The Smart Dubai Office (SDO) has signed an agreement at its Dubai headquarters with ICT and technology solutions company 2GIS to improve maps and navigation on its flagship Dubai Now application.

The SDO’s Director General Her Excellency Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr signed the contract on behalf of the Office, while Konstantin Sobolev, CEO of 2GIS, represented his tech firm.

His Excellency Wesam Lootah, CEO of the Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG), said: “Smart Dubai is constantly working to perfect its services and, in this case, we sought to make the all-encompassing Dubai Now more accessible and convenient for our users. This, in turn, will bring us one [...]

Smart Dubai has signed global non-profit industry association TM Forum’s Smart City Manifesto, pledging commitment to a set of principles regulating the deployment of smart platforms that manage the vast reservoir of city data.

The Manifesto stems from TM Forum’s conviction that the challenges that cities around the world face require more than technology: there needs to be a shared collaborative framework between residents, the public and private sector to drive the desired outcome of sustainability, inclusivity and targeted innovation that benefits cities and their residents.

The online form was set to be profiled at the Smart City Expo in Barcelona, Spain, where [...]

So-called “smart cities” have less pollution, safer streets, and better quality of life for citizens. But many finance officers struggle to fund the upgrades that will make their cities smart. To help, Cisco introduced the City Infrastructure Financing Acceleration Program. It is a $1 billion program aimed to make it easier, faster, and more affordable for cities around the world to fund and adopt technologies that will transform their communities.

The funding will be provided through Cisco Capital® in partnership with private equity firm Digital Alpha Advisors and pension fund investors APG Asset Management (APG) and Whitehelm Capital.

“Funding is a [...]

IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge program (@CitiesChallenge) will be sending teams of company experts to five municipalities through 2018 to provide pro bono consultative advice on issues such as affordable housing, economic development, immigration, and public safety. The five recipients – Busan, Korea; Palermo, Italy; San Isidro, Argentina; San Jose, USA; and Yamagata City, Japan — were selected from a highly competitive pool of more than 100 cities around the world that applied for a grant of consulting services from IBM.

Since 2010, IBM’s citizenship arm has made such Smarter Cities Challenge grants to more than 130 cities worldwide chosen from more than 600 [...]