Thursday 1 December 2011

IBM opens $50 million Smarter Cities Challenge grant program

IBM opens $50 million Smarter Cities Challenge grant program to 2012 applicants November 21, 2011

ARMONK, N.Y. — IBM announced that it has opened the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant program to new applications for 2012. Smarter Cities Challenge is a three-year, 100-city, $50 million grant program in which IBM's top technical experts and consultants provide actionable advice to urban centers.

The grant program provides select applicant cities with access to teams of elite IBM employees with expertise on a variety of urban-related matters, such as finance, sustainability, public safety, and citizen services. They devote weeks of their time analyzing unique opportunities and challenges facing municipalities, particularly within the context of today's challenging economic climate. After conferring with officials, citizens, businesses, academics and community leaders, the IBM teams recommend actions to make the delivery of services to citizens more efficient and innovative. Issues addressed include jobs, health, public safety, transportation, social services, recreation, education, energy, and sustainability.

As in 2011, selected applicants must demonstrate a commitment to using all publicly available urban data to help identify local problems and solutions. To that end, IBM will provide special assistance to each winning city on the use of City Forward (www.cityforward.org), a free online tool it developed with public policy experts that explores trends and statistics in a visual way, and which can be adapted for the study of any number of issues across cities. Looking at these issues in a more scientific, systematic fashion provides insight that can help shape public policy solutions to pressing municipal problems.

Issues that IBM's consultants addressed this past year were diverse, ranging from transportation and public safety, to economic development and budgeting. Following are just a few examples of the impact that recommendations funded by IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants have already made in the past year:

• Mecklenburg County, N.C., cities and towns have agreed to create a common capital budget planning process and to coordinate even more closely with one another when creating and adopting budgets. They have also agreed to jointly identify development goals and put them into place; share neighborhood data; and measure performance.

• Edmonton, Alberta, which had grappled with a high rate of traffic fatalities, created and published a plan to improve traffic and pedestrian safety and efficiency. To support the effort, Edmonton is now actively analyzing and acting on a variety of data; partnering with organizations to research and monitor trends; and measuring outcomes in a rigorous manner.

• St. Louis, previously saddled with a high crime rate, has undertaken significant leadership and day-to-day operational changes to improve public safety. Measures include more formal and rigorous collaboration among the courts, police department, mayor's office, prosecutors, and corrections officials. The goal is to use data to make more informed and nuanced criminal justice decisions.

• Milwaukee leaders, the city's private sector, and local urban agriculture organizations are establishing an Urban Agriculture and Aquaponics Council to advance the aquaponics industry, an eco-friendly approach to agriculture that recycles water from fish farms to nourish crops without the use of soil. Participants want to collaborate more effectively to make food healthier and more profitable, available, and affordable — and in the process, create opportunity and local jobs.

Key factors for a successful grant application include strong city leadership, willingness to collaborate with many stakeholders, and the desire to make their cities smarter and more efficient. Cities will also need to champion actionable and measurable efforts that have the potential to make a real impact on the lives of its citizens. In addition, winning applicants will identify areas that are closely connected with a city's top priorities, and involve a range of disciplines and departments.

"Last year, we were gratified to receive literally hundreds of Smarter Cities Challenge grant applications worldwide. In 2012, we expect the demand for Smarter Cities Challenge grants to significantly increase," said Stanley S. Litow, IBM vice president of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, and president of IBM's International Foundation. "The success in year-one ought to increase demand this year and next. We look forward to reviewing the proposals of the many creative, forward thinking city leaders who are striving for excellence."

The need to capitalize on the use of new technologies and approaches to address long-standing civic challenges has never been greater. In 2008, according to the United Nations, more than half the world's population began living in cities for the first time in the world's history. These population centers are more economically powerful, politically influential, and technologically advanced than at any time in human history. But while they represent so much promise for realizing the dreams and aspirations of so many, cities also struggle with significant budgetary and operational challenges.

To find out more, or to apply for a Smarter Cities Challenge grant, each of which has an equivalent value of approximately $400,000 in talent and technology, visit http://smartercitieschallenge.org. This website also provides case studies that describe IBM's recommendations to 2011 grant recipients. Videos documenting some of the 2011 Smarter Cities Challenge engagements can also be found at www.youtube.com/user/citizenIBM.

The deadline for 2012 grant applications is December 16.

Central Valley water management planning software availabl

Central Valley water management planning software available for public use November 28, 2011

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — The Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific Region and the California Department of Water Resources have made Central Valley water management planning software, CalLite 2.0, available for public use. CalLite 2.0 can be used to simulate the hydrology of California's Central Valley, reservoir and project operations, delivery allocation decisions, delta salinity responses to river flow and export changes, and habitat-ecosystem flow indices.

The model, which is designed to support studies of the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, can be applied to assist in the screening of a variety water management options and to educate decision makers on system responses. The tool is designed for use in a variety of stakeholder processes for improved understanding of water system operations and future management changes.

CalLite 2.0 can be downloaded at http://baydeltaoffice.water.ca.gov/modeling/hydrology/CalLite/index.cfm.

ANTI CORRUPTION...

Anti Corruption
The word corruption in the financial sense refers to the individuals whether in politics, governments or the corporate world who choose to seek illegitimate personal gain from via a form of illegal activity. The illegal activity may take the form of bribery, extortion, embezzlement, theft or other abuse of power to gain unfair and illegal advantage. Anti Corruption refers to the efforts of banks and other financial institutions to combat this illegal activity and prevent the laundering of Proceeds of Crime at the earliest possible opportunity.

In the financial world reputation is paramount. Now more than ever legislation and good business practice requires that financial institutions deploy Anti Corruption methods and systems to protect their customers and your institution's good reputation. The management of financial institutions need to be absolutely sure that any prospective new client will bring you good, reliable income and that you can limit your risk exposure, especially with customers from new, emerging markets. Each institution will want to be sure that they are not / have not unwittingly helping a client to hide the proceeds of corruption and launder their ill-gotten gains through the financial system. The regulatory penalties for failing to pickup corrupt individuals / institutions are significant indeed.
You need to be able to find out if your prospective client could be what the financial industry calls a Politically Exposed Person – a PEP – someone in a position of authority, with access to funds, who might be tempted to steal some of it. And you want to be sure that you can meet the requirements of regulators and lawmakers across the globe.


How can you best do that? Anticorruption.org gives you access to the world's leading database of individuals and entities who are a known heightened-risk of corruption, against which you can check your client's name, as well as details of family and associates, to see if they need the extra due diligence and monitoring which will protect your interests and satisfy the regulators that you are in control of your business.

In recent years corruption has been closely associated with Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). It is not against the law or regulation for you to have a PEP as a customer, but regulation and law in most countries require you to carry out extra due diligence when you take the customer on, to carry out regular updates of your customer data, and to apply greater scrutiny to the transactions.

In the fight against financial crime regulators have take an increasingly hard line approach against institutions that are not fully equipped to combat corruption. It is not sufficient to say that you have found no evidence of corruption in your organisation, and the emphasis has now turned to proving to the regulator what Anti-Corruption measures you have taken proactively as an institution.

www.world-check.com provide one of the most effective Anti corruption tools on the market today. These products ensure that financial managers are much better informed of the background of your client when you take them on and during the relationship. You need to be sure that you have clients on whom you can rely for a regular, solid and honest income and not to have criminals on your books. You need to be sure that you are meeting regulatory requirements and World-check.com can provide that comfort.