LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- The city of Los Angeles is giving academic researchers hyper-speed gigabit access to its vast open data in an effort to boost development of smart city practices and technologies.
As part of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), California schools, colleges and universities will now be able to access the city’s data at 100 gigabit-per-second (Gbps).
Los Angeles Open Data offers economy, public safety, environment, city services, public asset and transportation data. Los Angeles GeoHub provides location-based datasets and allows researchers to visualize and combine data layers into maps.
According to CENIC, putting the city’s open data on California Research and Education Network (CalREN)--accessed by 10,000+ member institutions and available to more than 20 million users--will give researchers 1,000 times faster access.
“When we open our data to the public, and commit ourselves to making it more easily available, we create limitless potential for innovation, discovery and new understanding,” said L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Technology academics are jazzed to have L.A.'s data on CalREN so they can create real urban innovations for cities around the world.
“Such a progressive move, the city of L.A. and CENIC joining networks to unleash the power of open data and the innovation of the entire educational community! You name it - smart energy, smart water, smart manufacturing, transportation, health, parking, safety, etc. all make up the smart city,” said Jim Davis, vice provost, information technology and chief academic technology officer at UCLA.
Imagine the new insights, ideas and opportunities drawing on the creativity of the city and our students, teachers, scholars and researchers throughout the state,” said Davis.
“This will lead to advances in urban living that have not been possible before,” said William Clebsch, associate vice president for IT Services at Stanford University and chair of the CENIC Board of Directors.
