IBM inaugurated a free website called City Forward, designed to improve the quality of life in 55 cities (so far) of all sizes across six continents by helping officials make sounder and more scientific decisions on city services.
The site gives policy makers, citizen-advocates and the public a new perspective on how their respective cities are performing compared with others. It serves up easy-to-use data to help them make more informed decisions that improve services and make their citizens and businesses healthier, happier, safer, more productive and prosperous.
It captures vital statistics on the performance of many specific services such as education, safety, health, transportation, land use, utilities, energy, environment, personal income, spending, population growth and employment. Any citizen, advocate, government official and academic worldwide can then gather, compare, analyze, visualize, and discuss statistical trends, giving them real-world insight that can help shape public policy—before laws are amended or passed.
People might log onto the site to compare their hometown with a noted success shown for another, comparable city, and devise strategies to replicate those successes. The software also helps people spot unforeseen patterns and relationships between city life and governmental policies.
Users can even create their own ‘explorations’—customized, visually compelling graphics and charts—that bring their academic studies to life for all to see and comment upon. Interactive discussions about the implication of a statistical trend can then be held.
City Forward will eventually incorporate top tier analytics technology to not only examine the past, but help people predict likely developments and outcomes based on trends.
Regions may also choose to use City Forward when competing for, or implementing an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant. The Smarter Cities Challenge is a competitive, IBM grant program providing $50 million worth of technology and consulting services to 100 cities worldwide over three years.