Smart city initiatives to benefit 50% of citizens across the globe: Gartner

20% of all local govt organisations will generate revenue from value-added open data through marketplaces by 2020

Nearly 50 per cent of citizens in large cities globally will benefit from smart city programmes by sharing personal data by 2019, market research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

The volume and diversity of the data generated by citizens will continue to grow in line with the proliferation of consumer devices and the internet of things (IoT), it added.

"As citizens increasingly use personal technology and social networks to organise their lives, governments and businesses are growing their investments in technology infrastructure and governance," said Anthony Mullen, Research Director, Gartner, in a statement.

Citizens as well as governments are turning to conversational platforms like virtual personal assistants and messaging bots over traditional apps and websites.

"Volume of machine-readable data generated on how citizens interact with government and their city is rapidly growing, creating a huge opportunity to develop open data portals that can increase efficiency, improve citizen experience, drive innovation and generate revenue for government organisations," the report added.

Gartner predicts that 20 per cent of all local government organisations will generate revenue from value-added open data through marketplaces by 2020.