Methodologies for a Participatory Design of IoT to Deliver Sustainable Public Services in “Smart Cities”

Abstract

Smart cities (Following Nam and Pardo (Conceptualising smart city with dimensions of technology, people and institutions, Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Digital Government Research Conference: Digital Government Innovation in Challenging Times, pp. 282–291, 2011) I conceptualize smart cities based on three dimensions: technology, people, and community. Due to the use of ICT to fundamentally transform life and work in a city, these authors consider technology as a crucial dimension. In addition, the role of human infrastructure, human capital, and education, and the support of government and policies constitute crucial factors in a smart city too) seek to address public issues via digital connected solutions on the basis of a multi-stakeholder, municipally based partnership (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/etudes/join/2014/507480/IPOL-ITRE_ET(2014)507480_EN.pdf). This urban model includes using Internet of Things (IoT) facilities to deliver public services. However, the implementation of public service delivery and use through IoT in smart cities is frequently fragmented, hindering a sustainable urban development. Citizens remain unaware of multiple single tools developed without their participation. Security issues also prevent citizens from using IoT facilities in smart cities. The objective of this chapter is to explain the development of a participatory governance approach aiming to establish a sustainable development path for the design and implementation of public services for work and mobility delivered through IoT in smart cities. Departing from key issues extracted from existing research about public service delivery using IoT in smart cities, the approach adopts a socio-technical processual methodology combining several social research methods as well as visualization and game simulation techniques. The chapter concludes with a short discussion on the application of this participatory framework for the ongoing design and evaluation of sustainable public service delivery using IoT in smart cities.