Nº 01 JULY 2016
The T - Shirt which controls our health
From now on, Nivi enters the market of Health new technologies
Start Up › Start App Quantic Research Nivi’s new IT brain
Smart City The English wording is part of the everyday language. But what does it mean?
Nยบ 01 JULY 2016
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Why Mirabilis
Luigi Nicosia After so many years I take back the idea of going to press with a newsletter of Nivi, intended not only to our clients, but to a wider public, interested in the topics covered by our group to promote exchanges of ideas and a reciprocal enrichment. Nivi has been able to evolve over the years both regarding its products and the markets, substantially differing from the original core business, but always keeping a deep connection between the different areas and therefore with the different kinds of clients. In recent years we have been known through Nivi for the notification of reports to foreigners or for the debt collection on behalf of many Italian highway societies. Today we can see this experience as a piece of the Smart City World, where we want to give our contribution to the mobility management. With the product T&C Solution, developed by our Roman company Quantic Research we face this challenge through a unique solution worldwide, whose recognitions start coming even overseas. With this technology we face the most difficult challenges not just in the smart city world, but also in the logistic, security and telemedicine world. Our approach take us closer to many new emergent realities, result of the cleverness and of the Italian spirit, of which we make use to offer always cutting-edge solutions on the market. The name “Mirabilis”, which we gave to our newsletter, intends to be a reference to the “admirable” kind of covered topics, purposed solutions, continuous challenges. With Mirabilis we won’t talk just about us; we will cover each topic that may represent a new field of confrontation and a future field of action. Finally, a special thank you to all our collaborators, without whose commitment in the daily work within the group’s societies, this new goal would not be possible.
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Index Nivi News The Group.................................................................................................................................... 6 Quantic Research Nivi’s new IT brain Quantic in Palazzo Colonna............................................................................................................. 7 EMO European Municipality Outsourcing............................................................................................... 8 - 9 The T- Shirt which controls our health From now on, Nivi enters the market of Health new technologies................................................... 10 - 11 N - Parking Capo d’Orlando and Pescia experiment the new solution ..............................................................12 - 13 Eventi...................................................................................................................................14 - 15
World News Florence becomes smarter The European Union rewards the city regeneration projects with 10 million Euros............................18 - 19 Smart City The English wording is part of the everyday language. But what does it mean?...............................20 - 22 The algorithm is a publisher Goodbye to the newspapers?.......................................................................................................... 23 Italy is the fourth European social networks market............................................................ 24 Start up - Start app...................................................................................................................25
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Nivi News Mirabilis 2016 July_ 5
Nivi Group S.p.a. is the Holding of the group of Nivi, owner of “knowledge� of all the companies that are part of it. The Nivi brand has been present on the Italian and European market for more than 55 years as synonym of reliability, competence and innovation within the area of business-to-business and services to public authorities. In recent years Nivi Group is about to establish itself within the high IT field with applications regarding the smart city, security and logistic areas, through a process of diversification of its activities. In these areas and through worldwide patented and unique products, such as T&C Solution System, Nivi Group has extended further its market to the Center and South American Countries, by starting a fruitful and successful internationalization process. The Nivi companies work in different fields, but through the experiences and technologies exchange they are able to do the client a unique service, irrespective of the sector.
The Group Nivi Credit Nivi Credit S.r.l., society born in 1960, deals with debt and micro debt collection at international level to public and private clients in bank and financial area through a dense tax collection network in Italy and highly professional collaborators in 140 Countries in the world through TCM Group Global Debt Collection association, of which it is representative for Italy. Nivi Green Nivi Green S.u.r.l. is the group society that deals with technologic services and products within the sustainable mobility, smart city and telemedicine applied to sport and to public services through particularly innovative technologies. Quantic Research Quantic Research S.r.l., with headquarters in Rome, is the IT brain of the group. It deals with research and development in the technologic area for the big data management and representation. Mirabilis 2016 July_ 6
Nivi Gestiones Espana Nivi Gestiones Espana S.L., leader society in Spain, with headquarters in Madrid, works in the sector of abroad notification of the violations of the Traffic Code on behalf of the main Spanish public authorities and by all the municipalities belonging to FEMP (Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces) to foreign citizens. Nivi Gestiones Mexicana Nivi Gestiones Mexicana S. de R. L. de C.V., society with headquarters in Mexico City, deals with the development of projects related to T&C Solution within the security and logistic sector on behalf of institution of the Mexican State. Nivi Usa with headquarters in Chicago, Nivi UK Management with headquarters in London and Nivi City with headquarters in Lugano also belong to Nivi Group.
Quantic Research Nivi’s new IT brain
The New Research and Development Institute QR - Quantic Research is now open in Rome. QR, a part of Nivi Group SpA Holding, aims at offering innovative and user-friendly ideas and solutions to the Market in order to develop a range of products and services Made in Italy with high technologic value. This new company will allow to have more commercial, technological or growth opportunities for the whole international group for a precise focus for every field of industry (considering that Nivi Group’s solutions are applicable to three different sectors: services, technology and security). A team of multi-disciplinary professionals, with a twenty-year competence in the field of design and realization of IT systems intended for Public Administration and private companies, will manage highly complex and cutting-edge projects.
