SMART LEAD E RSH IP
We believe that digital inclusion
can break down barriers and unlock
potential we never knew existed.
One of the core components of
Kitchener’s reputation is that we are
progressive. If that is true, we think
that in a smart community access
to things like training or a computer
should be as easy as visiting a park
in your neighbourhood. This idea
is becoming even more relevant as
more consumer services move online.
Digital Kitchener is about more
than tech, it’s about building a legacy.
Independently, each of these focus
areas can and will help us build a
smarter community. Intertwined,
however, all four areas will truly
leverage Kitchener’s strengths to
build a dynamic city of the future.
Each of Digital Kitchener’s four
themes is tackled through annual
work plans, or what we affection-
ately refer to as our annual brave
plan. In 2017 Kitchener identified
six action areas, two of which will
be game changers for Canadian
municipalities: the creation of a civic
innovation lab and the establishment
of a city-wide Internet of Things (IoT)
network.
It’s well known that companies
from around North America come
to Kitchener to establish innova-
tion outposts. Organizations such
as General Motors, TD Bank and
Thomson Reuters have all ben-
efited from establishing labs at
Communitech — North America’s
largest tech incubator — and more
recently, public sector agencies such
as the LCBO have established labs
here as well. In Kitchener, we think
the best way to become a leader in
civic innovation is to use this same
proven model to our advantage.
Approved in February 2017,
Kitchener’s innovation lab at the
Communitech hub will allow staff
from all departments to bring com-
plex service challenges out of city
hall and into a more disruptive envi-
ronment. Here, potential solutions
using the IoT will be investigated,
prototypes built and pilot projects
completed. The lab itself will not
result in full-scale implementation of
solutions, but will seek to prove the
overall value of an idea and develop
new business cases. Once the lab
is fully operational, there could be
several projects on the go in various
stages of the development cycle.
More recently, Toronto — Canada’s
largest city — also announced the
establishment of a municipal lab to
tackle civic challenges of its own. This
creates another exciting opportunity
for the Toronto-Waterloo Region
innovation corridor to demonstrate
its capacity for transformation to the
rest of the world.
While we believe Kitchener’s civic
innovation lab will fundamentally
change the way we think about our
service challenges, the IoT solutions
developed from it will provide little
utility without a network to operate
from in the real world. That is why
in 2017, Kitchener will also establish
a city-wide narrowband mesh net-
work exclusively for the Internet of
Things. One of the first of its kind in
Canada, this initiative will transform
MUNICIPAL MONITOR
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