The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is aiming to promote more cooperation between government bodies in connected places initiatives.
Liam O’Brien, head of secure connected places at DSIT, outlined its thinking at last week’s Smart Places and Smart Communities conference staged by UKAuthority.
He said this is an important element of the next steps for the development of connected places, which he defined as using internet of things (IoT) technologies to collect data to improve the operation of places, covering transport, buildings, utilities, environment, infrastructure and public services.
“We have a few things in the works,” O’Brien said. “One will be improving cross-Whitehall cooperation, making sure all government departments are on the same page when it comes to connected places and deploying guidance.
“We want to assess the skills of connected place managers, so want to develop some training programmes. We’re not quite sure what that will look like just yet, but hopefully not just e-learning but something more engaging such as going to a simulation of a connected place, having a go at managing it and seeing where your knowledge gaps are and developing them from there.
“And the final one is developing resources on AI for use in connected places.”
Straightforward explanations
He also described efforts to help local authorities and other organisations explain connected places initiatives to the public. DSIT has prepared an infographic and video with straightforward explanations, a guide to public consultation documents and a collection of playbooks.
The latter covers: Connected Places Cyber Security Principles; Conducting a STRIDE based threat analysis; Governance in a box; and Procurement and supply chain management. There is also a guide to incident management reporting.
O’Brien added that DSIT is working on a central repository of all resources.
He said: “There are lots of resources out there already on managing certain aspects of connected places, such as smart EV charging or CCTV cameras that use facial recognition, but they are not all in one place and it can be hard to find them. So we have created a DSIT central repository you can find on GOV.UK.”
Catch up on Liam O'Brien's presentation below:
