What would a smarter Denton look like?

UNT College of Information doctoral student Abdulrahman Habib thinks about this question a lot. Imagine being able to monitor your electricity usage in real time, he suggests. What about passing by a construction site and getting a notification on your phone telling you what the construction is for? These are just a couple of the ways that Habib envisions that open data could be used to make Denton a smart city. Open data can “help us learn from real data, not anecdotal evidence” and is “a very good way to engage with the city by not shouting and criticizing,” Habib says.