“We work a lot because we invest 80% in research and development - as stated by the President of Nivi Group, Luigi Nicosia - we are happy to have added a new HT sector to the group’s traditional activities. This represents a new goal in the contest of a medium to long term strategy and development project”. Quantic’s main application is T&C Solution, the IT system that allows to control territories, networks, infrastructures and urban/extra-urban complexes (train stations, airports, museums, places of worship, public buildings). The Solution is designed to support the institutions (at a central and remote level), the Police Forces, any organization for the control and the management of the territory. It also enables to increase the level of public security, to improve the urban quality of life of citizens. Through the use of a unique interactive table, this system, which can be integrated with software already in use, enables to:
• visualize the map of the territory and to highlight the focus areas • point out, in a simple and immediate way, the critical issues • efficiently manage the alerts received • plan interventions • send alerts to operators in real time for a prompt intervention on the ground
To learn more visit: mirabilis@nivi.it Mirabilis 2016 July_ 7
EMO European Municipality Outsourcing In the past year, approximately 60 million foreign tourists came to Italy and, according to a sample survey made by Banca d’Italia, one third of them visited the Bel Paese by car. Considering those data, it is easy understandable how negative can be the economic impact of unpaid road fines. For instance, it is estimated that 15% of the speed limit infringements are committed by foreign vehicles despite foreign cars represent only 5% of the overall road traffic. Therefore, a very few of them pay their fines. Newspaper Alto Adige of February 22nd, 2016 gives the example of Bolzano, the Italian city where, in proportion to Italian citizens, the largest number of reports are issued against foreign citizens: 41.3% of them do not pay their fines and Police reports become, in fact, waste paper. Besides to Municipalities, highways too are the victims of “wily” drivers: from 2010 to 2014 unpaid tolls increased by 28.2% (from 418 thousands to 536 thousands, as indicated by Newspaper Quattroruote, Sept. 2015).
On the basis of this statement, in 2005, Nivi’s division E.M.O. was created for the notification, collection and recovery of sanctions issued for traffic violations by local and road Police Forces towards individuals residing abroad (with a foreign vehicle or a rented Italian car). The first Municipalities to join the initiative were Fiesole (near Florence), Arezzo, Figline Val d’Arno and Viareggio. Now, they are 600 among which Florence, Milan, Lucca, Siena and Padova.
EMO Division provides Public Administrations with outsourcing services: 1. Operational Management of all the procedural phases provided for by international conventions, such as: • retrieval of vehicle owners data through competent authorities as well as renters data thanks to a direct communication with rental agencies • normalization of addresses • translation into the violator’s language • preparation and printing of the acts 2. Notification in the country of residence with due regard for the legislation in force 3. Collection by the Administration concerned by adequate means and methods for foreign citizens 4. Recovery, through the execution of any activity intended to obtain the payment of the sanction by the violator who did not follow up notifications, with the full collaboration of Law firms and authorized debt collection agencies.
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Nivi is also part of the international association TCM, Total Credit Management Group International, and offers its services to foreign countries for the recovery of sanctions issued against Italian citizens. Italy is not an exception, for instance, in France, 25% of the overall sanctions are issued against non-French people. E.M.O. division also offers an outsourcing service divided in several element. The starting point is represented by the operational management of the matter (retrieval and normalization of data, translations). Then, the notification phase is implemented, within the deadline provided for by the Italian Traffic Code, for the collection and recovery of the sanction through a local network of collaborators (for instance, law offices and partner companies based in the violator’s country of origin).
The service also includes the possibility for Public Administrations to control and supervise the whole processing sequence through a protected website, without having to purchase any specific software. In recent years, this service has become more strategic due to the fact that Europe is trying to fight back. Until now, due to difficulties for the retrieval of violators’ biographical data, it was quite hard for the aggrieved party to undertake debt recovery actions because of the differences in legislation and behaviors between European countries. Despite cases of extreme cooperation with some nations like Germany, Austria, or non-Community Switzerland, some other countries do not accept extraneous eyes in their own home.
