Smart Cities SIG Charter

1. Purpose

The Smart Cities Special Interest Group (SIG) is an initiative originated by Madrid Digital @ City Council and facilitated by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

The initiative brings together cities, public sector organizations, industry participants, academia, standards organizations, and ecosystem contributors to identify common business requirements, technical requirements, interoperability gaps, and opportunities for ecosystem alignment across smart city domains.

The Smart Cities SIG operates as a lightweight, execution-focused collaboration initiative intended to accelerate understanding of interoperability challenges, promote the reuse of existing standards and semantic models where appropriate, and validate interoperability approaches through practical collaboration and Proof of Concept activities.

The initiative is intended to produce business requirements, technical requirements, use cases, interoperability analyses, methodologies, recommendations, and Proof of Concept findings that may inform future interoperability initiatives, standards activities, implementation programs, and ecosystem collaboration efforts.

The Smart Cities SIG does not develop normative standards, certification programs, conformance requirements, protocols, APIs, object definitions, or implementation mandates. Such activities remain the responsibility of standards organizations, industry alliances, and other ecosystem bodies that may choose to consider the outputs of the initiative as input to their own processes.

2. Objectives

The objectives of the Smart Cities SIG include:

• identifying business requirements,
• identifying technical requirements,
• documenting interoperability gaps,
• developing reusable use cases,
• supporting semantic and standards alignment analysis,
• validating requirements through Proof of Concept activities,
• identifying lessons learned and ecosystem recommendations,
• supporting future interoperability and standards-related activities.

3. Scope

The Smart Cities SIG focuses on:

• business requirements
• technical requirements
• interoperability gaps
• use cases
• methodologies
• semantic alignment analysis
• validation findings
• ecosystem recommendations

The initiative is implementation-neutral and does not prescribe:

• vendor-specific solutions,
• deployment architectures,
• proprietary platforms,
• or complete technical implementations.

The SIG is intended to facilitate ecosystem collaboration and interoperability alignment rather than define production architectures or endorse specific implementations.

Technical examples and implementation experiences may be discussed for interoperability and validation purposes but should not be interpreted as normative recommendations or required implementations.

The SIG does not create normative specifications, conformance requirements, certification programs, protocols, APIs, object definitions, or implementation mandates.

4. Initial Focus Areas

Initial areas of focus include:

• Smart Lighting
• Water / Smart Water Metering

Additional profile areas may be introduced incrementally based on ecosystem interest, contributor availability, and initiative priorities.

5. Expected Deliverables

Expected outputs of the initiative may include:

• business requirements
• technical requirements
• use cases
• interoperability gap analyses
• semantic alignment analyses
• validation findings
• methodologies
• ecosystem recommendations
• Proof of Concept findings
• lessons learned
• supporting presentations and reports

These outputs are intended to inform interoperability initiatives, standards organizations, municipalities, and ecosystem stakeholders.

6. Participation Model

The Smart Cities SIG is intended to operate as an open and collaborative ecosystem initiative.

Participation may include:

• cities,
• public sector organizations,
• industry participants,
• academia,
• standards organizations,
• and other ecosystem contributors.

The initiative aims to maintain lightweight governance and transparent collaboration while supporting publicly accessible and reusable outputs.

Additional participation expectations, collaboration requirements, and governance policies may be defined in supporting project documentation, including:

• CONTRIBUTING.md
• governance/participation-rules.md
• governance/code-of-conduct.md

7. Governance and Coordination

The initiative may designate:

• a Chair,
• Vice-Chair(s),
• and supporting coordinators

The initiative will facilitate meetings, collaboration activities, and initiative execution.

The SIG is intended to remain lightweight, execution-focused, and collaboration-oriented.

Operational activities, meeting records, and supporting program material are maintained within the repository structure and related collaboration platforms.

8. Timeline and Duration

The initial execution window for the Smart Cities SIG Proof of Concept activities is planned for:

• May 2026 through November 2026.

The initiative roadmap, milestones, and planning activities are documented under:

program/roadmap/release-planning.md

The initiative intends to present initial findings, lessons learned, and Proof of Concept outputs during Smart City Expo World Congress 2026.

9. Intellectual Property and Contributions

Participation, contribution rights, reuse rights, and related collaboration expectations are defined in the Participation Rules.

10. Evolution of the Initiative

The Smart Cities SIG may evolve over time based on:

• ecosystem participation,
• Proof of Concept findings,
• interoperability needs,
• implementation feedback,
• and future collaboration opportunities.

The outputs of the initiative may inform future standards-related activities conducted by standards organizations or other ecosystem initiatives.