Final Countdown

Apologies for the break in the blog cycle and the jump to week 11 from the last update way back on week 7.  A personal saga has been my prime focus. However,  lots has happened and we are now on the final stretch of Cognicity.

Countdown

Final Countdown

Week 8 was all about Interoperability.  Plus we got to pitch to Sir George!  Week 9 we should have met the client but missed the meeting.  Week 10 we finally did meet the client.   We are now on the final countdown gunning towards the finishing line.

Cognicity has been a hugely positive deal for KnowNow.  A truly fab experience so far and you never know.  We may even win it!

Interoperability lessons learned

The teams pitched in week 8 to Sir George Iacobescu on Interoperability.  KnowNow gave a strong pitch and led a consortium that included Alchera Technology, Buzz Streets, Strawberry Tree, Solar Cloth, and MellowCabs.  With the kn-i platform in the centre managing the information flow, marrying the data creator with a data receiver.   One of the comments back to the teams was a recognition by Canary Wharf that they have a long way to go before they can embrace the benefits of Interoperability.  This is important to recognize as unless you react to fused data cum information, the cost of having this information is often a luxury that can be ill-afforded.  A reaction equals a change which equals a new approach = money saved!  If you can be smart and it saves money/improves resource allocation.  Do it!

One of the impacts of my family situation was that KnowNow was really stretched with David covering WudoWud in Hartree with the Science and Technology Facilities Council, which meant we missed a key meeting with the Canary Wharf retailing team.    However, a huge highlight of the week was a visit to L24 by Rick Robinson, Smart Cities Director from Amey.  Rick, David & I are old colleagues and share the same Smart Cities ethos.  Rick got a fantastic reception and I urge any readers out there to check out his Urban Technologist blog

@Dr_Rick

@Dr_Rick – Urban Technologist

One of the aims of the Cognicity Challenge is to give Canary Wharf Group access to the best Smart Cities Innovation and thinking.   It was a privilege to host Rick at L24.   Thank you, sir!

KnowNow also did a short video which will be played as part of the showcase event on the 16th April.   Plus we had a really good session with Gerhard from CloudCredo and the IBM Bluemix Garage team on L42.  This session I organised to make sure we had the best answer to delivering some function.  What I liked about it was that it introduced me to the goals-based assessment method.  What is the goal for that story.  Totally agile! Loved it.  What was also good we were proven to be on the right course.

Client Insight

Week 9 KnowNow finally met the Canary Wharf client.   This was a great moment to test where we were and what we would have to do to meet the pass criteria.  Knownow has two aims.  Firstly win the £50,000 1st Prize. Secondly, earn a commission for a pilot.  One of the two would be great, Both would be even better!

Key messages from the client were initially surprising, bearing in mind that they are sponsoring a smart cities competition.  Yet, what was evident was that the maturity in thinking and what a collective wants from a smart place was still in its infancy.  This again is good news for KnowNow as that is what we do.  Help clients understand how to get their smart city desires into a plan that gets them from A to B.   The beauty of the kn-i platform is that it meets so many of the Canary Wharf group deliverables.   It is up to us to shape the pitch to make sure that clients can understand the power they could harness with kn-i.   However, firstly Canary Wharf needs to think ‘Outcomes’.  What Outcome Do I want to achieve?

The Last Leg

Last Leg

Last Leg

So the last 2 weeks of the Cognicity Challenge are now upon us.   The status of the build of kn-i is pretty good.   We have the following complete:

  • kn-i client app (for smartphone)
  • Canary Wharf location-specific data in a repository
  • kn-i dashboard for Canary Wharf
kn-i - Trust - NEW INNOVATION

kn-i – Trust – NEW INNOVATION

The focus for the last week is to bring some additional interfaces into our data repository and bring the data a more real-time quality.   We will also be taking advantage I hope of an Access Point that Axial sorted out for us.  This will show off great urban wifi on Level 24.  One of the ‘hooks’ that kn-i uses to attract users.

Plus we have to finalise the paperwork and also start preparing for our pitches the following week.  What we have to show off is a demonstration of what KnowNow would do in an 8-week pilot.   For us that has to be seeing 10,000 concurrent users accessing kn-i to obtain the best real-time information about Canary Wharf.  Then demonstrate to Canary Wharf how that community can be used to track, manage, and improve outcomes for the rest of the Canary Wharf residents, workers, or visitors.

The final Cognicity Blog will be from the results day post the 16th April.  It will feature some lessons learned, highlights, and planned next steps on the KnowNow & KN-I journey.

RIP Mum.

Chris