Waiting for the Single European Traffic Code, with 2011/2020 program about road security, the European Union has decided to fill a gap that made wily drivers so happy. According to the purposes of the European directive 2011/82/UE, acknowledged by Italy through decree n. 37 of March 04th 2014 “aimed at facilitating cross-border exchanges regarding infringements in the field of road security”, a single Agency will be created. A kind of general Office of Motor Department allowing Local Police Forces to check data of both drivers and vehicles. This procedure also provides for the sending of a report written in the violator’s language. At the beginning, those reports will concern a restricted group of eight violations, identified by the Commission: speed limit infraction, non-use of seatbelts, failure to stop at a red traffic light, drunk driving, driving under the influence of drugs, failure to use the safety helmet, driving in forbidden lanes (public transportation, taxis, emergency, constructions sites, etc.), use of a cell phone or other communication device whilst driving. However, here are the first defections. Denmark, Ireland and United Kingdom (England and Northern Ireland) did not adhere to 2011/82/UE. Nivi, through E.M.O., is alongside the Public Administrations in this new scenario which facilitates the collections of road sanctions, thanks to innovative services and thanks to new technologies customized for clients’ needs.
Through a protected website, the Administration can follow, control and supervise in real time all the procedural phases, in particular: • verify the retrieval of biographical data of foreign vehicle owners and renters residing abroad • visualize the report and the related return receipt • visualize sent communications • check the sending and the reception of the • access to any correspondence with the violator
To learn more visit: mirabilis@nivi.it Mirabilis 2016 July_ 9
Nowadays, the wearable devices (those equipped with an internal microprocessor that may be worn by people) are part of our everyday life. You only need to go to the gym, or to the swimming pool to notice some athletes or paunchy people with elastic bands connected to wrist watches, cell phones or tablets which control the heart rate, probably registering the number of steps or pedal strokes. The International Data Corporation (IDC), an American IT specialized institute of marketing research has estimated that in 2018 there will be more than 111 million of wearable devices all over the world. In Italy, there will be an increase of 60% in comparison with 2013.
However, Fitness is not the main field involved in the development of those more and more sophisticated wearable applications. The actual limit is represented by medicine. Indeed, one of the first wearable sensors appeared back in the 60’s, the Holter, monitor for the detection and the recording of possible heart failures. This allowed to reduce the weight of that device from 40KG to a few ounces. Nowadays, thanks to the progresses in the IT field, in particular regarding sensors, a larger number of primary vital parameters will be controlled and processed with increasing precision.
The T - Shirt which controls our health From now on, Nivi enters the market of Health new technologies The innovative idea is simple, to say. Miniaturized sensors should be inserted in the conductive fabric of easily wearable clothes. Transducers will then transmit impulses to a remote system control. It appears very important to underline that the effect of the T-shirt on the user should be null, not more than the sensation to wear a normal tight garment. The T-shirt, produced by XEOS, a Nivi’s partner based in Brescia, perfectly fits these parameters using a Re.S.Co software system (Remote System Control). The material used is easy to handle: manipulable, washing-resistant, wear-resistant and antibacterial.
Re.S.Co System built in a modular and organized way on three main components:
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T-Shirt for the detection of biometric signals;
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Electronic device for the processing and the communication of data;
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T&C Solution for the management and the visualization of data.
Wearable devices in Turin in November 14th and 25th, 2016. Medicine, sport, work, fashion are fields covered by the new limit of Smart textile and wearable technologies.
This new wearable device falls within the framework of telemedicine and allows revolutionary changes in the organization of health care services - a field in which, the research is making huge progresses with astonishing speed - aiming at offering a better quality of the services provided. Indeed, the possibility to remotely control the patient’s health conditions also allows to rationalize the assistance. A further achievement regards the possibility to apply algorithms to data gathered in order to forecast the health status and the appearance of possible attacks. Basic Vital Parameters detected •
ECG up to 6 derivations
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Breathing wave
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Chest Acceleration and rotation
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Ambient and body temperature
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GPS
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The use of the T-Shirt is also applicable to the sector of dangerous jobs where people must carry out tasks that entail responsibilities towards third parties. The life of hundreds of people depends on professional categories like pilots, public transportation drivers, police forces, firemen whose health status must be controlled. The optimal completion of the “health T-Shirt 2.0” is given by T&C Solution, our system of data collection and representation, through a touch and multi-user interface that allows the visualization, the control and the management of more situations simultaneously. This hardware and software solution also permits to compare in real time the data gathered with the patient’s medical records and, at the same time, to identify the operators who are able to intervene.
Derivative Parameters • Heart rate • Respiratory rate • RR Range • Posture on three axes • Activity Levels • Estimation of energy expenditure • Recovery time In the future, other parameters will be added: measurement of glycaemia, ECG increase up to 10 derivations.
To learn more visit: mirabilis@nivi.it Mirabilis 2016 July_ 11
The revolution of parking facilities management thanks to Nivi’s N-Parking Capo d’Orlando and Pescia experiment the new solutions Nivi Group has been managing from April the 1st, 2015 the paying parking facilities in the urban center (as well on the waterfront during the summertime) of Capo d’Orlando, through an innovative “smart” system without any additional cost for the users.
