Integrated Smart City Operating System for Flanders

Execution

All nine components/tracks have meanwhile been delivered, which means that the complete OCAPI MVP has been realised as foreseen (including the adjustments and additions).

The OCAPI MVP was presented on the occasion of a meetup of Digipolis on 24 October 2019. It also showed some demo-applications that were additionally set up within the framework of phase 1 of OCAPI in order to demonstrate 'tangibly' the added value of the OCAPI platform for other administrations.

The following functionalities and reusable generic components of the OCAPI MVP were shown during the meetup:

  • The workplace in which one can collaborate in a team on assignments and software components (deliverables);
  • One can easily initiate the work tools needed for the execution of an assignment via templates, which can be made available thematically per technical biotope;
  • From the workplace, the software components developed (in the form of APIs) can be published on a marketplace, including the creation of a branding for the component in question;
  • On the marketplace, which can be divided into different catalogues, one can easily search for APIs, and can make a contract with those APIs;
  • APIs run in a service mesh environment that can easily serve policies and contracts;
  • Platform users can register as such and can use an existing profile at ACM/IDM (= access and user management of the Flemish government), google or their own profile (e.g. A-profile) to identify themselves;
  • The platform components within the CPaaS work together event-based via a message-driven architecture.

The following demo-applications were showed during the meetup:

  • My.ACPaaS Notifications: an app for Brasschaat, Mortsel and Leuven to signal and dispatch notifications;
  • CRM for My.ACPaaS Notifications;
  • GEO/GIS Referential (functional part of My.ACPaaS Notifications);
  • Digital Vault for Brasschaat and Ghent;
  • Forms app for Brecht: a self-service module so that no developer is needed anymore to create forms;
  • Multi-site Deployment (Schilde);
  • Chatbot for Edegem;
  • Tailor-made citizen profile;
  • ACPaaS e-dev: from an architectural drawing to a proposal for the use of engines.

The meetup on 24 October 2019 showed that the architecture and the building blocks of/within the OCAPI platform are known in this experimental mode (MVP), and that this scaled-up ACPaaS (or CPaaS) can form a basis for an integrated Smart City Operating System after a further operational phase in which the components are made ready for production on the desired scale.

After further integration of the various OCAPI (MVP) components was completed through acceptance testing in November 2019, a Move To Production (MTP) for the OCAPI (MVP) components was completed at the end of December 2019.

This completes phase 1 of OCAPI. As mentioned before, it is now the intention to set up a number of use cases in a number of pilot cities in phase 2 of OCAPI with which the OCAPI MVP will be tested. This second phase of OCAPI is in preparation.

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