Prague launches Golemio – the largest urban data project in the Czech Republic

The municipal enterprise Operátor ICT, charged by Prague to introduce innovation into the life of the city, has launched the largest ever municipal data project in the Czech Republic. The Golemio data platform will serve as a single information point where important data about the operation of the metropolis will be collected and evaluated. The city has never had such a unified environment, and it will contribute towards more effective decision-making by the city leadership, municipal organisations and city districts,
and will also serve the public.

“Golemio, the data platform for Prague Capital City, is a key project in the Smart Prague concept. It is of utmost strategic importance because it will interconnect all the other areas and is something like a brain for all the other innovation projects in our city. Today, decision-making based on data analysis is vital for the city. This is why I decided to put together a team of great people who will focus on this issue in the metropolis and who will also have the tools they need, as is usual abroad,” said Mayor Adriana Krnáčová, explaining the importance of the project.

What data does Golemio contain?

A development team has been working on the Golemio project, ceremonially launched today, since December 2017. At the current time, around 30 data sets are integrated into the data platform and their numbers will gradually increase. The data will come from various sources and areas, and contain for example information about transportation, including about parking, public transport and cycling. Another part is made up of data about the environment, waste management and sensor data.

“We will acquire data for Golemio in cooperation with a series of partners, in particular municipal companies like the Prague Institute of Planning and Development, ROPID, and Technical Administration of Roadways. We are also pushing ahead with communication with the private sector, for example with bikesharing and carsharing companies. Analytical work has also been carried out by universities, e.g. Czech Technical University in Prague,“ noted Michal Fišer, Operátor ICT General Manager.

“Our goal is to use data to interconnect the public sector, academia, the private sector and citizens, and in this our data platform is unique,” Fišer added.

Among the most interesting data the data platform currently works with are real-time positions of suburban integrated transport vehicles, data about the movements of cyclists, real-time data from parking machines that can help in anticipating occupancy levels in paid zones, sensor data about the transit of vehicles on key roads, sensor data about air quality, and more. Today, such data are already extensively used for example by the My Prague application. There is, however, enormous potential for increased use.

 

Open data on the Golemio website

Data are available to the public at the portal www.golemio.cz. Here there is data in an open format, allowing further work with them. The website offers developers access to the source code and recommendations as to how to process the data. For those with no ambitions to develop other applications and services using the data, but who are interested in the data purely for their informational value, the website offers very clear visualisations in the form of graphs.

“We want the data to be as useful as possible and for anybody to be able to advise us or come up with a new idea. For this we need to be as open as possible and to create a community around the municipal data. Hence, in addition to publishing and visualising data, we will for example also be opening up the source code, and holding meetings open to anybody interested in Prague data where we will be showing how we work. All our outputs are clearly and comprehensibly presented on Golemio,” said Prague’s Mayor Adriana Krnáčová, describing the new portal.

“This is far from being a mere data repository or about technology – the project is mainly about people, about the creation of internal know-how that the city will retain and that is independent of suppliers. We will therefore be gradually creating a team of data specialists, developers and consultants,” explains Vladimír Zadina, Director of Smart Prague.

In addition to the municipal companies already mentioned, Prague city districts will also use the data platform for example if they are planning to implement a Smart City project relating to transport, parking, waste optimisation, safety etc.

“We will provide the know-how during the preparation of projects so that the individual city districts will not have to acquire unnecessary outputs, human resources, data analyses and real-time data visualisation, and so they have sufficient and properly arranged access to the data. This remains a very frequent mistake in award procedures. If an organisation has properly defined access to raw data, we can provide them with reporting services to meet their needs. They can connect their own sensors to our data platform and, through our interface, monitor the data and thus take the necessary decisions. At the same time they can discuss with us various possibilities for working with the data, their nature, and ideas to improve their quality,” Kotmel added.