns with real-time geo location and social media analysis. In this case, a mobile subscriber could opt into a program in which his carrier can let an electronics retailer, for example, know that the subscriber has been expressing interest in a flat screen TV via his social networks. The electronics retailer could then offer targeted discounts directly to the subscriber, either via his social channels or – using geolocation services – they could text an offer or coupon directly to the subscriber’s mobile phone when he is in the vicinity of the electronics retail store.

In this new landscape the carrier oftentimes isn’t a communications channel anymore, as much as it is an information broker, or a content distributor. The telcos are tapping their treasure trove of data and morphing into whole new industry areas. They’re definitely not your mother’s telephone company anymore.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, mobile computing, smarter analytics, smarter mobile computing, telco, telecommunications

Strengthening Environmental Responsibility Throughout the Supply Chain

2013-05-16T16:13:28Z

Mike Ray, Vice President, Business Integration & Transformation, Integrated Supply Chain, IBM

By Mike Ray

It started 40 years ago, before it was trendy or being taught in business school.

Thomas J. Watson, Jr., IBM Chairman at the time, said: “We accept our responsibilities as a corporate citizen in community, national and world affairs; we serve our interests best when we serve the public interest…We want to be in the forefront of those companies which are working to make our world a better place.” That was 1969.

IBM’s values shape and define our company and permeate all of our relationships; between our employees and our shareholders, our clients, the communities where our employees live and work, and among our network of suppliers.

We know that IBM’s sizable purchasing power is a unique resource that we must manage responsibly. We have a responsibility to hold ourselves, and our suppliers, to high standards of behavior including taking environmental programs beyond compliance with applicable laws and regulations. It entails a strong commitment to work with suppliers to encourage good practices and develop sound global markets.

Our work in the area of environmental management within the supply chain goes back to that time. In 1972, for example, IBM instituted environmental evaluation of suppliers providing hazardous waste management services. In 1980, we expanded environmental evaluations to cover certain production-related suppliers. Ten years later IBM expanded environmental evaluations to cover suppliers who provided product-recycling and disposal services.

In 1998, IBM began encouraging suppliers to align their environmental management system with the ISO 14001 standard and pursue registration. Then in 2002, we published the first IBM Corporate Responsibility Report and two years later issued IBM’s Supplier Conduct Principles.

In 2008, IBM joined the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Supply Chain program (the date of the program’s inception) and in 2010, we established management system requirements for suppliers regarding corporate responsibility and environmental management, including specific requirements for Greenhouse Gas emissions management.

I personally had the chance recently to join the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at its annual 2013 Climate Leaders Award. There, IBM was honored for its environmental leadership, including its supply chain management that advances sustainability.

And on Thursday, May 9, I was a guest speaker the U.S. EPA Center for Corporate Climate Leadership webinar where I shared our best practices for climate leadership in supply chain management. I was pleased that more than 150 representatives from corporations, government agencies and non-profits attended to learn more.

As we move forward in the 21^st century, I’m encouraged by an ever-expanding awareness of the social and environmental responsibility incumbent upon by corporations like ours. It’s a responsibility that IBM with the support of our 20,000+ suppliers in 90 countries has been committed to for many years, and will be for many to come.

Technorati Tags: environment, environmental protection, environmental stewardship, EPA, green, IBM Smarter Planet, integrated supply chain, Smarter Planet, smarter supply chain, sustainability

Prepping College Kids for a Career in Cybersecurity

2013-05-14T12:41:27Z

Laurie Williams, Professor, Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University

By Laurie Williams

According to a recent IBM Tech Trends report, both educators and students view security as extremely important. In fact, 56 percent of students and 44 percent of educators ranked it as one of the top three issues the IT industry will face over the next two years. In addition, a UK government report said that it may take 20 years to address the current cybersecurity skills gaps.

To help try and change that, North CarolinaStateUniversity is partnering with IBM to help better prepare the next generation of engineers with a secure-by-design focus and curriculum.

Why dedicate so many resources to building cybersecurity skills? The world operates with interconnected systems and as technology progresses these systems will only proliferate. The linchpin to success in securing these systems is in the design stage – not at the end of the process.

At North Carolina State University, my students are focusing on healthcare systems, specifically building and analyzing electronic medical record applications. The students leverage IBM AppScan to test these applications for potential vulnerabilities. Critical cyber systems must inspire trust and confidence. They must predictably protect the integrity of data and resources as well as the privacy of data owners, and perform securely, safely, and reliably.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to collaborate with IBM researchers to identify common themes and pinpoint some of the major challenges academic institutions are facing in relation to building next generation cybersecurity skills. Four common trends were identified:

1.) Information security is increasing in relevance. No longer just a highly-specialized area, information security impacts people every day. It has become personal in an interconnected world that’s reliant upon smart phones, social media, e-commerce and cloud services. In other words, information security impacts us every day.

2.) Increasing attention and demand from students, private industry and government agencies. More and more industries, from banks and financial services companies to aerospace and defense firms, as well as healthcare providers, are seeking graduates with specialized security skills. Training an expert cybersecurity workforce is now a national priority for many countries.

3.) The field of cybersecurity has significantly expanded with more domains to secure and more ways to attack. This means more to teach and to learn. Today, attacks are extremely hard to detect; attackers are stealthier and more evasive. In response, academic programs are expanding beyond traditional areas like cryptography and countering sniffing and denial of service attacks. Cybersecurity education now covers new areas like cyber-physical attacks, the protection of heterogeneous systems and real-time security data analysis.

