As the smarticipate project approaches the end of its second year, the project has made significant progress towards its objectives: a prototype platform is being tested and a number of policy and technical publications have been authored. But the project is part of a broad movement in Europe to use digital tools to improve the efficiency, reach and effectiveness of urban governance.
In order to connect with other experts working on similar initiatives, the smarticipate team is hosting five Stakeholder Dialogues to foster exchange between different sets of stakeholders. The first Stakeholder Dialogue took place in Portland during the 53rd ISOCARP Congress, bringing the smarticipate team together with the global urban planning community. The second Stakeholder Dialogue event took place in parallel to the second Smartathon in Hamburg, targeting other Horizon 2020 funded projects that are pursuing similar “smart city” digital platforms, especially those with a focus on open data. The event brought together representatives from the projects MySMARTLife, empatia, and SharingCities in addition to representatives from smarticipate.
By presenting their own methodologies and solutions, the projects could make clear connections between their common challenges. Specific topics that came up were balancing open data with data privacy, connecting and integrating various technical systems, and how to engage citizens in the digitalisation of our urban areas.