Indeed, this integrated system allows to identify in real time the actual occupation of parking places and the regularity of payments. The presence (or not) of a vehicle, detected thanks to a sensor, is immediately transmitted via wireless to a referenced parking-meter which will then transmit the information to the general server. This allows to identify in an easy way possible infringements and the citizens will be able to use their own devices (computer and cell-phone) to visualize a map indicating free places. It will be possible to pay in the traditional way (inserting coins), or a by SMS, smart card or credit card. An application shall be installed in smartphones in order to download a credit to be used any time you use the parking facilities. The renewal of the parking place can also be done from one of the columns of the urban center, by entering the reference number of the parking place. Otherwise, this will possible through the sending of an SMS. The contract also includes a 5 min. bonus for each driver, from the moment of the parking of the car, for a quick stop without paying or for the search for a column to make the payment. On December 21st of last year, a similar system was introduced in the Municipality of Pescia, where 260 sensors were installed in 8 different places of the city, including Collodi.
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Parking meter connection by GPRS - UMTS Payment options: 1. Cash 2. Rechargeable card 3. SMS 4. Credit card
pic.1 N - Parking process flow diagram
Access to parking facilities for providers or Public Administration Access for users to the system for finding a free parking space, reload cards and pay online. AREA N - PARKING Main server for the management for all N - Parking's areas
VMS The displays installed in the city show avaliable pariking spaces.
Wireless sensors: installed 0.6 in - 1.2 in beneath road surface Longlasting batteries: Li - SOCI To learn more visit: mirabilis@nivi.it Mirabilis 2016 July_ 13
From 6th of 17th, 2016 Nivi Credit took part in TCM Group - Total Credit Management Group International whose motto is “Money knows no border, neither do we”. The annual meeting is a fundamental moment for study and debate between agencies operating in the field of Debt collection and recovery services at an international level. TCM Group International is the world leader in the sector of credit and risk management, with 167 offices in 145 different countries. Nivi Credit has confirmed last year’s success being classified among the best three debt collection companies of the Group. Nivi, once again, distinguished itself for the work done and was awarded after a careful analysis of the quantitative and qualitative indicators of each member. This recognition bears witness to the commitment and professionalism of our company and represents a good starting point for the new challenges offered by the global markets. The Dubai’s appointment follows the World Congress which took place in Florence in April 2015 and organized by Nivi Credit, associated since 2012 and exclusive partner for the Italian territory.
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Events Since April, the swiss city of Gruyères makes use of EMO’s services. EMO - European Municipality Outsourcing a Nivi Credit’s division which has been offering for more than ten years a collection service to the public administrations regarding sanctions issued for violations of the traffic code to be notified to foreign residents. This wonderful small city adds itself to other 600 municipalities in Italy, Spain and Holland that already use Emo’s services.
On 28th of April, Luigi Nicosia and the General Manager Giulio Marsili have been received by the Italian Ambassador in Havana, Cuba, his Eminence Carmine Robustelli. The relationships between the two countries are historically excellent. Cuba hosts a large number of Italian small and medium-sized businesses involved in the fields of tourism and construction. After the recent international openness shown by the Cuba Government, the exchange is bound to increase in a significant way.
Within the project called “smart destination” - designed for a smart tourism - Nivi together with a delegation of Confesercenti Toscana (a Tuscan confederation of workers from the commercial and touristic sector) met, on May 10th, the IT managers of the metropolitan area of Nice (France). They discussed about Nivi’s technological solutions, in particular, about T&C Solution. Nice a cuttingedge city in Europe in the Smart city field. Within the “Connected Boulevard” project, more than 200 sensors and devices were scattered across the city in order to bring items, people, processes and data together. The ultimate goal is therefore to control and manage in real time the mobility, the traffic lights network, the parking facilities, the public lighting, the air quality and the services provided to citizens by the public administration.
On May 12th, as every year, Nivi Credit, was present at the sixth edition of the UNIREC Day focused on the services for the protection of credit claims. On that occasion, the Annual Report “Ethics and Economics: from the debtor’s failure to the social value of debt collection” was presented. UNIREC (the national union for companies involved in the protection of credit claims) is the association of the main operators of the sector, representing 85% of the national debt collection market. The topics covered during the convention (enriched by the contribution of prominent guests and speakers) ranged from an overview on the general trends of the sector (through the sharing and the analysis of the sixth Annual Report’s data) to the issues related to consumers’ debt behaviors at a European level and the social responsibilities of debt collection agencies.
From May 30th to June 1st, Florence hosted the annual convention of Major City association. This year, it was dedicated to the issue “City Renaissance in the Digital Age”. It took place in the very evocative Calza’s cloister, where Nivi Green showed T&C Solution, also presented during a work session. Major City is an independent organization which gathers local authorities, research centers, Universities and companies involved in the improvement of local administrations through the use of Information Technology. (In the picture, Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella visiting our booth)
EMO - European Municipality Outsourcing will take part in the 35th edition of the Giornate della Polizia Locale (Local Police Forces Day) which will take place in Riccione at the Congress Hall, from September 15th to 17th. Near 2500 participants among Captains, Officials and Police Agents, Managers, Administrators and functionaries of local authorities will have the opportunity to meet, debate, develop new projects and discover the main technologic innovations used to support the daily activities of the professionals of the sector.