4.) Academic programs are evolving from teaching purely the principles and theory of security to focus more on the practices. This is largely driven by the demands of industry and governments, as well as by students who want to focus more on real-world problems and practical challenges.

While these may be the four common themes we identified, in reality it will take all of us to create a more secure future.

______________________________________

Laurie Williams is a Professor in the Computer Science Department of the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Her research focuses on software security particularly in relation to healthcare IT; agile software development practices and processes; software reliability, software testing and analysis; open source software development; and broadening participation and increasing retention in computer science. Laurie has more than 170 refereed publications.

Laurie received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Utah, her MBA from Duke University Fuqua School of Business, and her BS in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University. She worked for IBM Corporation for nine years in Raleigh, NC and Research Triangle Park, NC before returning to academia.

How Accra, Ghana, is Taking Steps to Become an African Success Story

2013-05-14T21:47:49Z

Alfred Vanderpuije, Mayor of Accra, Ghana

By Alfred Vanderpuije

This week at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, leaders will come together to discuss Africa’s future. One of the three focus themes is the importance of ‘Strategic Infrastructure’ as a foundation for the continent’s growth. As Mayor of Accra and Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, I would say that there are few areas as crucial for infrastructure investment as cities.

Buoyed by an emerging oil and gas industry and a rapidly growing consumer class, Ghana’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the world. Investors are flocking to the country’s capital Accra to take advantage of new business opportunities and become part of this success story. Mastercard recently identified Accra as one of Africa’s top cities in terms of economic growth potential over the next few years. Local and foreign firms are also driving a number of urban development opportunities such as Ghana Cyber City, King City and Appolonia City which aim to set up modern, high-tech hubs within and around Accra.

I welcome these initiatives, however, at the top of my agenda is Accra itself and the transformation of its existing systems and services for the benefit of its citizens and businesses. The truth is we cannot look to Accra’s future opportunities, without looking into the challenges of today.

Accra’s existing infrastructure is being put under increasing strain by an influx of new residents – the city’s population has expanded by over 1 million people – a 35 percent increase in the past decade alone. As we cannot, and will not, put a wall around the city to restrict the arrival of new residents, we can expect this trend to continue.

We must therefore act today to ensure that the city’s systems – from transportation, to water, sanitation, energy, healthcare, public safety, education and administration – are able to accommodate and cope with this influx of new residents.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For instance, today nearly all transportation in Accra is by road, but 70 percent of the vehicles carry only 30 percent of the people – a trend which causes significant traffic jams during peak hours.

Accra also suffers from perennial flooding problems and in 2011 there was extensive loss of life due to flash floods within the city. These problems highlight the extensive modernization required to our sanitation and storm water systems.

At the heart of many of these problems is our inability to finance projects to maintain and transform Accra. The reality is, my Metropolitan Assembly struggles to raise enough revenue for city services due to out-of-date revenue collection systems, tax evasion and fraud.

The government of Ghana and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly are already taking steps to address these challenges. Recently, Ghana’s President, John Dramani Mahama, launched the National Urban Policy Framework and Action Plan to promote the sustainable development of Ghanaian cities and towns. In Accra, we have put in place the Millennium Cities Initiative to raise the standard of living and we are beginning the transformation of many of the city’s systems. The Accra Sanitary Sewer and Storm Water Drainage Alleviation Project, supported by the U.S. government, also stands to improve waste water treatment for the city’s four million residents.

We recognize we cannot do this work alone. We need to tap into expertise and experience from across public and private sectors and civil society, within Ghana and around the world. We also recognize that the infrastructure we are currently installing has to be designed to withstand the challenges of tomorrow. We must therefore turn to the latest technologies to ensure that our systems are optimized and smarter.

IBM recently offered its expertise to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to help tackle some of the city’s most intractable problems. A team of IBM experts travelled to Accra last year to work alongside our own. Just last week the company presented me with a report which outlines some of the key challenges and possible solutions in areas such as transportation, city services and energy. I also met with Dr. Kamal Bhattacharya, Director of IBM Research-Africa who presented some interesting new solutions specially designed for Africa.

We see great opportunity for technology in Accra. For example, in the area of revenue collection, we see potential to use mobile payment systems to enable citizens and small businesses to pay for their taxes and city services electronically. Once payment systems are digitized, it will become a lot easier for my administration to identify cases of tax underpayment or fraud.

In the area of transportation, we could also turn to mobile phone data to help us to understand how Accra’s residents move around the city and how we could use that data to enhance our transportation systems to avoid traffic bottlenecks and traffic jams. We have a number of mobile service providers active in Ghana who could act as partners for such work.

In the area of water and sanitation, we could use technology to help monitor and manage our drainage systems and predict possible cases of flooding.

Technology holds great potential in Accra. However, we also recognize that what makes a city safer and smarter are its people. We need to forge a better relationship with our citizens and increase their sense of responsibility for their city. Accra’s residents need to take an interest in caring for the city. Nearly every one of our residents has a mobile phone – this creates the perfect channel for reporting problems and threats to the city’s infrastructure.

Across Africa, cities are growing quickly – economically and demographically. In Accra we need to embrace technologies and show leadership to ensure that our city is not left behind.

Technorati Tags: africa, Big Data, Ghana, IBM Smarter Planet, mobile computing, smarter analytics, Smarter Transportation, WEF 2013