Km4City Sii-Mobility: FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions


km4city logo

What is Km4City, how it has been created?

The story of Km4City solutions is accessible on its main technical detail page at http://www.disit.org/km4city The story includes answers to several questions, while demostrations are accessible from Http://www.km4city.org . You can pose other questions send an email to km4city@disit.org

Which kind of data are you managing and aggregating?
Km4City solutions is integrating Open Data, private data, real time data coming from different domains: mobility and transport, energy, health, culture, tourism, people flow, traffic flow, weather, environment, etc. All these data are aggregated into a unified semantic model and ontology to make them interoperable. The ontology is called Km4City (knowledge model for the city). You can see which data are from the Http://www.km4city.org and from http://www.km4city.org/backofficedevelopment.html For example in the case of Tuscany, hundreds of different data sets have been aggregated, and area exploited by real time big data algorithms providing evidence, deductions and results into the city dashboard: http://www.km4city.org/controlroomtools.html  Present real time data come from several kind of IOT sensors: traffic flow, meteo forectast, temperature, energy from recharge station, light, parking status, intelligent transport system, vehicular kits (car, bike and bus), mobile app, wifi sensors, bluetooth sensors, energy status, etc. Many other are going to be added in short time as: bluetooth, pollution, rain, snow, etc. In addition to these data, predictive models are applied and produce prediction on traffic flow, people flow, parking slots, etc. The tool is accessible for download from GitHub DISIT: http://www.disit.org/6763
 
Which is the business model of Km4City?
Km4City is a suite comprised of several modules and tools which can be installed independently and integrated in other solutions as well. Almost all tools are open source on GitHub DISIT and/or on http://www.disit.org , except for a very few of them which are not mandatory for setting up a smart city (namely: Twitter Vigilance, Risk Assessment tool). If you would like to use the tools starting from  the Open Source Version, installing them and using them, you do not need to contact us. Just doing it! We are happy to help you also in that case up to a resonable amount of effort. Please note that you can access for free at our tutorial and training days.  The business model of Km4City is grounded on services (consultancy, training) we can help new cities and industries in setting up a new installation of the solution in other city, or providing support for customization, study and development of additional components for the Km4City suite (only the delta effort will be requested). Km4City solutions proposed have been totally developed by DISIT lab. Km4City is directly managed by DISIT lab without intermediary please contact us.

How is possible to start a trial of Km4City and Sii-mobility solutions without installing them?
The usage of  the Sii-mobility Km4City tools without reinstalling them on your premise and thus directly using  them for trial is also possible. This possibility is regulated by the so-called Affiliation Agreement. The Agreement has to be signed and give you access to more technical information and allows you to use the Smart City API, test and trial them without need of understanding fully the tecnical details and reinstalling the platform in your premise.
The Affiliation Agreement is available in ITALIAN and ENGLISH languages. On the contrary, if you would like to use the tools starting from  the Open Source Version, installing them and using them, you do not need to contact us. Just doing it! We are happy to help you also in that case up to a resonable amount of effort. Please note that you can access for free at our tutorial and training days.
 
How much it cost for a city to put in place, and how much time to get evidence?
As described in the above FAQ the tools are open source. So that the city may decide to take them, install them, follow our tutorials, and proceed in providing services, developing a specific APP or using our APP (exploiting well documented Smart City API). The total cost for a medium size city of 300.000 inhabitants with about 25 multidomain data sets to be integrated, and that have to rent hardware and personnel may cost in the range of about 110-160 Keuro for the first year and less than 50-80 Keuro for the successive (including maintenance of hardware, continuous improvement and feeding of new data). These costs are for the City and not for paying the solution that is free of charge. All data sets can be added by the city personnel by implementing ETL processes, may be starting from a large library of them we provide and from tutorial and documentation. The estimation of costs is based on our experience and include city personnel costs, and all the other costs as hardware, energy, etc. The cost is almost linear with the datasets, may depend on the number of services activated and on the number of users accessing to the front end servers (smart city API for mobile Apps, control room dashboard for panels, data analytics processes to be daily updated, etc.); Smaller city is going to have smaller costs as well. Almost in all cases, in less than 5 months from the starts you can get the first results in the hands of the city users. A different approach would see the city taking from DISIT Lab some service for installing and putting in place the solution or part of it, thus obtaining the same results at lower costs and in shorter time, and at the same time, asking to perform training to city personnel, then pass to self-maintenance in the successive phase. Other intermediated mixed approaches could be viable as well. The tool is accessible for download from GitHub DISIT: http://www.disit.org/6763
 
How much is scalable and replicable?
Km4city solutions is scalable and replicable. It is natively scalable for the number of data sets and data sources. We started from Florence city and scaled to whole Tuscany, passing from data addressing activity of 300.000 inhabitants in Florence to 3.5 Million in the whole Tuscany. Another factor of scalability is the number of data sources, number of sensors/devices IOT, etc. The solution has been designed to have a scalable distributed Data Warehouse solution capable to collect any kind of data and data flows in input and for producing actions. A final factor of scalability is the number of final users you are planning to have attached with some device using the on Smart City API, for example using their mobile APP and on the web Dashboard and panels.  As a summary, for your initial start you just need to install a SINGLE virtual machine with Service Map tool that also integrate Smart City API and support for your mobile app. The tool is accessible for download from GitHub DISIT: and on http://www.disit.org/6763
 
Are you ready for providing customizations?
DISIT Lab can develop for you customized version of the Km4City tools. Customizations can be on: data acquisition processes, data analytics algorithms, visual analytics tools, dashboard and widgets, Smart City API, and mobile Apps. We can also provide simple training and consultancy on how to exploit, install and use the Km4City open source solutions. Moreover, DISIT Lab with its skill can develop for you algorithms and solutions to be integrated into your solutions and products, and may partecipate with you into research and innovation projects, EC projects, etc., by contributing in different manners.

Is the Km4City solution locked with some vendor tecnology or tool?
Km4City solution is fully free from any agreement with vendors of technologies and tools. All Km4City tools are grounded on open source license. Therefore, Km4City as Sii-mobility are fully free of charge solutions. The tools are accessible for download from GitHub DISIT: http://www.disit.org/6763 including mobile Applications.

How it is possible to contribute with data to see them on Km4City services?
Data can be provided to Km4City in any format. please send an email to km4city@disit.org
if you need to sign some agreement for providing your data to DISIT and Km4City and thus to see your data integrated in the services, please be sure that your data access and usage conditions will be satisfied/addressed. A version of the data access agreement is accessible to be used as a starting point to finalize the agreement. In alternative, we can sign your data provider agreement as well.

How the data on Km4City can be used ?
Licensing constraints for Smart City API on ServiceMap.km4city.org:
Video and Tutorial http://www.disit.org/7044
The Smart City API are now almost open, while the massive download of data is not allowed and strictly forbidden, as well as the download of data to store them in server on your premise.
The data obtained from the Smart City API cannot be used for commercial purpose, direct or indirect. So that, they cannot be used to sell them, neither to set up a service to make money in any way, as a service or renting.
The Smart City API can be freely used to set up free of charge web and mobile app, without storing data on local storage.
These conditions will be valid until a new communication will be performed and are retroactively valid since the creation of the service in the 2015.

If you are interested in getting answers to your questions please send an email to km4city@disit.org