So what about using data to decide economic, education, transport and energy policies? For now, only a few more forward-thinking local governments around the world have started to introduce data in this process. Examples such as Los Angeles, New York, London and Amsterdam have even created specific management positions to accelerate the transformation towards smart data-driven cities. We decided to take a look at who these digital leaders are, highlighting six pioneers who are trailblazing in the world of data in politics:
1. Lilian Coral, LA Chief Data Officer
LA was one the of first cities to create the Chief Data Officer position, which was first held by Abhi Nemani. A year later he was substituted by Lilian P. Coral, “native of Colombia, product of Los Angeles”, she claims on her Twitter account. LA has taken the initiative of being shaped by data due to the persistence of Mayor Garcetti. In LA’s Open Data website you can check out some of the amazing projects they have been working on such as releasing the Mayor’s budget on the Open Data App, the LA Sustainability Plan or even a visualization of where Angelenos are getting married.
2. Andrew Collinge, Assistant Director of Intelligence at GLA
London doesn’t fall behind when it comes to data transformation. More than 8.6 million people live in London, most of whom suffer very long commutes from their homes to work. Andrew Collinge is responsible for dealing with such a problematic issue (not just using Big Data for travel amongst other problems), as the assistant director of intelligence at the Greater London Authority (GLA). Under his leadership, London has opened up access to its data and many initiatives have been created to make London a smarter more efficient city, with initiatives such as Citymapper.
3. Ger Baron, Chief Technology Officer for the City of Amsterdam
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Ger Baron, Chief Technology Officer for the City of Amsterdam, is a key player when it comes to using data to evolve and optimize our cities. He
has been involved in the smart city movement since 2007, when he started the
Amsterdam Smart City project. This innovation platform in Amsterdam brings
startups together to help the government develop new ideas for the city. The
Netherlands holds the 7th position globally in the Open Data Barometer, which measures how advanced Open Data initiatives are in different countries.
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Figure 3: Ger Baron has led the transformations of Amsterdam into one of the most connected cities in the world. |
4. Amen Ra Mashariki, Chief Analytics Officer for New York
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Figure 4: Amen Ra Mashariki has the mission to open all of New York’s data by 2018. |
5. Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015
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Figure 5: Martin O’Malley was the Mayor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015. |
6. Claude Migisha K and Stephen Abbott Pugh
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Moving away from Europe and the US, we also decided to highlight two true change makers from Africa.
According to the Global Open Data Index, Rwanda climbed 30 places in the 2015 ranking, now sitting in 44th place. Claude Migisha and Stephen Abbott Pugh have been true catalysts in Rwanda’s data-driven revolution. This pair founded Tumenye, a tech organization building tools for open
data in Rwanda. They have been working on a project to build an access information website collaborating to help Rwanda accelerate its digital transformation and become the most data-driven country in Africa.
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Figure 6: Rwanda is the most data-driven country in Africa |
Here at LUCA, we believe that Big Data and Artificial Intelligence will play a pivotal role in the way we run our cities and countries – and political innovators such as the individuals above are crucial to accelerate the journey towards data-driven solutions, evangelizing and exploiting the great value of data in a time where too many are starting to doubt it.
The understanding of the big data is always creating a problem for any programmer or developer or anyone else who is going to be making any project for their company. The solution of handling this data problem is easy when you going to approach any data scientist who can made this big data easy to understand and short for you. activewizards