Nokia recently announced the availability of 'The Smart City Playbook', a strategy report that documents best practices for smart cities. The playbook provides concrete guidance to city leaders on successful strategies used by other municipalities to make their cities smarter, safer and more sustainable. Commissioned by Nokia and developed by Machina Research, a leading provider of strategic market intelligence on the Internet of Things (IoT), the playbook was developed through primary research into the strategies and progress of 22 cities around the world.

Jakarta Smart City (JSC) is the most integrated public reporting and information platform in Jakarta, Indonesia's sprawling capital city with a population exceeding 9 million. JSC was initiated in December 2014, developed to create one platform that provides public information about the city - in an age where data sharing is the key to prosperity. The initiative contributed to the motion of smart cities with the use of technology and communications to achieve better public services. It aims to enhance public participation, and enable the government to utilize data, provide feedback and criticism easily. Heading JSC's IT Development is Prasetyo A. Wicaksono, a computer software specialist, who shares the initiative's vision for a more efficient, resilient and connected Jakarta.

The smart city sector continues to expand exponentially and analysts have projected that it will hit $775 billion by 2021, following the announcement that more than 600 cities are set to go 'smart' in the next few years.

Government representatives at both a national and local level are collaborating with entrepreneurs and the University of Adelaide as part of a collective effort to transform Adelaide into a 'smart city'. The initiative is part of an overall program launched by the new Australian Smart Cities Consortium.

An Australian suburb is set to undergo a dramatic transformation from a derelict town into a 21st century metropolis. Springwood, a suburb of Logan City, is located about 20km from Brisbane - and it has remained relatively untouched since the 1990's. However, the dreary suburban town has been identified by developers and environmental planners alike as the ideal location for an incredible new high-tech smart-city.

To deliver products and services that people want, businesses must learn to think like them to better understand buyer perception and bridge a relationship with their respective market. The concept of collecting data for analysis has been around for years - capturing data that streams into businesses, and then analyzing the findings to obtain valuable customer information. But only in today's rapidly evolving realm of big data analytics, we are seeing organizations capitalizing on the ability to tap into millions of consumer feelings and interactions through information provided by the likes of social media platforms.

BT announced the launch of a new project with See.Sense, an innovative cycling company from Northern Ireland, to provide sensor-enabled and connected bike lights to up to 180 cyclists across Manchester as part of CityVerve, the UK's smart city demonstrator.

Solving complex crimes in heavily populated centers requires advanced security technologies and an adequate police force. Public security agencies are now exploring Safe City platforms that use the latest security technologies to improve efficiency, high-tech crime detection, and crime prevention, and expand police services on demand.

Almost 200 Chinese and non-Chinese organizations have bandied together under the auspices of the Electronic Information Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to

Ericsson recently announced a partnership with HomeSend, a joint venture between MasterCard, eServGlobal and BICS that is changing the way money moves around the world by bridging the gap between financial institutions, non-financial entities and mobile network operators. HomeSend's partnership with Ericsson is to simplify and accelerate the adoption of international remittances via mobile across emerging markets.

Imagine the alarm clock ringing on a typical Monday morning, except this time the curtains draw themselves back, the bathroom lights switch on automatically and you smell fresh coffee brewing. The concept goes as far back as the 1934 World's Fair in Chicago where the home of the future was unveiled, since then the automated home has morphed into the smart home; it can do more than turn on our heating and our lights, it can actually think for us.

Gartner has put a damper on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to create 100 smart cities: Gartner estimates that, by 2020, fewer than 10 percent of India's smart city projects will be of a large-scale, city-wide nature.

Modi launched the Smart Cities Mission in June 2015, allocating a total of $US5 billion for the development of 100 smart cities and the rejuvenation of 500 others.

Sidewalk Labs, which Google kick started almost two years ago, may soon develop a "large-scale district" to serve as a living laboratory for urban innovation technologies, Dan Doctoroff, founder and CEO of the company, said at the Smart Cities NYC conference.

The creation of technologies to make our cities and everyday lives smarter is a growing reality - not least with emerging 5G broadband technology and the growing applications within the Internet of Things (IoT). But as these smart applications grow, both in their innovation and scope of use, so does the need to build a partnership ecosystem through which we can roll out innovations that are leading to nothing less than a digital transformation.

The prospect of smart cities is exciting; urban developments with integrated ICT and IoT solutions delivered in a secure fashion to manage a city's assets. These assets include local departments' information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, and so on. In short, smart cities are envisioned to improve quality of life by using technology to improve efficiency and services to meet residents' needs. But where there's connectivity, there will be hackers, and according to cybersecurity experts, it's only a matter of time before vulnerabilities are exposed in smart city infrastructure.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance and Microsoft Corp. have signed a global, multiyear agreement to partner on next-generation technologies to advance connected driving experiences worldwide. The companies will work together to develop next-generation connected services for cars powered by Microsoft Azure, one of the company’s intelligent cloud offerings.

Montréal, the vibrant capital city of Quebec in Canada, is renowned for its vibrant technology sector, and has the potential to become a world-class model for the Smart City concept. The French-speaking city was awarded the Intelligent Community of the Year award this year by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) at an awards ceremony held in the Africa Event Center at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio.

The Singapore Government has launched the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) to spearhead its digital and data strategy, saying it will partner public agencies, industry and citizens to transform public service delivery through the use of technologies such as data science and analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Vidsys, the leading global software technology manufacturer of Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) and Converged Security and Information Management (CSIM) software, announced that neXgen Group, a leading smart city advisory and managed services provider based in the UAE, will be offering Smart Safety & Security as a service leveraging Vidsys' CSIM multi-tenant cloud-based solution.

Nissan unveiled the latest in a series of innovations designed to bring the benefits of its Intelligent Mobility blueprint to the daily lives of customers. Following the success of the Intelligent Parking Chair earlier this year, the newly-developed ProPILOT Chair negotiates queues on behalf of its occupant, sparing them the hassle of standing in line.