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i-Singapore Programme
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Singapore

The Problem

Citizens are now more connected than ever. Access to computers, broadband, and mobile devices is increasing. The high speed connectivity allows citizens electronic access to any information and services anywhere and at anytime.

In addition, citizens are more participative and expressive. There are many media outlets for citizens to contribute to, and to be a part of a larger collective intelligence. As an example, citizens contribute newsworthy events through the uploading of photos and comments to journalists to report about happenings in Singapore.

Given the revolutionary changes, IDA developed a programme called “Image of Singapore” or “i-Singapore” as an effort to encourage private sector organisations to conceptualise innovative geospatial services and applications by making available public sector data for them to mash up with private and people sector data. This, in turn, would create new economic values for the businesses, citizens and government through:
a. new business opportunities;
b. enhanced lifestyle;
c. better decision-making; and
d. improved outreach for the private, people and public (3P) sectors.

i-Singapore leveraged on:
a. bringing together data (including real-time data) from the 3P sectors;
b. advancements in geospatial technologies; and
c. trend of high online social interactions and active contribution of user-generated data.

The desired end-state is a vibrant geospatial environment where, as more innovative services are developed and consumed, more data will be contributed by the 3P sectors.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The i-Singapore programme created a conducive, innovative, and competitive environment for businesses to deliver new value-added services to their customers.

Through a public call-for-proposal, more than 20 submissions were received from private sector consortia. 4 new geospatial applications with investment of close to SGD$2 million from the private sector were shortlisted for development with co-funding from IDA.

Through this development effort, it has benefited not only the private sector (industry and companies), but also the people (citizens) and the public (government) sectors.
a. Benefits to the Private Sector: The programme provided the companies with new ways of delivering B2B and B2C services using geospatial technologies, through the supply and mash-up of 3P data. Productivity of business operations has also improved. In addition, the industry has strengthened their capabilities in geospatial technologies.

b. Benefits to the People Sector: The companies delivered services to the citizens with the purpose of enhancing their lifestyles and also providing them with accurate and real-time information for informed decision-making.

c. Benefits to the Public Sector: The programme delivered geospatial innovations to showcase our nation’s vibrant geospatial ecosystem, and in turn, increased economic value for the industry. This will also enable greater demand for public sector data and fine-tuning the requirements for the Singapore Government’s Open Data initiative.

The 4 geospatial services were piloted with real users for a period of 6 months, and it has attained the following accomplishments:
a. 80,000 unique visitors;
b. 136,000 user interactions; and
c. 930 business sign-ups.

Pending on the geospatial services, they are available on different devices such as smartphones, desktops/laptops and personal navigation devices (PNDs).

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The programme was conceptualised by IDA with inputs from the private sector, such as Quantum Inventions, ShowNearby, Surround Networks, MapKing, Siemens, Navteq, Teleatlas, Microsoft, Google, ESRI, Oracle, NCS, Agis and about 10 other SMEs in the relevant industry domain.

The geospatial services were proposed and implemented by the different consortia from the private sector.

The programme team also worked with the stakeholders in the various Government Chief Information Offices (GCIO) to identify and seek the respective agencies’ approvals to use their data for the programme. The agencies that provided data included.

a. Ministry of Education (MOE) for Schools’ locations;
b. National Environment Agency (NEA) for the Locations of incinerators, parks, hawker centres and recycling bins;
c. Department of Statistics (DOS) for the Demographic data by region;
d. Ministry of Health (MOH) for the Locations of clinics and other healthcare facilities;
e. Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) for the Locations of roads and car parks, real-time traffic information and the number of available lots in car parks around CBD;
f. Singapore Land Authority (SLA) for OneMap data and development APIs; and
g. Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS) for the Locations of childcare centres.

As part of the implementation, IDA with the consortia – ShowNearby, Quantum Inventions, Surround Networks and MapKing; showcased the geospatial services to the general public through exhibitions, brochures and politicians’ speeches.

This programme was conferred the Silver award in the Singapore Public Service 2010 (PS21 ExCEL 2010) for the Best Project category and the Bronze award for the Ministry for Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) Innovation Fiesta.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The main objective of the programme was to promote the private sector development of innovative geospatial applications using 3P data mashup.

The team approached the project in a 4-step strategy.
1. Painting a Vision – With the various departments in IDA, the i-Singapore team conceptualised different possibilities of how 3P geospatial data can help businesses and citizens enhance lifestyle and make more informed decisions. One example is providing real-time information such as road accidents and parking lots availability, for motorists to plan their journeys more effectively.

2. Fostering Business Collaboration – The team facilitated collaborations with, and between, companies through networking sessions after the public call for proposals. After the applications were developed, IDA also facilitated the partnership between the 4 consortia and other companies who needed their services.

3. Bridging Business Needs – With the Singapore Land Authority, IDA engaged various government agencies to unlock public sector data required by the companies for their innovations.

4. Promoting Possibilities – The i-Singapore team engaged the companies to showcase their works at relevant fora, such as the March 2010 SLA OneMap Launch and the June 2010 Infocomm Media and Business Exchange (ImbX). The objectives were to generate awareness of 3P mashups, the exciting possibilities of geospatial technologies, and provide marketing opportunities for the i-Singapore services.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The i-Singapore programme was implemented through the public call-for-proposal process and followed the key milestones as below:

a. Feb 2009 – Issued the i-Singapore public call-for-proposal to solicit ideas and solutions from the private sector. 22 proposals were submitted by the private sector;

b. Aug 2009 – 4 geospatial applications were awarded with the letter of offer to co-fund the development of the geospatial applications as follows:

1. Business Intelligence by ShowNearby Pte Ltd – A location-based intelligence service which allows entrepreneurs to search for a new location for a business by reviewing existing competitors in the vicinity, and estimate possible demand by analysing available demographics information.

