One of the main case studies being highlighted to SMEs today was the , which aims to encourage collaborative working between the city's residents and Birmingham Council.

The application takes live data from the city's Customer First contact database and shows trends on a map, allowing the council and residents to identify 'hotspot' areas where there are common or recurring issues being reported to the council, such as housing repairs and missed waste collections.

"Putting our data to use in the novel way will enable our Customer First team to look at new ways of involving local people in transforming the delivery of our services, and get to the root causes of customer complaints and particular issues," said Paul Tilsey, deputy leader at Birmingham City Council.

Independent developer Oli O'Brien, an MSc student at the Centre for Spatial Analysis, University College London, is being showcased as another example. He has developed a mapping tool that collates and visualises data on the location of London's 'Boris Bikes' in real time.

The application, which is available to , allows users to identify which areas busiest for bike use and also highlights where free docking stations are. O'Brien is now rolling out the bike map to other major cities across the world for similar use.