OASC is a non-profit, international smart city network that has as its goal creating and shaping the nascent global smart city data and services market. OASC is already at the forefront of tomorrow’s standards for city data, services, and technology – and work based on city needs with support from industry. OASC is driven by implementation and focused on open platforms and citizen engagement. OASC is growing rapidly and connects 117 smart cities globally organised in national networks from 24 countries and regions. They strive to establish the Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms (MIMs) needed to create a smart city market. MIMs are simple and transparent mechanisms, ready to use in any city, regardless of size or capacity. By implementing MIMs cities increase the speed and openness of innovation and development, whilst decreasing cost and inefficiency. In essence, MIMs allow cities to engage in global digital transformation.
In practice, OASC MIMs are a set of common (real-time) APIs to access data, context information to structure data, and a common, but optional, data platform to store and serve data. In addition, a reference architecture and a reference implementation complete the set of MIMs. OASC represents a vibrant network of smart cities and has experience in organising workshops and a yearly conference (Connected Smart Cities Conference) as well as collecting and disseminating information.
OASC acts as a smart city demonstration use case and impact participant. OASC deploys prototypes addressing key cybersecurity challenges and provides a dedicated environment for exchanging ideas, needs, and best practices in and between cities.