Information Access in Smart Cities (i-ASC)

Abstract

Abstract. Modern cities are becoming smart where a digital knowledge infrastructure is deployed by local authorities (e.g. City councils and municipalities) to better serve the information needs of their citizens, and to ensure sustainability and efficient use of power and resources. This knowledge infrastructure consists of a wide range of systems from lowlevel physical sensors to advanced sensing devices through social sensors. This proposed workshop will be a venue for research on digesting the city's data streams and knowledge databases in order to serve the information needs of citizens and support decision making for local authorities. Possible use cases include helping tourists to find interesting places to go or activities to do while visiting a city, or assisting journalists in reporting local incidents. Indeed, this workshop will foster the development of new information access and retrieval models that can harness effectively and efficiently the large number of heterogeneous big data streams in a city to provide a new generation of information services. Background, Motivation and ThemesCities of the 21 st century do not only have the physical infrastructure of roads, buildings, and power networks, but also have the knowledge infrastructure represented with heterogeneous systems and big data platforms. These systems vary from low-level sensing devices including environmental sensors and CCTV cameras, to public databases, and social network streams. On the other hand, a recent study [1] has identified a variety of emerging information needs that citizens often have in their public urban spaces. These local information needs may be complex and are not necessarily served by existing systems such as web search engines. These include obtaining real-time information about events in the city or finding free parking spaces. The aforementioned knowledge infrastructure opens up opportunities for cities to become smarter and serve the emerging information needs of their citizens by harnessing the vast amount of diverse information stemming from the various systems within the city.The proposed workshop would be an opportunity for researchers from the information retrieval (IR) community, and other related communities, to discuss M. de Rijke et al.

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“…These information needs might be complex and are often not served by existing systems such as traditional web search engines. For example, these needs may include obtaining real-time information about events in the city or finding free parking spaces or the best bike rout for ones fitness level (Albakour et al, 2014).…”