EDITORIAL: Smart Cities, Open Cities and Social Networks
Smart Cities, Open Cities, Social Networks, these are some terms that are becoming more and more popular in the Local Government arena in Europe and across the world. Are they linked by a common concept?
In broad terms a "Smart City” is understood to mean a city that makes a conscious effort to innovatively employ information and communication technologies (ICT) to support a more inclusive, diverse and sustainable urban environment. More specifically we can see three complementary perspectives: the maturing of Future Internet technologies and services, Cities as platforms for new internet-based services to transform our lives, society and business, Open and user-driven innovation as drivers for new service adoption.
Today modern cities are starting to declare themselves “Open City”. City governments, by opening their information, their data, their engagement processes, can generate a wealth of new ideas and understandings which make them more efficient and effective, and more robust, exciting places, with improved quality of life. By declaring themselves "open" Cities hope to marshal an army of citizens, developers and analysts to give new insights into governing and better engagement with the people they serve.
In his recent Open Government Directive the US White House mentions “the three principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration that form the cornerstone of an open government. Transparency promotes accountability by providing the public with information about what the Government is doing. Participation allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise so that their government can make policies with the benefit of information that is widely dispersed in society. Collaboration improves the effectiveness of Government by encouraging partnerships and cooperation within the Federal Government, across levels of government, and between the Government and private institutions.” These elements are clearly behind the concept of Smart Cities, Open Cities and Social Networks.
A recent EU Commission report on “The Impact of Social Computing on the EU Information Society and Economy” identifies some key elements that recommend the attention on the impact of Social Networks in managing and transforming Government. In the report are highlighted, among others, topics concepts like: Social Computing is a driver for growth and employment, Social Computing has the potential to reshape work, health and learning, Social Computing creates new resources for the achievement of public goals. These topics mean as a consequence related policy implications.
You will find in the Major Cites of Europe knowledge base new documents that illustrate those topics (www.majorcities.eu). These might become sources of interesting debates and presentations of leading edge implementations among the members of our association.
