The Smarter Hobart Challenge – Bus Shelter and Integrated Digital Interface Design Competition – is a creative challenge for the community to bring forward their most innovative and exciting ideas to help transform Hobart’s public transport services, and help make waiting for the bus reliable, safe, accessible and socially connective.
Learn more and view the submissions on the Smarter Hobart Challenge page.
The Social Inclusion Dashboards are an initiative from the Connected Community Program within the Connected Hobart Smart Cities Action Plan(PDF, 3MB) .
They are a set of over 30 dashboards developed from key primary state and federal data sources which can be utilised to make informed policy decisions at both the Local and State Government level.
The collective dashboards are a valuable data service used for internal policy and strategy development to benefit the wider community.
To view the dashboards please visit our Social Inclusion Dashboards page.
On 11 September 2019, the Council endorsed the Connected Hobart Smart City Framework and Action Plan.
The Connected Hobart program is the product of over a year of research and engagement with stakeholders and community members, and it is fully aligned with Hobart: A community vision for our island capital.
Linking to the community vision, Connected Hobart has eight key programs associated with each of the vision’s pillars.
| Community vision pillar |
Connected Hobart program |
| Sense of Place |
Connected Places |
| Community Inclusion, Participation and Belonging |
Connected Communities and Safety |
| Creativity and Culture |
ConnectedCreativity |
| City Economies |
Connected Visitors and Industry |
| Movement and Connectivity |
Connected Transport |
| Natural Environment |
Connected Environment |
| Built Environment |
Connected Infrastructure |
| Governance and Civic Involvement |
Connected Government |
The Connected Hobart Smart Cities Framework provides a roadmap for how the City of Hobart uses technology and data to improve liveability, manage resources, drive economic activity, foster innovation and better service the community’s needs.
Connected Hobart Smart City Framework and Action Plan
The framework provides definitions for the important components of a Smart City and the intent behind each significant decision made.
The action plan is operational, the framework in practice – including over 50 specific projects.
Read the Connected Hobart Smart City Framework(PDF, 4MB)
Read the Connected Hobart Smart City Action Plan(PDF, 3MB)
Our Goal
The City of Hobart doesn’t just aim to keep pace with other major cities; we want to be Australia’s most economically, social and environmentally connected community by 2030.
Government decision-making is often reactive. With additional data produced by Smart Cities infrastructure, decisions can become forward-thinking.
Integrated data from numerous programs across the City will be leveraged as an impetus for change, including upgrades to city systems.
Improving control over key City assets and systems such as street lighting, energy networks and communications sources, bus stops and city signage, will make it easier to help everyone’s Hobart experiences become safer and more enjoyable.
The City of Hobart understands the most advanced solutions are not always the best solutions. By this understanding, the City can embrace the integration of old and new approaches when making decisions about its technological advancement.
The Action Plan
Connected Hobart has eight program areas, which are described in the Connected Hobart Smart City Action Plan. Each program has a set of projects that were included based on community or stakeholder feedback, and/or to align with other Council strategies and partnerships.
Connected Hobart will bring these programs together by developing a web-based portal that will provide centralised data for general information, quantifiable metrics and key insights drawn from across all City of Hobart strategies.
The portal will provide a single window for Council to transparently communicate key data to the community while protecting personal data and preserving individual privacy.
To communicate more strongly with the community at-large, the City of Hobart’s City Innovation Division will establish a Connected Hobart innovation blog to maintain open dialogue with the City, state, national and international community (including our international relationships) in relation to the global Smart Cities Movement. The blog will act as a vehicle for delivery of more detailed posts about action plan initiatives.
Community Engagement Background and Next Steps
The City of Hobart’s City Innovation Division commenced work on exploring a Smart Cities strategy in March 2018. Conversations began with dozens of major industry and community stakeholders, including community members, all tiers of government, universities, businesses and other councils across Tasmania. This engagement helped to build the framework and action plan that define the range of innovative service programs best suited to our unique city.
City of Hobart employees engaged in several workshops and public forums, which included contributing Smart Cities ideas and outlining what community ideas and questions Connected Hobart should address.
The draft documents were posted for public comment on Your Say Hobart, supported by a public forum introducing the draft framework and action plan and encouraging feedback.
