Meeting minutes
Discussion
<kaz> workshop page
<kaz> workshop report
<kaz> proposed IG Charter
kaz: introduces charter and workshop
… charter has been updated to reflect discussion during workshop
… updated use cases and scope
<kaz> Survey on the existing technologies and standards for Smart Cities (Technology Landscape)
<kaz> Best Practices on what technologies, e.g., WoT, Automotive, Geospatial, VR/AR, Speech and Semantic Web, to be applied for what kind of Smart Cities applications, e.g., improved accessibility, visitor guidance and energy management.
<kaz> Use cases and requirements for Smart Cities
kaz: proposed main purpose is survey of existing technologies and standards
eric: reviewed this draft, was thinking scope should include "identification of stakeholders"
kaz: would like to give background, then summarize first session, then we can discuss improvements
kaz: (reviews first session minutes)
kaz: eric already mentioned outreach
mccool: another point that showed up in the last session was making sure services were accessible, i.e. to people without computers
kaz: based on discussion in first session we are also looking at updating the charter e.g. to list stakeholder
mccool: I believe I also mentioned coordination with smart building WGs and SDOs
kaz: (reviews existing list of SDOs and groups in charter)
eric: looking at the country list?
kaz: not actually a list of countries, but orgs; ASEAN, etc.
eric: ASEAN is southeast asia; do want to communicate importance of Japan, Taiwan, etc.
… proposing that that area is where we should initially focus, as they are most open to coordinated effort
mccool: also noticed the "Smart Cities Council" is not there; but agree that asian cities are a good starting point
kaz: right; but to be clear, I just wanted to review the last session and the current status
kaz: although regarding asian cities, I live in Japan and can work with the Japanese government
… and we already have relationship with Singapore
kaz: would also like to point out discussion of accessibility issues
… including cognitive issues
kaz: would like to ask participants here for further comments
dersen: nordic chapter, sweden
… involved in a test for climate neutral smart city project
… e.g. making parking, heating, etc. more efficient
… very clear connection between climate crisis and smart cities
… connection should be made in the charter
<kirkwood> sorry I had to jump off session, I am in NYC and v involved w/ gov’t in creation of our digital technology environment. unfortnunately needed to drop. woked for environmental protection & on cognitive accessibility task force
dersen: have partner cities throughout the world
<kirkwood> I am in New York, NY, USA
dersen: also TMforum
<kirkwood> yes
dersen: EU project is called "Viable Cities"
… I also noticed that Larsen joined, has been working on similar projects
larsen: let me give a short introduction
… I am with RISE research
<Zakim> clauspopp, you wanted to react to daniel
larsen: working with cities on how to build up capacity to collect and share data
… working with 18 cities, including all the large ones
… started with a minimum technical framework: data, platform, services
… APIs, data models
… also principles around openness
… really difficult part is not technical, but organizational; for example, who owns the data
… if supplier owns it, they can't share it, have to worry about classification, etc.
… then all the problems with finance, business models
… regarding W3C, sounds interesting what you are doing
kaz: main purpose of this group is asking stakeholders for input and defining pain points and requirements
… what are the gaps?
mccool: strongly agree that sustainability belongs somewhere in the charter
kirk: in US, NYC
… one issue right now is making sure we have high-speed access to poorer areas
… has become especially important with COVID-19
… have replaced most of our phone booths with access points
… important to get kids online so they can participate in classes
… distributed (and had to track) thousands of ipads, as well
… also worked in Taipei for a while; currently involved in Accessibility WG
… cognitive important both for neuroatypical and aging communities
kaz: for student access, not only hardware, but all the applications and all the data
… probably hard for existing teachers to access
kirk: should also mention we also do real-time translation into 7 languages
… using Microsoft
mccool: priorities are also important
kaz: to kirkwood; do you have priorities?
kirk: equal access to all despite financial differences
… especially for teaching, but also environmental area
… also worked on GIS for water supply, for example
kaz: Mohammad, did you have any opinions here?
mccool: what are the factors that affect accessibility?
<kirkwood> Look forward to the potential to continue discussion, sorry needed to drop.
<Zakim> Rob, you wanted to react to kirkwood
<Zakim> McCool, you wanted to react to Rob
<kirkwood> I will follow in IRC.
smith: simple answer is interoperability; website that follows standards is better than app with proprate
… apis, models, open; browser, widely available, not tied to specific devices
… also business models
eric: interesting issue about availability of data
… but how do we resolve the difference in policies around privacy in different countries
… some are more restrictive, some governments require access to all data
… also supplier ownership, also information can be inferred from what seems like innocus data
smith: there have been some examples where roads in military bases were revealed by exersise tracking data
larsen: are you assuming there will be some access control
mccool: I'd like to point out the Solid CG work, who are looking at mechanisms to share private data in a controlled way
… but are two issues, technical and policy
larsen: who owns data is an issue; right now EULAs tend to state this
… sometimes in ways that are a little troubling
eric: excellent point, and makes it clear why we need to get cities involved so we can understand the legal ramifications
kaz: also mentioned these kinds of issues during workshop; have included some points about data governance
… and the point of the group is not to generate standards itself, but to gather pain points, requirements, and priorities
larsen: is it part of the IG to understand what other SDOs are doing?
kaz: yes, we have a list of other SDOs we need to collaborate with and review
eric: one of the things we struggled with 2-3 years ago; we were looking at IoT ecosystem, which is a total mess
… lack of coordinate and common language is a big problem in IoT, and will hold back Smart Cities too
… we need to figure out the focus that W3C can make the most impact
… we *don't* want to duplicate work already done elsewhere
<RobSmith> Spatial Data on the Web recently published a guidance document on location data privacy: https://
kaz: W3C WoT is working in the area of IoT; Smart Cities arose out of some use cases in IoT but is a much broader topic
smith: spatial data on the web, now a WG
… interested in location side of this
… we published a Note on location data
… and its privacy considerations, e.g. where you are and where you aren't
Wrap-up
mccool: next steps?
kaz: we should at least update draft charter based on discussions in these breakouts
… and we need to reach out to other smart citie stakeholders
<kaz> https://
mccool: I suggest we create some issues in github around some of the issues raised, eg. sustainability
kaz: now we are using the w3c/wot report for now; create issues and label them with "Smart Cities"
eric: did anyone attend the sustainability breakout? there is a separate conversation whether this should be a horizontal requirement
… current formal objects to DIDs is bitcoin mining is very expensive; blockchain is expensive
… consumption of electricity is not the same as carbon emission; and there are other things like video that also consume a lot of power
… if we include sustainability, those issues will come up
mccool: although I think sustainability would have some up anyway, e.g. distributed energy management
kaz: we should clarify our expectations
<kaz> <ashimura@w3.org>
kaz: so please give your comments on a github issue, or if you would prefer send me a private email
kaz: unfortunately, time to close thanks to all the attendees!
<kaz> [adjourned]