Increasing role of data in cities

- One of the defining components of innovation today,…is the use of data.…Our businesses and daily personal activities…are generating massive volumes of data.…Every online interaction we have,…every time we use our smartphone,…every time we buy something,…and so many other ways,…our behaviors and the attendant systems are generating data.…There's so much of it, we've come up with…the original name of big data.…

The private sector has made data a priority.…Used right, it can have considerable economic advantages.…Some call data the new oil,…because it is powering so many sources…of economic value across industries.…It can also help solve problems…and deliver helpful insights for decision makers.…Let's look at some examples.…Today, data is helping the medical community…develop better disease treatment,…by using large volumes of disease insight…to build better predictive models for individual patients.…

These techniques already help some hospitals determine…when to discharge a patient in order to lower…the possibility of readmission.…