What is Smart Kingston?

Smart Kingston is the project to develop secure, culture-enhancing and green solutions that work for Kingston.

The Smart Kingston strategy sets the vision and roadmap for how we, as a City, are going to develop and implement innovative ideas and technologies with the aim of improving the lives of Kingston's residents. Becoming a Smart City is critical to the future economic growth of Kingston and region. It will empower our businesses and help ensure the social well-being of our citizens.

A people-centred Approach

Smart Kingston activities focus on making the lives of residents better by taking a people-centric approach. This is not just about implementing more and better technology – it is about enriching the lives of our residents by providing relevant and intuitive solutions that will serve them in everyday life.

Goals and Vision

The goals set out in the Smart Kingston strategy  will support the 2019-2022 strategic priorities set by council:

• Increase housing affordability
• Improve walkability, roads and transportation
• Demonstrate leadership on climate action
• Strengthen economic development opportunities
• Foster healthy citizens and vibrant spaces

Smart Kingston Strategy Deliverables

The Intelligent Community Forum(ICF) defined critical success factors for the creation of Intelligent Communities or Smart Cities based on the "Virtuous Circle Model." In addition to the elements identified by the ICF, the Smart City Strategy includes:

• Guiding principles – These ensure outcomes meet the expectations of all stakeholders including metrics for gauging suitability of models/options to be considered and recommended and reaching consensus on achievement of guiding principles with stakeholders.
• Community collaboration model – This supports collaboration amongst stakeholders as they curate the development and implementation of the Smart Kingston Strategy.
• Stakeholder consultations – Stakeholders will be interviewed regarding their views on what Kingston needs to do to become an Intelligent Community and to create inventory and catalogue of current and planned smart services, products, and applications.. 
• A review of best-practice Smart Cities including profiles, deployments, costs and benefits for each city.  

The Virtuous Circle Model

In a study funded by the Province of Ontario, the Intelligent Community Forum defined critical success factors for the creation of Intelligent Communities – Smart Cities – based on the Virtuous Circle Model. This model was developed to reverse the "vicious circle" many communities have been trapped in due to globalization and digitization.

The Virtual Circle indicators outlined below serve to measure our success and act as a map for Kingston's journey to become ever smarter.

The six indicators of an intelligent community are as follows:

1. Broadband infrastructure – a Smart City starts with broadband infrastructure. So, the first step is an assessment of the current state of broadband digital infrastructure in Kingston including mapping of user and provider networks, recording service-provider infrastructure deployment plans, and developing a technical roadmap for the City of Kingston. 
2. Knowledge workforce – broadband infrastructure connects people who develop new products, services and applications.  So, the second step is an assessment of current state of the knowledge workforce in Kingston and recording of policies, programs and plans the City of Kingston has for the near future to attract, retain, and educate knowledge workers.
3. Innovation Culture – new products, services and applications drive innovation.  So, step three is an assessment of innovative organizations, products, services, and applications today and in the pipeline for tomorrow.
4. Digital Equality – the adoption of disruptive digital technologies leaves certain populations behind.  Thus, step four is a review of policies and programs that City of Kingston, libraries, educational institutions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have in place to provide the support and tools for technically, socially, and economically disadvantaged citizens to assist them in gaining the opportunity to participate in the digital economy.  
5. Sustainable ecosystem – a sustainable economy and society are based on an ecosystem of persons, places and things in an interconnected web.  Step five, therefore, is an assessment of sustainability of the ecosystem of organizations, workforce, technology, and citizens necessary to foster an innovative digital economy.
6. Community advocacy – a Smart City effectively communicates with external and internal audiences to build awareness and encourage participation to make the ecosystem increasingly more resilient and beneficial to all.  The sixth and last step, is an assessment of community policies and programs that promote being an Intelligent Community internally for the purposes of increasing the awareness and participation rate of organizations and citizens in the digital economy, and externally for the purposes of attracting skilled workers, investment capital and startup and relocation of new businesses.

A commitment to privacy and digital security

The City is committed to ensuring the highest possible standard of privacy and digital security for residents by following the privacy by design data management and security framework.

This approach goes a step farther than regulatory compliance by ensuring that information technology systems, business practices and physical network infrastructure are built with privacy and security in mind.

Privacy by design principles include:

• Any measures will be proactive, not reactive and preventative, not remedial
• Privacy will be approached as the "default setting"
• Privacy will be embedded in design
• Full functionality will not always require a trade-off (working toward positive-sum outcomes)
• Privacy will be considered at every step in the process lifecycle
• Privacy and security will be transparently implemented
• Privacy and security is user-centric