The Smart City as Shared Design Space

Abstract

Beyond the conceptual frameworks of open data and smart cities there is an emergent complex of digital environments to virtualize public sub-realms: neighborhood-level agoras or places of assembly with shared information, ideas and design. These environments can be used to simplify civic engagement in urban development processes—both on- and off-line. This paper presents different examples towards new strategies in this field. It presents and discusses projects using new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools and methodologies targeting participation in urban development and urban re-design on numerous stakeholder groups. These include children, migrants, older people, professionals and non-professionals. The findings indicate that in today’s ICT-public-realm, public data must be offered as public information and citizens must be enabled to get in touch with the new digital tools to strengthen participatory processes. The examples show that the underlying processing tools must be accessible, user-as-producer-friendly and open to diverse groups of people. They also show that artistic, playful, creative and game-based settings can be an ideal starting point for this attempt. These strengthen acceptance among administrations and integrate social groups that are not addressed by existing participatory strategies.