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A couple of days ago, Facebook reminded me of a two-years old movie of Johnny Georges presenting his innovative Tree T-Pee to a group of investors in the TV show Shark Tank. The product can help farmers saving cost on water and energy usage.

Johnny produces the Tree T-Pee for $3,59 and sells them for $4,50. Most of his customers buy 10.000 or more pieces of it at the same time. However, one of the potential investors thinks the price is too low. “If you don’t ask $12 at least, I cannot do marketing, I have no margin”. Johnny refuses to raise the price of the product because he sells to farmers and he is a farmer himself. Finally, another investor states: “farmers are the cornerstone of America. They cannot afford $12 each.” This investor decided to give Johnny the required $150.000 to increase the company. On July 11, 2016, Gazettereview.com stated: “As of 2016 you can get the Tree T Pee online at their website. That said they currently are only offering the black version (they have removed the white version from their listings) as their testing has shown that it is actually the best version for all types of trees. The Tree T-Pee is currently available for under $8 and appears to be doing quite well. The company currently boasts over 36,000 likes on Facebook.” It seems Tree T-Pee has been successful in the last two years.

The case of Tree T-Pee shows the difficult balancing-act we’re all in when speaking about Smart City innovation. The corporate voice of marketing as well as the entrepreneurial vision of doing good by doing business are at the table. “What is the business case (subtitle: can we make it $12 each)? How can we scale? Who is going to pay for what? What is the return on investment? When will we have the results? And “What is the bigger picture (who are the farmers), what is the need or the societal problem we want to solve by doing our business?”

Time to share
On October 10 from 16:00-21:30 CET, we as PostNL organize a roundtable meeting with different corporates, municipalities and startups. Central theme: how to organize and evaluate smart city initiatives? All participants answer the following questions:
(1) What is your vision on smart city
(2) How are you going to realize this vision
(3) How do you organize and evaluate your Smart City actions?
(4) How do you measure whether or not you’re on the right track?
(5) What are your resources (time, money, people)
(6) What are your best practices?

After the short presentations, we will jointly prepare dinner and discuss the several topics. The aim of the meeting is to share and learn from each other in order to help our organizations to improve the Smart City projects we’re running.

We have a wildcard this evening available. The meeting takes place on October 10 from 16:00-21:00 CET on Kaageiland, near Leiden. If you want to join us, please send an e-mail to Rogier.Havelaar@postnl.nl with a short description of your organization, it’s smart city activities and your motivation.

Check the video of Johnny Georges
http://diply.com/inked-mag/tree-t-pee-shark-tank-video/154365

PostNL has an incredible network of letterboxes on the street. Last September, we investigated the Smart City opportunities for this network by placing sensors measuring temperature, noise and humidity on the letterboxes.

Central question: To what extend can the letterbox be used for smart city solutions as measuring heat stress, noise disturbance and measurements of local weather conditions?

To get an impression of the coverage the letterbox-network has, try the following experiment. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Amsterdam Gay pride and the Euro pride event, we have turned twenty-seven of our orange letterboxes into Pride pink letterboxes and gave them a social value by doing so.

As a suggestion for the weekend, I would like to invite you to share your ideas on using letterboxes as Smart City nodes:

Use the locations of the pink letterboxes as a tour guide through the city center of Amsterdam. While walking, notice the short distance between the boxes and please think about what those letterboxes could be measuring, for example on a crowded day as the canal parade day traditionally is. Please share your ideas on the Amsterdam smart city community website!

Locations Pink Letterboxes
1. – 4. Stationsplein
5. Beursplein 2
6. Rokin 134
7. – 8. Muntplein 2
9. Rembrandtplein 16
10. Leidseplein 29
11. Nieuwmarkt 4
12. – 13. Singel 250
14. Korte Prinsengracht 109
15. Prinsengracht 241
16. Westermarkt 74
17. Prinsengracht 339
18. Elandsgracht 1
19. Looiersgracht 2
20. – 21. Prinsengracht 438
22. Kerkstraat 321
23. Fredriksplein 2
24. Kerstraat 461
25. Nieuwe Keizersgracht 2
26. Prins Hendrikkade 193A
27. Kattenburgerstraat 6

Op vrijdag 14 oktober 2016 om 9.00 uur wordt de Europese CodeWeek afgetrapt door met 10.000 kinderen tegelijkertijd op 400 basisscholen in Nederland een CodeUur te volgen met behulp van een gastdocent in groep 7 of 8. Een echte wereldrecordpoging voor het Guinness Book of Worldrecords!

Hi Ron, could the City of Amsterdam be interested in a Smart Public Transport solution?

The Upfall Shower is now for sale on 350 locations in Holland. All dealers from Beterbad BV can deliver the water saving shower system. The shower system has the KIWA safety quarantee. KIWA meassures show that the Upfall only uses 1,5 liter water a minute.

Check <http://readwrite.com/2016/07/27/5-key-technologies-of-a-smart-city/>

Gemeente Amsterdam start eigen beacon netwerk

De gemeente Amsterdam roept ontwikkelaars op om slimme navigatiediensten te ontwikkelen op basis van beacons (bakens). Beacons zijn kleine zendertjes die op een specifieke locatie informatie en signalen kunnen versturen naar smartphones die in de buurt zijn. Dat gebeurt via Bluetooth. Iemand die slechtziend is en naar de metro loopt, kan via een beacon bijvoorbeeld stap voor stap op zijn telefoon audio-informatie krijgen hoe hij bij het perron komt. Reizigers kunnen worden gewaarschuwd als ze bij een verkeerde halte staan of dat ze de volgende halte moeten uitstappen. Maar ook kan het beacon-netwerk worden ingezet om bezoekers van de stad informatie te geven over de geschiedenis en architectuur van de gebouwen om hen heen.

Lees meer in dit artikel: http://www.emerce.nl/nieuws/gemeente-amsterdam-start-eigen-beacon-netwerk