Public sector and cities also go digital:
What are the solutions for smart government and smart cities?
A work panel discussion, part of Digital Action Day 2014, Brussels, Belguim.
Some challenges which emerged from the online discussuion at the DAD 2014 forum:
- Sustainable hackathon models; opening data alone is not enough
- Engaging citizens and hard-to-reach groups - use a specific scope, show direct benefits
"The fastest internet, the cleanest water and air."
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A hundred or so online services
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Online problem reporitng platform
- unique request id, realtime tracking and notifications
- 3100 problems (6 per day)
- online city map with problems
- re:cycle, parking zones, schools, cafes, parks, cycling info, ...
- vilnius.lt/problemos
- Traffic lights are connected into a centralized platform
- Bike sharing system
- Fast buss lanes
- A parking app where you pay your actual parking time (online); 50k downloads
- eTicket app for online tickets for public transportation; plus live timetable
- 60% private transportation (cars), 40% public transportation; goal: 50/50 in 2020
Q&A: It's way easier to build more roads than to convince people to change the way they think. E.g. to prefer public transport, to share cars, etc. instead of using their own cars.
- Citizens want to interact digitally with government
- Citizens don't beleive the government can change so that this is possible
- It's a people issue; the leaders must be able to understand the changes which are necessary; the transition takes time and effort
- The main task for the government is to change the team - to a mixed one: NGOs, parties, political figures, experts, etc.
- Central government must also establish things like digital identifications (example in India)
- You don't need the same old infrastructure to provide the same services in the digital era
- The governments have to make the change with the citizens, the local communities and the local governments in the center
- Maybe at least 10% of the 300 million euro investment from the EU should go to help the public sector make the shift
- We want SMEs and startups to become part of the process and bring innovation to cities
- "Smart city" = a colleciton of smart city projects; e.g. bike sharing, solar panels, ...
- Just a colleciton of smart projects does not make a city "smarter"
- You have to promote scalability
Some challenges
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Promote interoperability (not only technical); business as well. For example, electromobile business interoperability (e.g. interoperable charging stations); public charging stations must be interoperable; a law/directive coming from the top.
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Energy efficiency; integrate energy and transport using ICT; e.g. "smart charging" - prefer charging stations which provide low on carbon electricity
Architecture layers of smart cities
- Core infrastructure - efficient roads, transportation
- Sensing layer; takes measurements
- Publushing this data as open data, on an open data platform
- City-scale analytics layer on top of layer 3
- Citizen engagement interfaces; APIs, apps, web and mobile platforms
Interesting example from Lisboa - 5% of the city council budged goes to projects, submitted by citizens. The very first project submitted to this initiative was to create a startup hub. The startups incubated there now start to integrate and interact with other parts of the "smart" city layers.
Actively test. Different cities do things differently, but still, they should cooperate and learn from each other - develop on the same architecture and be interoperable.
Q&A: Roads destroy cities. Cars destroy cities. Traffic jams are a result of poor city planning. I need my time not to commute, but to spend time with my family. I don't particularly like cars. Replacing conventional vehicles with electrical ones does not solve the problem. The solution lies in the fact that electrical vehicles have to be smart and that opens possibilities for car sharing, etc.
- There is no solution how to make governments smart; governments are not smart
- Change to "smart governence"; we all have to change and start engaging; we have to tell people that
- Start now, don't wait for something, don't make excuses
- Think big; engage and think big
- SmartLink: Food-waste in developing countries by a smart SMS-system, allowing for transport coordination with a total impact of 30 billion euro; helping farmers not lose half of their crops because of inability to transport it
- Ask yourself "what is the imact I want from this project", involve the right stakeholders, make sure you'll be able to continue working a year after the funding is over
Moredator:
"Wave 3 initiatives", not "projects", because "projects" have a start, a middle and an end
Bernhard:
Think in terms of citizen value. A "project" is only a tool.
Moderator: shifting from an NGO to a digital business.
LiquidDemocracy e.V. - think tank. ICT allow people to participate whenever they want, from wherever they want. That's the concept behind it.
- Adhocracy - an open-source platform with an OSS license;
- Participation platforms: Adhocracy.de is based on that software; Ypart also based on that, but targeted at young people
- Translated in multiple languages using Transifex
- Participation as a service: "part-u";
- The city of Berlin is setting up an online platform for citizen participation; centralized
Moderator: Cities need to make experiments. E.g., Fridays we'll try another means of transportation. That's how we learn and how we change people's opinion and behavioral habits.