2. Dynamic Real-time Navigation by Quantum Inventions Pte Ltd – The system provides motorists with dynamic routing assistance through the integration of real-time traffic, parking availability, weather information, and roaduser-generated input on current road conditions.

3. Location Based Commerce by Surround Networks Pte Ltd – This service offers interactive and personalised services for customer interactions with their surroundings via mobile devices.

4. Neighbourhood Community Geo-tagging by MapKing (Singapore) Pte Ltd – This service is a location-based community for users, where multimedia information of neighbourhood events could be shared with the community.

c. Mar 2010 – Launched the i-Singapore geospatial applications as a pilot run and marketed the geospatial services to the businesses and consumers; and

d. Aug 2010 – Concluded the 6 months i-Singapore geospatial applications pilot run.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
During the initial months of the i-Singapore programme, the main obstacle encountered was the availability of government geospatial data for the private sector companies to develop applications for businesses and consumers. The government geospatial datasets are governed by different terms of use and policies relating to the use of data for commercial purposes.

The IDA i-Singapore team overcame the obstacles by:
1. Working with SLA to get permissions from the government agencies to use the geospatial data through the OneMap portal system; and
2. Getting buy-in from senior management of government agencies to share the geospatial data with the private sector, so as to create new business values.

As a result, significantly more geospatial data were made available to the private sector businesses and consumers.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The IDA i-Singapore team fostered the collaboration of different players in Public, Private and People (3P) sectors, comprising Data Providers from 3P sectors, Application Providers, and Service Providers.
1. Data Providers:
a. Public Sector – MCYS for childcare centres, MOE for schools’ locations, DOS for demographic data, LTA for roads, traffic and car park information, etc.
b. Private Sector – PropertyGuru for properties for sale and lease, retail shops’ sales offers, etc.
c. People Sector – Reporting car accidents, customer reviews/opinions of products and services, etc.

2. Application Providers: Dynamic real-time routing from point A to B with Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) awareness, traffic conditions and other travel related parameters

3. Service Providers: Location intelligence service to allow entrepreneurs to search for a new location for a business by reviewing existing competitors in the vicinity and estimate possible demand by analysing available demographics information.

To catalyse the collaboration of multiple parties, IDA co-funded (close to SGD$500 thousand) the companies to jumpstart the development of the innovations.

The i-Singapore projects employed the following technologies as essential to deliver the innovations.
1. Web 2.0 Technology – Capitalising on a new wave of real-time information that is continually and increasingly being shared on the internet, the programme adopted Web 2.0 as an enabler to create an online platform for the people sector to send and share information on a real-time basis.

2. Geospatial Technology – To enable high-speed dynamic navigation systems, a significant breakthrough in geospatial routing algorithms is needed. The algorithm employed for the programme’s dynamic real-time navigation systems were adapted from the works from a local research institute. The new algorithm is estimated to be between 10 to 1,000 times faster than competing solutions.

3. Location-based Technology – GPS and A-GPS technologies are standard features in most mobile devices today. The programme leverages the position location capability to deliver proximity-based value-added services to the consumers.

4. Multiple Devices – i-Singapore extended services delivery to devices beyond laptops. In order to deliver accurate and timely information to the consumers, the services and selected functionalities also run on mobile computing devices, mobile phones and PNDs.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The concept of mashing up 3P data for better services delivery can be applicable to government agencies and other private enterprises.

The possible scenarios may be:
1. Online Reporting Centres for Town Councils – Residents may request for services, comment and feedback on the environment and hygiene in the housing estates, and using geospatial technologies, residents can indicate on the map where such incidents occur specifically.

2. Dynamic Real-time Navigation for First Responders (FR) and public safety officers – In the event of emergency services required, the responding units (e.g. the Singapore Police Force and the Singapore Civil Defence Force) will have real-time information relating to their route, and the system may guide them to their destination in the shortest possible time.

3. Geo-Enabled Dispatch System for Transport Companies – Transport companies may dispatch jobs to the mobile units, and an optimal route may be suggested to the dispatch units through the Dynamic Real-Time Navigation function. As a result, productivity will be increased and resources may be optimised for the fleet managers.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The i-Singapore programme has created and demonstrated the value of using government data, mashed up with private sector and people sector data to deliver new values to businesses and consumers in the Singapore context. In addition, it has also shown the value of geospatial technologies in providing analysis more intuitively and explicitly, and delivering services more effectively and productively.

With this new way of analysis and service delivery, more of such applications can be developed and adopted by businesses in different industries. In addition, the public sector agencies can also do likewise.

As a result, it will not only achieve the objective of the i-Singapore programme but also spur a more vibrant geospatial ecosystem in Singapore. It will also help to provide the requirements of high value public sector data in the Singapore government Open Data Initiative.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Frederick Tham
Title:   Senior Manager, Land Management and Transport  
Telephone/ Fax:   +65 62111133
Institution's / Project's Website:   +65 62112205
E-mail:   frederick_tham@ida.gov.sg  
Address:   8 Temasek Boulevard, #14-00. Suntec Tower Three.
Postal Code:   038988
City:   Singapore
State/Province:  
Country:   Singapore

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