The 18th June our member – Botnia Living Lab will chair a session about Crowd-sourced services for smart regions and cities

Please check the outline and the program of the panel:

All around the world, the concept of smart cities is emerging a fast pace due to more and more cities striving to become smart. But what does it really mean to be a smart city or a smart region, since the world does not only consist of cities? What role do IoT play? How can users be engaged successfully? We argue that in order to become a really smart city/region it is of utmost importance to understand the needs of the stakeholders. In this workshop the participants will gain an insight into common practices for citizen engagement in design processes of smart city services. The aim of the workshop is to share knowledge and best practices for co-creative design of smart city/regions service concept based on user needs and motivations.  In this two-hour workshop, different Living Labs from Europe will share experiences and learning from different IoT projects where users are engaged.   

14:00 – 14:20

Living Lab as an approach for smart cities and regions

Marita Holst (Botnia Living Lab)

 marita.holst@ltu.se

What does it mean to work with a Living Lab approach? How can citizens/users be involved in real-world development and experimentation? What are the benefits for different stakeholder groups? 

Users involved as actors or as factors in projects are questions discussed in this first section of the workshop. 

14:20-14:35

Smart Water as a Service 

 Ignacio Llopis (IOTSENS) 

illopis@iotsens.com

Water is a key element of life. No water. No life. It’s simple. This is why we must be smart on how we treat water and especially how we serve it to the final user. Our customer. Nowadays we are more things by 2015 and 

25 Billion by 2020, Gartner says. But…how many of them generate a measurable ROI? How many achieve user engagement? IoTSens Smart Water platform helps final user to stream, discover, analyze and act in their water consumption interacting with data in real time generating valuable ROI and user engagement.”

14:35- 14:50  

Smart City solutions for Public Administration and end users

Alberto Ruiz Technical Deployment Specialist

albertora@guadalinfo.es

Citizens are engaged in this initiative with the main aim to evaluate functionality and performance of technology used as well as the ability to improve the efficiency of services by implementing smart policies. A second aim is to analyse the economic models to make these initiatives sustainable, both technically and economically. The initiatives are focused on intelligent lighting management in administrative building, of street lighting, of irrigation in parks and gardens, of garbage collection service and of water meters.

14:50- 15:05

Creative approaches to understanding user experience

Dr. Claire Craig, Co-Director Lab4Living Sheffield Hallam University 

c.craig@shu.ac.uk

Dr. Claire Craig shares a number of innovative approaches to engaging with individuals and communities pioneered by the Living Lab in Sheffield. From empowering older people as community researchers through to utilising exhibition as a method for engagement Claire considers the value of design and creative practice in understanding and empowering end users of products and services.

15:05- 15:20

Connecting the EV and belonging infrastructure into the IoT

Dr. Ir. B.J.C.M. (Ben) Rutten Program Manager Strategic Area Smart Mobility Eindhoven 

University of Technology

ben.rutten@tue.nl 

Aiming to contribute to smart and sustainable mobility solutions we will develop a standardized open communication platform for smart mobility solutions and implement it in the Eindhoven region. We take a user-centric approach in the combination of two major economic and technological trends: the sharing economy and the Internet of Things (IoT), starting with an implementation in the automotive domain in the VIBe project (Vehicle for Innovation Brabant – electric). 

For such systems to be successful it is important that citizens achieve a high level of comfort and reliability in using smart mobility services. This means that it should be easy to plan trips, get real time information on e.g. vehicle location and charging status, as well as integrated reservation and billing services. By defining the elements in the system (vehicles, charging points, service applications) as things and connecting these in the IoT using a standardized open communication interface, the system can grow viral and generate additional economic activities in the regional industry.

15:20 – 15:35

Smart Aarhus – A Scandinavian Third Way

Michelle Bak Mikkelsen, project manager Open Data Aarhus, part of the Smart Aarhus 

Secretariat

mbm@aarhus.dk 

The City of Aarhus has via the Smart Aarhus initiative been working with Smart City services, IoT and 

Open Data since 2012. Smart Aarhus is a mindset developed in order to create sustainable urban innovation and growth. It is a model based on involving stakeholders through partnerships. It’s a digital marketplace established in order to generate value and help solve societal, environmental and economical challenges. Michelle will present the core ideology of Smart Aarhus – the Scandinavian 

Third Way – and some of its core projects: Among these Open Data Aarhus (ODAA), Internet Week 

Denmark and the EU-project OrganiCity. Here she will highlight some of her experiences regarding user involvement and stakeholder communication.

15:35-16:00 Panel with all speakers on stage, questions from the audience