Increasing Transparency in Smart City Tech With The Heartbeat Dashboard

A lack of transparency shouldn’t be the default for smart city technology. Without clarity on what purpose new technology is serving or what data is collected, constituents grow increasingly concerned about cybersecurity attacks, violations of their data privacy, or losing control over their city to “Big Tech”. Without transparency, constituents will fail to understand or trust smart city products or the decision-making processes behind them. 

The potential benefits of transparency extend beyond increased trust from constituents—it keeps them engaged with the technology meant for them and can help make them more comfortable sharing feedback and input on that technology. 

Democratizing innovation creates the opportunity for constituents to share their great ideas and enhance government from the bottom up. 

“Knowledge is imperative to being able to influence decision-making. Democratic participation again enhances the quality of decision-making by the government. It makes government on all levels more accountable” 

When investing in smart city tech, municipalities should allocate time to research the level of transparency offered by potential smart city partners.

Does the technology allow city leaders and constituents to understand how the product will be used? Technology that is inherently transparent helps ease citizens’ concerns and saves city leaders time. 

When a technology partner makes data accessible, leaders don’t have to spend as much time manually collecting community feedback, or pushing out information to constituents. 

Soofa Heartbeat was designed to solve this problem.

Cities of all sizes use Soofa Signs to communicate with their constituents and monitor pedestrian traffic. These city partners now have access to our new platform, Soofa Heartbeat. The online platform gives city leaders a live view of the digital displays on their Soofa Signs, alongside Sign usage and health data.

A view of the Soofa Heartbeat Dashboard

Constituents will also have access to important information on their Soofa Signs with Soofa Buzz, a public-facing app.

With Soofa Buzz, citizens can see what is on the signs in a more accessible way, determine what information the Signs are collecting and sharing, and submit feedback. 

Soofa is committed to empowering municipalities with knowledge to increase constituent engagement and elevate city decision making.