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World News
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Florence becomes smarter The European Union rewards the city regeneration projects with 10 million Euros A 10 million Euros investment to make smarter three areas of the city. Florence won the European contract notice “Replicate” (Renaissance of Places with Innovative Citizenship And Tecnology), funded within the Horizon Program 2020 SCCC1 Smart Cities and Communities. Florence is the only Italian city selected, alongside San Sebastian in Spain and Bristol in Great Britain. The project will be realized from this year in the districts of Novoli, Cascine and Piagge regarding three technologic macro-areas: improvement of energetic efficiency, sustainable mobility, technologic innovation. The Municipality of Florence will be in charge of coordinating the project while the University of Florence - DIST Lab (Distributed Systems and Internet Technology Lab) of the IT engineering department under the guidance of Professor Nesi - is responsible for making operative the technologies within the ICT and interface systems area; Cnr Enel Distribuzione, Mathema Italia - Tim, Thales, Spes are the partners.
“This is the number one project selected by the European Union for the smart cities - the Mayor Dario Nardella said - with ‘Replicate’ we are the first in Italy. This is a fact of which we are proud because thanks to this victory we get a seven and a half million Euros financing, with the addition of three million Euros Mirabilis 2016 July_ 18
from the private partners. An important help in order to keep aiming at sustainable mobility, energy saving and smart structures network, such as the public LED lighting, the video surveillance, the wi-fi system. Thanks to all these interventions - the Mayor said - Florence will reduce by 8000 tons a year the carbon emissions, for the benefit of health and energy saving (gas, electric and water)”. “Florence just won an important contract notice and will become the first Italian ‘lighthouse’ city within the planning - Councilman Perra commented (…) in this way, Florence becomes a reference model for the next European Union’s contract notices. We are very proud of this primacy and of the opportunity to realize such a major project in our city. We want to implement attractive tools for the citizens, by acting on different aspects (…) until the simple bench, that will become a site where to charge the phone, connect to the Internet and listen to the music”. The acts of efficiency concern the energy efficiency with a system for the water harvesting and reuse for 300 flats for a total of 20.000 square meters, 700 inhabitants and a reduction by 30% of the energy demand; the district heating with a reduction by 50% of the consumption and by 55% of the carbon emissions a year; the smart networks with ‘no black out’ system through 5 primary cabins, 325 minor cabins for 92.000 inhabitants, 42.000 users and a reduction of 3100 tons of CO2 a year. Regarding the sustainable mobility the project will result in the installation of 180 charging stations (of which 40 inside the district), with a reduction of 250 tons of CO2 a year. The third action concerns the technologic innovation regarding the lighting, smart islands and networks. An intervention with 1000 new LED lamps, digital sensors, self-check management and maintenance with reduction of 3500 tons of CO2 a year. Furthermore, smart benches and dumpsters, sensors for the irrigation and for the traffic detection on the road. In a second step, the actions will be experienced in the cities of Essen, Losanna and Nilufer in Turkey; furthermore the whole project will be applied also in Latin America and China.
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“Smart city” term is now put into the daily use. Less clear is its meaning, and even the translation in each language has little to say. What immediately springs to mind is a world where the IT applications pervade the areas of daily life, but how? In order to give an initial response it is necessary to face up to three demographic data: world population growth, its percentage and absolute aging and the phenomenon of the increasing urbanization. In 2025 there will be 8 billions inhabitants on Earth; in 2050 2/3 of the world population will live in the cities - at the beginning of the nineteenth century it was just the 5% - and Unicef estimates that every year 60 millions of people will become new city dwellers and in the meantime we are going to see an increasing aging of the world population, with 2 billions of over octogenarians. At the same time the request of energy will increase by 37% and the 64% of the traffic will develop in urban areas with the result that in 2050 the number of the travelled kilometers will triple with devastating consequences for the environment and for the human life quality. The city is therefore the new human “natural” ecosystem, where the man lives, works and produces more that 80% of GDP. But the metropolis are also a synonym of pollution, inefficient services, chaotic jam, low quality of life; all these factors mean waste of resources, unsustainable costs for the State and waste of time for the citizens.Therefore the new social and economics politics have consequent, but not so easy to reach, purposes: at a time of public money saving and spending cuts, it becomes, paradoxically, necessary to increase the quality of the services for the citizens. Hence the need to convert our habitat into something “smart”.
