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BRISBANE, the Gold Coast and Springfield, in conjunction with the Open Data Institute Queensland (ODIQ) and QUT, have become Australia's first region to join the Open and AgileSmart Cities (OASC) network.
The OASC is an international initiative which stems from the Danish-led Connected Smart Cities Network, designed to establish a mechanism through which smart cities can engage in long-term collaboration.
The OASC initiative, which now includes more than 60 cities across the world, will harness freely-available, open source software, standard APIs and data models, as well as shared experiences.
QUT's Professor Marcus Foth, initiator of the Australian contingent and founder of the Urban Informatics Research Lab, says the OASC network will enhance the experiences of residents, businesses, visitors and community groups.
"We are thrilled to be collaborating with Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Springfield, and the ODI Queensland, to establish the first Australian node of the Open and Agile Smart Cities network," he says.
"The OASC principles strongly align with our lab's research findings; that smart cities require open standards to ensure interoperability and competitiveness by avoiding vendor lock-in.
"The OASC will enable us to benchmark performance and easy sharing of urban innovation."
ODIQ CEO Maree Adshead says the joint region now has an opportunity to create a globally competitive environment.
"This collaboration by cities of the South East corner of Queensland demonstrates the region's leadership in harnessing the vast social, economic and environmental opportunity that open data represents," she says.
"We are delighted to play our part in co-ordinating extraordinary outcomes for our region through this initiative."
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