IDA launches initiatives to support Smart Nation vision The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) on Tuesday announced two key initiatives to boost the country’s data ecosystem. IDA Executive Deputy Chairman Steve Leonard at the Smart Nation: Data Works's opening address. (Photo: Loke Kok Fai) SINGAPORE: Data and analytics will play a key role in Singapore’s vision of a Smart Nation, and to boost the country’s data ecosystem, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has announced two key initiatives. These include the Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) pilot that seeks to address the challenge of discovering datasets in the private sector. Data providers from all industries can participate in the pilot to increase the visibility of their datasets and reach out to new customers. Data providers will also be given an opportunity to understand and check the relative quality of their datasets through a set of Data Quality Metrics. To help kick-start the pilot, IDA has signed a Memorandum of Intent with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide cloud computing services to the first 25 data providers when they sign on to the pilot via AWS. AWS will offer usage credits worth US$3,000 (S$3,800) to each of the 25 participating data providers in hosting their dataset registries and/or their datasets. Announcing the initiatives on Tuesday (Oct 28), IDA Executive Deputy Chairman Steve Leonard said that using telemetrics to measure changes and conditions around the country will help Singapore tackle urban challenges. For example, better energy management systems can be created, and mobility apps such as taxi booking apps can better connect users with service providers. Speaking at the launch of the Smart Nation: Data Works conference, Mr Leonard also touched on the need for anonymity. He stressed that the aim was to enable individuals and organisations to be connected only if they wished to, but added that useful, anonymous data can also result from collecting large numbers of data points. Singapore cannot become a Smart Nation without businesses, individuals and stakeholders collaborating, contributing and sharing data, he added. CNA