Giving Your Products Away

But IBM is in the midst of a three-year program that amounts to a gift of research and assistance to cities that can can make a compelling case for a helping hand.

The dawn of philanthropy 2

Does this grant project mark the dawn of philanthropy 2.0? Or is it a handy tool for IBM to market its services to urban leaders? It’s both. And for IBM, it’s as well a way to advance its Smart Planet platform, which is all about building more efficient systems through analytics, sensor networks, cloud computing, building automation and other systems.

So is the Smart Cities Challenge working? From the 2011 round of grant awards, there are examples of water-smart economic development in urban agriculture and aquaponics in Milwaukee as so then as better data sharing and analytics systems in Edmonton, toward the goal of improving traffic safety.