City Forward will be a web-based, multi-sensory hub of insight and information — insight and information that can be used by cities and their citizens to see themselves in new and powerful ways.

City Forward is being built on the idea of nurturing insight. More than an information repository, it will enable users to interact with, add to and make new connections among data and discrete pieces of knowledge.

As part of IBM’s efforts to help build a smarter planet, City Forward is a web-based, multi-sensory hub of insight and information that can be used by cities and their citizens to see themselves in new and powerful ways. It will be a dynamic resource that leads users of all types to discover and explore areas of particular relevance to their goals and situations.

Let’s look at how this might work.

By mapping the interconnectedness of systems often thought to be independent of one another, City Forward will help us to anticipate and optimize for unintended outcomes of actions taken within the city.

City Forward connects a community of experts, activists and interested parties—each making unique contributions and drawing unique value from the initiative.

IBM Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs has begun work on City Forward by reaching out to experts both inside and outside IBM. The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the major issues facing cities today, and to generate ideas about addressing those issues. The insights accumulated are driving the design and implementation of the City Forward experience.

City Forward makes this possible through the use of a unique, integrated suite of technologies.

Powerful interactive exploration tools turn raw data into actionable information—revealing important patterns and insights.

Easy-to-use collaboration tools enable globally distributed teams to explore information, change assumptions and share knowledge.

Powerful authoring tools give subject matter experts the ability to illustrate ideas and trends through case studies and best practices, encouraging discussion of their validity and impact.

Intelligent analysis generates realistic, bottom-up scenarios that reveal previously unforeseen implications.