In the previous publication "Terrassa intelligent city and Sentilo platform" we presented what is the Sentilo Platform, its objectives and its use. But how does it evolve and improve the platform?
If we remember a little, Sentilo is an open source platform of sensors and actuators created to manage a Smart City or an Internet of Things Network (IoT) through the exploitation of the information captured by the sensors distributed throughout the city, that is, through the exploitation of the information generated by the city.
The program is constantly evolving and there is a strong community involved, which collaborates in the constant improvement and expansion of the platform's functionalities. The Terrassa City Council is part of the Community Executive and Management Committee that supports the project, together with the Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona Provincial Council and two private companies: Cellnex and Opentrends (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Sponsors of the Sentilo platform. Source: Sentilo Home.
One of the features that will be in the next version of Sentilo has been proposed by the Terrassa City Council. Until now, the viewfinder used by the platform to show cartography of the city is provided by Google. At this point, we can think that is a great idea and that it surely will work, but there’s a drawback: although until now the use of these maps was free, soon the payment of a fee will be required according to the use.
The philosophy of the Sentilo Platform is to create a free and open-source service without having to depend on restrictive payment functionalities. For this reason, the current mapping viewer will be changed to the one provided by OpenStreetMap, also known as OSM.
OpenStreetMap is a collaborative worldwide project where free, editable and open-source maps are created. In many territories, geographic information is not free because public administration does not consider it a basic land management infrastructure.
We, on the other hand, consider that knowing territory is essential, not only to be able to distribute services efficiently, effectively, sustainably and transparently, but also to improve its management and quality of life of the citizenship.
For this reason, we believe that the integration of OpenStreetMap in Sentilo will bring us, and in any municipality that uses the Sentilo platform, more free and open information.
Bibliographic references:
- AJUNTAMENT DE TERRASSA (2020). Sentilo Terrassa. Plataforma d’interconnexió de sensors i actuadors de Terrassa [online]. Retrieved from: http://sentilo.terrassa.cat/sentilo-catalog-web/
- OPEN STREET MAP (2020). Bienvenido a OpenStreetMap [online]. Retrieved from: https://www.openstreetmap.org
- SENTILO (2020). Sentilo Home [online]. Retrieved from: https://www.sentilo.io/wordpress/
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