The City Of Things is a research 
project run by Swirrl and partners as part of the Technology Strategy Board’s Internet of Things Convergence programme.
The project is looking at the application of the Internet of Things to management of the urban built environment, making cities more efficient, cleaner and safer.
They are looking at use cases around Manchester in particular focusing on three main use cases:
1) Car parking addresses the possibilities created by instrumenting parking places of various types. There has been some significant work in this area, notably in San Francisco, thatis being examined as part of the analysis.
2) Civic infrastructure looks at the potential of creating a sensor environment within the public realm and the services that could be developed from that. This includes environmental monitoring and street furniture that can report on its own status.
3) Personal sensors in the city looks at the sensors we are in control of, such as mobile phones, fitness devices and personal health sensors, how they interact with a pervasive data environment and the services that can then be derived.
Each of these use cases is been analyzed from a variety of perspectives: in terms of business models, in terms of technical issues around collecting, managing and distributing data and from the perspective of control of the data produced, particularly when this has a bearing on privacy or preferences of individuals.
Source: City of Things blog
