In a recent IBM TV ad, a woman standing on a busy big-city street somewhere in the world proclaims, “All over the world, cities are learning from other cities. ” As she narrates, the ad shows how shared solutions helped Washington, DC, improve its sewer system based on analytics that had helped Rio de Janeiro prepare for flooding emergencies and helped Singapore make traffic flow more efficiently. What connects these seemingly separate activities in cities around the world? The woman explains: “With two thousand projects underway, IBM is helping to make cities smarter. I’m an IBMer. Let’s build a smarter planet, city by city.”