State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Kansas City, Mo., Maps Data Related to Digital Inclusion

Government Technology: As Kansas City, Mo., CIO Bob Bennett is fond of pointing out, his community has the largest smart city footprint in North America, complete with a collection of smart streetcars that collect data for public-facing websites — data that gets as specific as the location of open parking spots. “We will be the smartest city on Earth within five years,” Bennett has said. There’s no exact metric for gauging if Kansas City is, in fact, the smartest city on our continent at present, but it’s doubtful that many other U.S. cities would want to call Bennett out on the legitimacy of his claim. Kansas City’s smart city infrastructure is strong, strong and advancing rapidly. Now, as it continues to move forward, city officials have added a new data visualization map aimed at keeping track of digital inclusion efforts as well, so that all populations within the city will benefit from the technological growth of its infrastructure.

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