The feedback received was highly valuable and had a major influence on the Connected Hobart program, including supporting the development of ideas about technology, choosing projects for the action plan, and guiding how the program should be implemented.
On 9 September 2019, the Council voted to adopt the Connected Hobart Smart Cities Framework and Action Plan.
The action plan includes initiatives, like Connected Hobart Engagement (CGV05) and Connected Hobart Communications (CGV06) to support continued work with Hobart community members and stakeholders as the program develops and is implemented.
Frequently Asked Questions
Connected Hobart is the product of over a year of research and engagement with stakeholders and community members. It represents our response to the Smart City movement and is fully aligned with Hobart: A community vision for our island capital.
A Smart City is a simple way of describing the way in which complex modern communities work together through the use of new technologies to increase operational efficiency, share information with the public and improve both the quality of government services and community welfare.
Our Connected Hobart Smart City is one that combines human ingenuity with technological innovations to enhance quality of life for all.
Connected Hobart will provide new ways of involving community members in the development of services and experiences within their city. It will also help the City of Hobart consider new ways of dealing with big strategic challenges like city growth, innovation, social inclusion and safety.
The transformation of Hobart’s transportation, energy and communications systems is not a quick process, but a lengthy one. The Connected Hobart Smart City Framework acts as a blueprint for improvements to the way the City of Hobart operates and how it shares information and resources with its partners and other custodians in a mutually beneficial way.
Managing for growth. Managing digital and social divides. Protecting the City’s best qualities as we build a future city. Building safer and inclusive communities. Sharing open data and learning through innovation. Facing the ethical tensions that surface with new technologies.
A Smart City uses a range of technologies to connect, protect, and enhance the lives of residents and non-residents alike.
Internet-connected sensors, cameras, social media and other inputs can act as a nervous system to provide city operators, public and private stakeholders, and community members with constant feedback, helping the City decide how and when to take action across a range of operational and service experiences.
In the past, the City of Hobart focused on general-purpose assets, like street lights, building management systems, or infrastructure upgrades, in isolation from each other. Now, digitally-enabled infrastructure means the City can integrate multiple work areas into one information system.
This type of approach allows cities to move from making demand-driven investments towards to using data to inform how funding is allocated across entire precincts, suburbs and communities of interest.
The Smart Cities movement provides many exciting opportunities for trying out inventive new solutions to community issues, from environmental sustainability to public safety. But developments in technology are leading to all kinds of questions about how our lives and communities might change as a result.
What about individual privacy? How will we make sure data is secure? Will Smart Cities lead to 24/7 surveillance? What about mental health and quality of life if people are online all the time? Will Hobart still be Hobart with new technologies embedded in the city?
Community members from a variety of backgrounds raised these types of questions – tensions that cities, communities and individuals all over the world are grappling with.
The City of Hobart is on this journey along with Hobart community members and stakeholders. The Connected Hobart Smart City Framework includes a set of principles that guide the City’s Smart Cities work, outlining a human-centred and place-based approach.
The Connected Hobart Smart City Action Plan includes several actions in response to community values about quality of life, for example:
- Technology Free Zones Trial (CPL03) – places in the city free of Wi-Fi and other signals, where people can disconnect from digital technologies.
- Universal or Assistive Technologies Trials (CCS07) – prioritising technologies that include and connect all people, including those with disabilities, improving accessibility in the city.
- Data for Creativity Trials (CCR03) – returning data produced by the community to the community and creative practitioners (with privacy protections in place), for their use as a ‘raw material’ for creative and other projects that encourage data stewardship.
- Connected Ethics (CGV07) – a research and policy initiative to work with community members and stakeholders on identifying and responding to key Smart Cities ethical issues, ensuring the Connected Hobart principles are applied in all we do.
A core aim of the Connected Hobart is to support collaboration.
Ideas can come from anywhere – from within the city government itself or directly from partners and the community – and we welcome them all.
The first thing to do is look at the Connected Hobart Smart City Framework and the Connected Hobart Smart City Action Plan.
Then look at the framework checkpoints to help you think through your idea.
If you have an idea that you would like to put forward, or if you’d like to participate in an existing project, get in touch with the Connected Hobart team at connectedhobart@hobartcity.com.au
The team will be able to guide you on how your idea might fit with the Connected Hobart program.