E-deliberation 2.0 for smart cities: a critical assessment of two 'idea generation' cases

This paper elaborates on the importance of a user-driven approach in the design and development of innovative services and applications for smart cities. By reporting on two case studies situated in the city of Ghent (Belgium), that are part of larger projects, we illustrate how we have applied different user-centred innovation development methods and strategies in order to generate and evaluate innovative concepts and ideas for smart city applications. This paper discusses and compares the work conducted in these case studies by documenting for each case study (a) the policy context and strategy, (b) the problems addressed and the solutions achieved, and (c) the (e-)deliberation (2.0) approaches used. Furthermore, we assess the effectiveness and impact of both approaches and report on the results and the lessons learned

Smart Citizens in Smart Cities: An Evaluation strategy and framework:EU SmartiP project report

This report is intended as a usable document showing the SmartiP baseline approach to evaluation and the key benchmarks of success that the city pilots can use to evaluate the success of their FI services, in the context of open innovation and co-production. A SMARTiP Guide for Validation of Evaluation Strategy is offered supported by a Peer Review Validation Exercise and a Workpackage 7 Evaluation Toolbox for reporting the validation results by the City Pilots (T7.1.1, M17-20). The outcomes of the testing and validation of the SMARTiP Evaluation Model (Strategy Framework and Implementation Methods) in the technical pilots are reported (T7.1.2, M17-20) and the key insights are drawn to support the final evaluation of the service prototypes in Task 7.2 (months 22-26). An extended version of this report will be developed as a Final Evaluation Report at the end of the project that will present the analysis of the results of the prototype validation workshops in Task 7.2 and will summarise the outcomes of the overall project evaluation against its strategic objectives

Creative rings for smart cities

In order to make an impact on citizens' lives, projects within the framework of Smart Cities shall address - along with safety and transportation issues - shared services based on novel as well as creative applications that exploit Future Internet platforms and relevant network infrastructures. It is individual creativity, skills and talents, which lie at the crossroads between arts, business and technology, that provide a strong competitive advantage in novel applications aiming at the production and the commercialization of creative content. The vision of the SPECIFI project for European Creative Rings is presented in this paper. Creative communities are in most cases isolated from their counterparts in other cities having no access to Future Internet technologies and solutions. SPECIFI proposes the use of Creative Rings as a means of sharing creative and innovative content and enabling internet activities all over Europe. Thus Creative Rings intend to bring together infrastructure solutions that facilitate the use of future internet systems and applications. Creative Industries may experiment and deploy these systems and take advantage of the distribution of innovative content. Creative Rings are presented herein in terms of scenarios, infrastructures and applications. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013