Smart City The English wording is part of the everyday language. But what does it mean? A city shall start becoming “smart” when it converts itself in a digital city, Information and Communication Technology’s field of application. A non trivial definition can be found in a report of the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (Deposit and Loan Bank) “Smart city. Development projects and financing instruments”. “ The Smart City is an abstract projection of a future community, an application and concept perimeter defined by a series of needs that find answers in technologies, services and applications linked to different areas: smart building, inclusion, energy, environment, living, mobility, education, health and much more. These technologies, services and applications do not constitute themselves separately nor jointly a smart city, if they are not integrated on a platform which ensures interoperability and coordination, but most of all the definition of proper governance and financing tools, essential elements for the realization of the politic and social vision which constitutes the Smart City”. From passive container of phenomenon determined by the application of the new technologies to the areas of life, the city becomes a possible multiplier of opportunities, an active system where people talk with the objects. The city shall be converted into a “technologic and immaterial infrastructure”, that becomes in turn, almost by inertia, a new common property. But to make its full potential available, it needs help and addressing and therefore it needs a public intervention. New services mean also immediately new markets. Indeed, according to the report “Smart Cities Market - Worldwide Market Forecasts and Analysis (2014 - 2019)", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market of the smart cities is expected increasing: from 410 billion dollars in 2014 to 1.100 billion dollars within 2019 with an annual growth rate (CAGR) at 22,5%. Mirabilis 2016 July_ 20
3,5 billions of Euros, necessary to build the network, will be earmarked between now and 2020 in 7.300 municipalities inhabited by 18 millions of Italian people. On the 9th of February State and Regions have reached an agreement that foresees the new plan for the installation of bandwidth in optical fiber in Italy, to cover the so-called white areas, “market failure” areas, which are areas that have not been deemed as interesting by the private operators, but that will may adopt networks thanks to the public funds. Tuscany has decided on a first budget of 29.2 million Euros compared to the 253 million foreseen for the whole operation, dedicated to the first 11 municipalities which will enable schools, public buildings, industrial areas and at least 70% of homes to be equipped with bandwidth. The selection criterion of these white areas has been the ratio between the number of industrial companies and agricultural holdings and the population. Here are the municipalities: Santa Croce sull'Arno, Pomarance e Bientina (Pisa); Roccastrada, Capalbio e Castel del Piano (Grosseto); Altopascio e Porcari (Lucca); Cerreto Guidi (Firenze); Campo nell'Elba (Livorno); San Marcello Pistoiese (Pistoia).
The Smart City Index 2014: thematic areas
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The structure of the Smart Region
pic. 3 Mirabilis 2016 July_ 21
At this point, the adjective “smart� is emerging through three modalities, according to: the number of the covered social domains, the ability of vision by the governance and the improvement of the citizens’ life quality. These are all parameters with which it is possible to evaluate the smartness of a city, to develop indexes and facilitate classifications in order to provide with factual indications to the administrators, investors and citizens in general.
The Ministry of Economic Development earmarks 65 million Euros for the development of the smart city. The financing will be dedicated to the activation of two actions: the first one concerns the promotion of HT infrastructures and efficient energetic services, related to the urban areas, the second one foresees the activation of large pre-commercial procurements.
Indeed Between* sees the smart city as a result of an architecture made of levels. At the first step there is the infrastructure consisting of the networks that transmit the data, from their diffusion, capillarity and speed-bandwidth, ultra-wideband, wi-fi, Smart Grid, public illumination; at the second step there is the sensors system (environmental, infrastructure, video ecc.); at the third step there are issuing the platforms and data transmission or Delivery platform.The fourth step is the final result of this powerful organization, where the users may use the services: apps and portals in the different areas, from the healthcare to the transport sector. In short, the new urban reality will be the result of the integration of digital technologies and networks widespread into the physical space, marking the triumph for the Internet of Everything. The public actions are able to and must do a great deal for the smart city development; first of all, as just said, the have to develop the infrastructures, which are the networks. If we think that even today many areas in Italy are not reachable by any signal, or that the transmission speed is often non-existent, then we will understand that we still have a long way to go.
Another fundamental spot to be reached is represented by settling the development of data interchange protocols and finally the public administration can directly fund projects, which is a walk already begun by the European Union with the Horizon Program. But it is necessary to always remember that the efficiency may always be improved and quantified, otherwise the innovation may be encouraged, invited, rewarded, and it is first of all the result of a cultural genius, which arises and pays off in a enabling environment.
USEFUL LINKS Agency for digital Italy http://www.agid.gov.it/ Cassa depositi e prestiti (Deposit and Loan Bank) http://www.cdp.it/ http://www.cdp.it/studi/report-monografici/smart-city.html Smart exibition http://www.smartcityexhibition.it/ Smart city index of Between http://www.trail.unioncamere.it/writable/documenti/Between _SmartCityIndex2013.pdf City of Firenze http://firenzesmartcity.org/ Mirabilis 2016 July_ 22
“The algorithm is a publisher”. This is the heading of an article published on the Wall Street Journal of April 13th of this year. This is a sentence that leaves small ambiguity about the interconnection between different phenomenon which, thanks to new technologies, open new horizons, bound to change the world of IT.
