IBM Smarter Cities Challenge

Smarter Planet is a corporate initiative of the information technology company IBM. The initiative seeks to highlight how forward-thinking leaders in business, government, and civil society around the world are capturing the potential of smarter systems to achieve economic growth, near-term efficiency, sustainable development and societal progress.,

Examples of smarter systems include smart grids,water management systems, solutions to traffic congestion problems, greener buildings, and many others. These systems have historically been difficult to manage because of their size and complexity. But with new ways of monitoring, connecting, and analyzing the systems, business, civic and nongovernmental leaders are developing new ways to manage these systems. IBM's strategy is to provide or enable many of these technology and process management capabilities and, outside the realm of technology, to advocate for policy decisions that, according to the views expressed by IBM's management in interviews, speeches, op-ed articles and opinion advertising, and other public venues, could "make the planet smarter."

In November 2008, IBM’s Chairman, CEO and President Sam Palmisano, during a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, outlined a new agenda for building a "Smarter Planet". The speech emphasized how the world's systems and industries are becoming more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent, and that leaders and citizens can take advantage of this state of affairs to improve these systems and industries.

In January 2010 Sam Palmisano gave a follow-up speech to the Chatham House called the "Decade of Smart". He highlighted dozens of initiatives in which leaders created smarter systems to solve the planet's most pressing problems. The speech aimed to inspire others to follow the leads of these innovators by helping to create a smarter planet.

On March 1, 2011, IBM announced the Smarter Computing framework to support Smarter Planet.

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