Can we build citizen-centric Smart Cities?
Most people associate Smart City with fancy buildings and lots of technology. In some sense, technology is a supporting factor or tool for Smart Cities to grow and establish themselves in the global landscape.
Countries are racing for the price of having the best Smart Cities. You will find that various sources publish Smart City rankings using metrics that make sense in some cases but not all.
Every country has its challenges. This also refers to cities. The geographic location, weather impact, trade opportunities, and more will add to the decision of problems to prioritize.
But cities are nothing without the citizens. People move to cities for opportunities for better jobs and well-being. Perhaps there are existing challenges in rural areas, or some individuals find their own interests being served by developing skills and working for a company located in a city. Or even start their own business.
Cities are managed by the citizens. Through their collective drive, the cities will flourish. IF the right strategies and visions are accounted for.
A few cities and strategists have experimented with design thinking processes to innovate and include multiple stakeholders to contribute to the project outcome. These are still in a learning process.
This year, I started a research project to understand how cities go about developing Smart City initiatives. The project will look at public sector initiatives, private sector innovation, and collaboration with the public sector and how citizen inclusion is used or not. This will bring an understanding of the value the Smart City initiatives give to the citizens and the city.
The expected outcome of this research is to bring awareness about Smart City initiatives and develop a strategic framework for cities to achieve the right focus on sustainability and well-being in the city while using validated tools and technologies to reach the goals.
The current plan is to research Singapore, Bangkok, and Copenhagen. If there is time, I will take in more cities during the research timeline (ending 2022).
In each country, I will be looking forward to discussing with city stakeholders and private companies and entrepreneurs, as well as citizens.
For Singapore, I have currently launched a survey, which I hope as many citizens as possible will help to fill out. It will support the analytics of the research. Meanwhile, I am looking for entrepreneurs and businesses, who have been working on projects for Smart Nation. With this, I mean projects that benefit the communities, citizens, and the environment. I am also looking for projects, that are integrating with public sector services, meaning services offered as part of the Smart Nation initiative (National Digital ID, Sensors, Healthcare, and more).
