The San Jose Smart City Vision has the stated goal of making San José America’s most innovative city by 2020. The city is looking a three factors to achieve this goal: core values, key goals, and a focused execution strategy.
Core Values
Promoting a transparent, data-driven culture of innovation and continuous improvement will require the integration of digital tools into the daily work of the City. Focusing on customer service, protecting the privacy of residents, providing secure IT platforms, ensuring inclusion, are also important values. The plan also emphasizes the need to effectively partner with the private sector, universities, foundations, and other organizations.
Key Goals
The primary key goal is the creation of a safe city. San Jose seeks to broaden the use of data analytics to improve safety and to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities. The utilization of a “smart infrastructure” and digital platforms in emergency and disaster response is expected to improve preparedness, response, recovery, and resiliency.
Another key goal is the creation of an inclusive city that ensures all residents, businesses, and organizations can participate in and benefit from the innovation in the region. Initiatives towards this goal include broadening access to basic digital infrastructure, building residents’ digital skills, better using digital tools with regards to housing, and supporting economic development.
Being a user-friendly city is another key goal. The city plans to create digital platforms to improve transparency, enable residents to actively engage in the governance of their city, and increase the city’s responsiveness to its increasing complexity and growth.
San Jose plans to be a sustainable city by enabling the deployment of energy and water management technology in buildings, deploying sensor technology on city streets and infrastructures, and improving energy and water efficiency.
The achievement of the goal of being a demonstration city will see San Jose as a living lab, with a fully developed transportation innovation zone, an “Internet of Things” platform employing transit vehicles and building infrastructure, and supporting start-ups and innovators.
