IBM Smarter Cities Report Launch (Photo credit: mastermaq)
Image via CrunchBaseA few months ago, I contacted our Director of Technology Services about the possibilities of the City of Long Beach participating in the City Forward project offered by IBM. I asked Curtis Tani to check it out about how Long Beach could participate and if it was feasible, I would bring forward an agenda item urging our city's involvement. (see link for City Forward http://cityforward.org/wps/wcm/connect/CityForward_en_US/City+Forward/Home# )Unfortunately, Curtis responded that he "spoke to the person at IBM responsible for the City Forward initiative. She indicated that Long Beach is not able to participate in the initiative because they are not adding cities at this time. Moreover, since they obtain and use data from national sources reported at the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) level, our data is included in "Los Angeles."
But Curtis did indicate that he would follow up on another potential program that could bring Long Beach a chance to receive several millions in assistance from experts on how to better engage residents and to make cities more effective. It is called Smarter Cities.
Curtis did tell me that he intends to "have further discussions with IBM about its Smarter Cities initiative to find out if there are other potential opportunities for Long Beach. I will update you should there be opportunities to participate."
The good news is that the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge would be a great opportunity for Long Beach to receive services and technology. The bad news is that we have only until September 7 to apply for 2013. Click the link to read more about Smarter Cities. https://smartercitieschallenge.org/about.html
I will let you know if the IBM contacts works out for the City.
PS Check out what IBM Smarter Cities is doing for Jacksonville.