The author, the politic scientist Jeffrey Herbst, also director of the virtual museum Newseum in Washington, claims that the "news reporting on new media and the use of mathematic algorithms on the part of the large providers for the mounting and construction of the news to clients’ taste, are deeply and structurally changing the IT landscape."
The algorithm is a publisher. Goodbye to the newspapers? According to “Pew Research Center”, the American think tank, expert on social problems and public opinion, four adults out of ten in America shall inform one another on Facebook and one out of ten on Twitter. “Among the millennials”, the report states “Facebook is absolutely the most common and the main source of news and information about political and institutional issues”. Herbst rightly notes that “the implications of this revolution are significant for the information ecosystem and our democracy”. For the social networks the boost to operate as newspaper is motivated by evident economic reasons. Keep a user more time on the web pages means more advertising revenue. Therefore the more customized the news are and the more will be the time spent on the socials. All this is an extraordinary evolution from the time in which the old school publisher manufactured his own newspaper. His only responsibility
was to select the facts, turn them into news, give them a hierarchy and present them to the readers public. The different social media, from Facebook to Twitter to those created by Google are careful not to assume and claim the role of publisher and always repeat the leit motiv, that they don’t have the role of newspapers and do not produce news. As repeated by Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, to Business Insider, “I think that the platform is the core of our product and that people use it to share and consume media, but we are not a media company”. This is the philosophy of the so-called OTT - Over The Top - companies, organizations located at the top of the network as Google, Facebook and so on, aggregators and distributors of cognitive contents issued by others. But is this the way the things really are? There are several objections and Herbst raises them all. First of all, organizing, classifying, customizing
information mean producing a news and it doesn’t matter to be a semiologist as Umberto Eco to understand it. Secondly, as the proverb says “appetite comes with eating” and the social media are already recruiting staff to give a new guise to the news shared by the users. Furthermore the new media are launching campaigns, on the basis of complaints by the users, in support or against this or that fact, actions started for good - against pornography, terrorism etc. - but that easily may become censorship. Lastly the profession of the journalist is changing. Since there are millions of eyewitnesses of events all over the world sharing real time pictures, descriptions and feelings on the web and users that start an impressive number of blogs from wherever, then obviously the role of the reporter changes both on the ground and in the newsroom. In fact a news producer extracted from the web, who works from a little home office, who digs in the web, does something similar and different from the drafting and from a journalist on “the ground”, but this time from the web. Herbst’s conclusion is clear. In this new era, it is extremely difficult to raise barriers between publishing, new media and advertising companies. What is certain is that the algorithms have to do with social life, (therefore with the democracy) and that the acting of Google, Facebook and other socials is not neutral. Mirabilis 2016 July_ 23
SOCIAL NETWORK USERS BY COUNTRY /MILIONS AND % CHANGE/ 2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
SOCIAL NETWORK USERS
Italy is the fourth European social networks market. And the social people are women. According to eMarketer, US research institute, (data taken from itEspresso*, online newspaper of the French Net Media Europe group), the Italian women stimulate the social media market while Italy is the fourth European social networks market.
Germany
34.0
35.3
36.4
37.3
38.0
38.6
UK
33.6
34.9
36.1
37.2
38.0
38.7
France
25.0
26.1
27.1
28.0
28.7
29.3
Italy
21.6
22.5
23.3
23.9
24.5
25.0
Spain
18.1
19.3
20.2
20.7
21.2
21.6
Netherlands 10.2
10.5
10.6
10.7
10.7
10.8
Sweden
5.5
5.6
5.7
5.7
5.8
5.9
Denmark
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.3
3.4
3.4
Norway
3.0
3.0
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.3
Finland
2.9
2.9
3.0
3.1
3.1
3.2
23.3
24.5
25.6
26.5
27.2
27.9
180.2
187.7
194.3
199.5
203.9
207.7
Other EUROPE
SOCIAL NETWORK USER GROWTH Spain
6,4%
6,4%
4,9%
2,2%
2,2%
1,9%
France
4,8%
4,3%
3,7%
3,3%
2,6%
2,0%
Italy
4,2%
4,2%
3,8%
2,6%
2,4%
2,2%
UK
6,8%
4,0%
3,6%
2,8%
2,3%
1,9%
Germany
5,5%
3,8%
3,0%
2,5%
1,9%
1,5%
Denmark
4,4%
3,4%
2,5%
1,2%
1,2%
1,0%
Finland
5,6%
2,8%
2,7%
2,1%
2,0%
1,8%
Norway
3,5%
2,7%
2,6%
2,5%
2,4%
2,1%
Netherlands 2,5%
2,3%
1.1%
0,8%
0,8%
0,7%
Sweden
6,1%
2,0%
1,7%
1,5%
1,5%
1,3%
Other
6,9%
5,1%
4,4%
3,5%
2,9%
2,5%
5,6%
4,2%
3,5%
2,6%
2,2%
1,9%
EUROPE
Note: internet users who use a social network via any device at least once per month; mumbers may not add up to total due to rounding. Source: eMaker, July 2015/www.eMaker.com
On the whole, just the 13.4% of men and the 10.5% of women use a professional social network, but the 57.5% of women and the 54.9% of men use a personal social network. These data increase in changing the age group; in fact the 17,2% of women and the 19.4% of men, both between 25 and 34 years old, use websites such as LinkedIn and Xing. eMarketer estimates that the monthly audience on the social networking websites in Italy will reach 23.3 millions in 2016, compared to 22.5 millions of 2015. The increase is small: just 1-digit, but it is the biggest increase in Europe, where the social network market is now relatively mature. Mirabilis 2016 July_ 24
Start up
Start app
http://www.aipoly.com/
The selection of the first app is due to its social importance, laid also down by the reception of the three founders, including the Italian Alberto Rizzoli, by the President of the Republic Mattarella on the 3rd of March this year. In fact the solution, developed and designed in the Silicon Valley, allows to recognize the subject caught by the cellphone and will say what is it out loud, in order to provide the blind people with a spatial orientation. Right now Aipoly recognizes 1000 objects of daily life, but soon they will be 6000 and it is available in 6 languages. Please note that the app has been financed thanks to the Singularity University, Californian training center born in 2008 in the NASA’s old spaces and it has become famous in Italy after the visit of the Prime Minister in 2014.
