Contributor: Maddy Zimmerman, Americas Manager, SWAN
Why communities matter in the Open Water framework
In the Open Water approach, transparency, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing aren’t just ideals — they’re what bring transformation to life. While platforms and marketplaces create the infrastructure, it’s communities that provide the energy, creativity, and insight to bring these systems to life.
Communities in the water sector, whether technical or cross-disciplinary, large or local, formal or grassroots, are essential engines of innovation and resilience. They break down silos, empower individuals, and accelerate digital transformation by leveraging the collective intelligence of their members. In this section, Maddy Zimmerman, Americas Manager at SWAN (Smart Water Networks Forum), shares how
the SWAN Americas Alliance exemplifies this spirit of open collaboration and shared growth.
Communities are what fuels sustained innovation — where shared knowledge becomes shared action.
— Robert Bornhofen, Director of Innovation, DC Water
Spotlight on the SWAN Americas Alliance: a living lab for smart water collaboration
Water utilities around the world face mounting regulatory, climatic, and operational pressures, often with limited resources. With over 50,000 community water systems and 16,000 wastewater systems in the US6 — most with fewer than three employees — collaboration is critical. The SWAN Americas Alliance creates space for connection and knowledge-sharing, helping utilities implement smart, data-driven solutions to address challenges like climate stress, regulation, and staffing.
It’s like “a rising tide that lifts all ships” — the more we collaborate, bring people together, and share knowledge, the more we can elevate the whole sector and utilities can adapt digital solutions to better manage their unique water stressors.
— Maddy Zimmerman, Americas Manager, SWAN
The SWAN Americas Alliance is one of four regional alliances that make up the broader SWAN Forum network, a global forum committed to accelerating smart, datadriven water solutions for drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater. The Americas Alliance covers North and South America, with a mission to connect stakeholders in these regions who are passionate about data-driven solutions. From utilities,
startups, and solution providers to consultants, academics, and more, SWAN Americas brings them together so they can collaborate, share knowledge, and advance the sector.
Building and sustaining community: the SWAN Americas Alliance approach
SWAN Americas members participate in a wide range of activities, including regional calls, panel-focused webinars, and in-person workshops, all designed to foster learning, networking, and meaningful collaboration. Volunteer-led, the Alliance operates around three interconnected pillars:
1. Education — surfacing best practices in people, process, and tech.
2. Execution — offering tools and research for digital transformation.
3. Engagement — nurturing strong regional networks
SWAN Americas amplifies utility voices by offering a platform to share experiences, insights, and thought leadership.
A platform for thought leadership
The Americas Alliance provides a neutral, non-commercial platform where members can share how they approached problems, what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised them along the way in their digital transformation journeys.
Each month, SWAN Americas hosts curated calls on topics like AI, cybersecurity, and stormwater monitoring.
These sessions feature diverse perspectives from across the sector, creating space for real-time learning.
Utility-only calls offer a candid, vendor-free setting to share priorities, challenges, and knowledge, including an upcoming roundtable discussion around general cybersecurity best practices. And quarterly engagement calls often use a “rose/bud/thorn” format — where participants are invited to share a recent success (rose), a challenge (thorn), and a growth area they’re looking forward to (bud) — to
surface experiences, challenges, and future goals, often sparking direct connections between members facing similar issues.
Cumulative insights build over time
Ongoing learning and regular conversation allows members to build real-time insights among water industry professionals. On one call, a rural stormwater monitoring case from Ventura County sparked a question from a New York City participant wondering how the solutions would work in an urban area where space is limited and you have to worry more about the public’s interactions with sensors. It sparked a problem-solving session on adapting Ventura County’s monitoring strategies to dense cities like NYC — prompting inventive ideas like manhole sensor placement and camouflage river devices.
Themes recur, deepen, and evolve across multiple conversations. Themes like data governance keep resurfacing and gaining depth across conversations. It first came up during an AI session, then again in a digital architecture discussion, signaling a clear demand for guidance on the basics. These patterns help shape future SWAN Americas programming.