https://www.supermercato24.it/
Supermercato24 is a platform that allows people to bring you home the shopping. It is possible to register online, choose the market, select the products and you’ll receive it at home by the end of the day. The hallmark of this startup is the fact the it acts through delivery guys that deals with going shopping and delivering it to the recipient home. Among the financings received there are also those of the U-start members. It is born in Italy and already active in different central and north provinces, but it will arrive in France, Germany and Great Britain within the year.
http://www.checkapp.it/takes2care/
For the care of the patient there is Takes2Care, mobile platform for monitoring the therapeutic situation, this way providing the doctor with a useful check after the prescription. The solution is able to satisfy the needs of information (files/data/audios/videos) about privacy and security, verification of the patient’s identity and of taking medicines, monitoring of the biological effect and of the vitals, data survey, automatized interpretation of the data on the basis of standards established by the treating physician for each specific patient and so on.
http://www.goeuro.it/
GoEuro is the innovative trip search engine, able to combine train, plane, bus and car in a single search. All those are real time data and directly converge by more than 300 transport operators such as Alitalia, Ryanair, Easyjet, Trenitalia, Italo, Marino Autolinee, Eurolines etc. Through GoEuro you will be able to decide the most appropriate way to reach the desired destination, also considering the time needed for the connections from and to the airport or the train station to depart or to arrive. Contrary to the other trip search engines, with which it is just possible to book flight and accommodation, with GoEuro the user has at disposal more than 300 million connections between the big cities and the small centers.
https://www.wooga.com/games/
Wooga is a startup with headquarters in Berlin, and which deals with social gaming. It is one of the most successful producers regarding the Facebook games world thanks to titles such as Bubble Island, Diamond Dash, Monster World and Happy Hospital Wooga notes that those accessing the game on a mobile device and logging in to connect with the friends on Facebook, are more inclined to spend, exactly 8 times more, compared to those who don’t access the social. Having the game at disposal on more than a single platform, in Wooga’s opinion, generates a greater interaction between the gamers. In total, more than 70 million people played Diamond Dash since it debuted on Facebook in March 2011, and 20 million people downloaded the iOS version of it. Thanks to the short term launch of the game on Android, Wooga expects that these numbers will increase further.
https://www.hoteltonight.com/it/
Hoteltonight isn’t a new app, but it is taking roots in Italy. It allows to book last minute hotels with savings up to 70%; the mechanism is simple: the managers enter the last minute empty rooms, but it is possible to find holiday packages for a week too, the client chooses and books with a click.
http://www.startupover.com/
Start up is not always a synonym of success. There it is a website for the failures analysis, about how and why dreams fail quite miserably when they go to the hard reality, up to a little obvious recommendation against the disaster. What company doesn’t fall apart? “The one that produces a product-service 10 times better than the competition and 10 times lower price or with an offer 10 times greater for additional functions or with a 10 times better team than the competition”. This site is useful for analysis and comparisons. Mirabilis 2016 July_ 25
Mirabilis by NiviGroup Three months periodical/July 2016 Registration n. 6027 of the 22nd of June 2016 in the Court of Florence Managing Editor: Leonardo Tirabassi Drafting committee: Luigi Nicosia, Alessandro Michaelsson, Roberto Tummolo Art Direction: Karolina Sadowska Cover Photo: Giulia Pianigiani Headquarters Nivi Group S.p.A. Via O. da Pordenone, 20 50127 Firenze, Italia tel. 055344031 fax. 0553440494
www.nivigroup.com mirabilis@nivi.it
www.nivigroup.com mirabilis@nivi.it Mirabilis 2016 July_ 28