Speakers are encouraged to share works-in-progress, not just polished results, so others can learn from the full journey. The messy middles often hold the most valuable lessons for teams tackling similar challenges. In-progress projects can also surface the hard, elephant-in-the-room questions that can be tough to answer once a project is done.
They can provide a snapshot of the crucial nitty-gritty details and foundational steps. For example, on a recent call, a team just starting a data management initiative walked through how they’re loading construction data into their CMMS, giving others a valuable look at the groundwork behind smarter water management.
Supporting small utilities
Alliance calls are designed to offer both foundational and advanced perspectives, so there’s something for utilities of all sizes and stages in their digital transformation journey.
Take a recent GIS session: one team shared how they use a no-code, drag-and-drop GIS platform ideal for small utilities, while another showcased enterprise GIS for complex plant design.
Other sessions have tackled how to kick off a digital transformation, pitch tech investments to leadership, and navigate the world of digital architecture, including how utilities have traditionally built their systems and how they wish they could do it
today.
In-person workshops and roundtables
Events like the SWAN Americas Workshop, held semi-yearly and open to both Alliance members and non-members, reveal the value of grounded conversations. Rooted in local utility partnerships, the Americas Workshop draws in voices that might otherwise be left out — like the 20 City of Phoenix staff from diverse departments who joined the most recent gathering.
The heart of the workshop are the roundtables: open-ended, participant-driven, and often surprising. At the most recent workshop, what began as a discussion about cloud versus on-prem systems became a rich discussion on cybersecurity and workforce readiness — because that’s what mattered to the people in the room.
Other sessions explored leak detection and energy efficiency. For example, the City of Sandy in Oregon shared how they partnered with vendors to deploy sensors for leak detection and water loss monitoring, helping them reduce reliance on Portland’s water supply. Another session featured California American Water, which installed solar microgrids to ensure continued water service during wildfire-related power
outages.
Knowledge creation through collective research
Beyond events and calls, SWAN Americas advances the sector through collaborative research, bringing together practitioners with lived experience, consultants with deep expertise, and academics with theoretical grounding to push the field forward.
One standout initiative explores IT/OT convergence — converging Information Technology (IT) and Operations Technology (OT) — a complex but crucial frontier in digital water. Traditionally, utilities have faced a trade-off: either keep operational data locked down to ensure security or make it more accessible and increase the risk of cyber threats. The Americas Alliance is helping the sector explore how IT/OT
convergence can bridge the gap.
The project prompted rich, sometimes provocative conversations — such as theassertion that converged systems can actually be more secure than siloed ones, a claim that has generated thoughtful pushback on how it would be received from the audience. While convergence is not without its roadblocks — requiring careful planning, governance, and internal coordination — the potential benefits are immense. The Alliance teased out the issues and recently released their report, an
accessible guide with case studies and key takeaways.
The bigger picture: a rising tide lifts all ships
The Americas Alliance illustrates the heart of the Open Water approach — a model where transparency, shared knowledge, and human connection are catalysts of transformation. By creating spaces for learning and experimentation, the Alliance turns the principles of Open Water into practice.
Conclusion: build what’s next – together
To meet today’s challenges and tomorrow’s uncertainties, the water sector must work in more open, collaborative, and resilient ways. This means rethinking not only the tools we use — platforms, marketplaces, and digital ecosystems — but also how we use them, who builds them, and who benefits.
Open platforms give utilities the flexibility to adapt, connect systems, and scale over time — without locking into rigid tools or costly rebuilds. Digital marketplaces make it easier to find and share proven solutions, helping close the gap between new technology and real-world needs. And communities turn these tools into progress, creating space for shared learning, candid conversation, and steady, grounded collaboration.
When we design for openness, we design for connection — across teams, technologies, and sectors. We create room for smarter decisions, faster action, and stronger outcomes. The Open Water approach offers a practical way forward to create the conditions for lasting resilience and digital transformation in the water sector.
Read the whitepaper
Check out the whitepaper Open Water 2.0: open platforms, marketplaces, & community and have a look at the full list of sources here.
