Digital City

In January 2019 the City of Amsterdam joined forces with 22 AI and Data Science students to work together on improving the livability of our city. These students, coming from the University of Amsterdam, the University of Utrecht and the University of Delft, are doing their master thesis researches at the municipality.

They are working on projects related to reducing poverty and discrimination, battling housing fraud and parking problems, making our city cleaner, decreasing costs and optimizing administrative processes for all citizens.
After months of research, they are now on the final stretch!

Before they submit their theses at the end of June, we would first like to celebrate this moment with a thesis fair at Datalab on the 27th of June.
During this event, the students will present their findings and share their insights with the people of Amsterdam. In a poster session setup, everyone would be able to explore the different projects, enjoy short demonstrations and learn all there is to know about their favorite topics.
You are warmly welcomed to ask them difficult questions, share your improvement ideas or simply get inspired by their work.
But most of all - this would be the moment to show them our support and celebrate their achievements together.

50 Amsterdamse meisjes van verschillende basisscholen (groep 7/8) doen mee aan de Smart City Challenge for Girls.In 5 teams gaan zij in 1 dag een actueel Smart City-vraagstuk oplossen voor hun eigen stad. De meisjes leren over nieuwe technologische ontwikkelingen, die ze kunnen gebruiken bij het oplossen van de vraag die Amsterdam Smart City aan hen voorlegt.

Tijdens de Smart City Challenge leren de meisjes op een leuke, interessante en creatieve manier om hun directe leefomgeving zo Smart en innovatief mogelijk te maken. De teams van meisjes worden hierbij begeleid door vrouwelijke studenten van bèta/technische studies en medewerkers van VHTO. Adviseurs van Eurofiber geven technische adviezen. Meer informatie over de Smart City Challenges for Girls op www.smartcitygirls.nl.

Ouders, leerkrachten en andere belangstellenden zijn welkom vanaf 15:00 uur om de innovatieve technologische oplossingen te horen die de meisjes gaan pitchen voor een deskundige jury o.l.v. Paul Naastepad, managing director van Eurofiber Nederland.

Het evenement is besloten. Wil je deelnemen? Laat het ons weten via nancy@amsterdamsmartcity.com, dan kijken we naar de mogelijkheden.

On the 6th of June, some people of the Amsterdam Smart City community came together in Datalab to discuss dilemma’s around sensing the city. What are issues around this theme? Who should do this? How can we involve citizens? What are the learnings up until now?

Leonie van den Beuken opens the afternoon and states that we should not only keep talking and keep figuring and losing time. Because time is what we don’t have. If you're aiming for a better world, you have to act now. ‘So today’, she says, ‘we have people who are acting upon our dilemma’s. And if we are truly able and willing to learn from each other, we can accelerate.’

Judith Veenkamp – Waag
Judith from Waag kicks off by telling about the Smart Citizens Lab. A research lab with a leading role for citizens and aims to facilitate them in measuring their own living environment, so called ‘public research’. Within the Smart Citizens Lab Waag developed a framework for citizen sensing: how to enable citizens in doing their own measurements. Not only are they in charge of sensing strategy for the sensors that will be deployed in the city, the data collected will also be analysed and interpreted together with citizens. Collecting the data together with citizens and other stakeholders, like municipalities, helps to create a shared reality.

For their project Hollandse Luchten, an air quality sensor was developed in their lab. The basic version measures Particular Matter (PM), temperature, humidity and air pressure. The extended version also measures NO2 and O3. They will deploy 200 sensors in 3 pilot communities; IJmond region, Zaanstad en Buiksloterham. The sensor is a modular system and citizens assemble the sensor themselves. The aim goes beyond just measuring, it is to have societal impact by increasing awareness. It is not an alternative for professional measurements but they can enrich the official air quality measurements and empower citizens.

A nice example of how tech can help build a sustainable city. Technology as a mean. Not just talking about it but also making and experimenting.

Ron van der Lans – City of Amsterdam about Air View
The City of Amsterdam recently announced that for the coming year, Google will measure air quality in the city. Ron van der Lans tells us more about this: ‘Air View is mobile measuring of air quality with Google Street View cars. The goal is to have a detailed year overview of air quality in various parts of Amsterdam. We will get insights in the flow of the air quality per street in Amsterdam. In the end it will be open data, but not during the process.’

Ron also takes us through the process of this project, in which the University of Utrecht is also participating, and shows what it went through before actually implementing. Different questions pop up from the audience. Some more practical; if it is only 1 point in time on every location, does it add value? There are already different measurement systems in place in Amsterdam: GGD , RIVM. What does this add?

Ron explains that it measures on street level, which is new. It will also measure more and it will contribute to create a global view. This also triggers more principled questions: if these are open data, how will it affect the housing market? Why does Google want to do this? Is this not a responsibility of the government? What aspects of political decision making were considered? What can and what will we do with the results?

Tom van Arman – CITIXL
Tom van Arman from CITIXL has an inspiring and triggering talk. Tom starts with warning us how data can affect us with some alerting examples. The large scale data collection in 1934 for the greater benefit of all but later misused by the Nazi regime. He also mentions the Chinese Social Credit Card Score; a system that is meant to rate each citizen’s trustworthiness. And last he shows us Quayside Toronto. A wonderful new future city, built by Google.

Will this really make our lives better or is it just for commercial benefits? How do we bridge the gap between policies and the public? How can we design tests with the public to create a shared reality and common understanding?

He ends with showing us his camera experiment of last year during WeMakeThe.City. The experiment featured a marked area telling you the area would recognize your face. All basis questions came up and this was a good discussion starter. This year CITIXL will start measuring all sorts of things on the Marineterrein; how many sunbathers, how many swimmers, a drowning alert, etc. Again a lot of ethical questions will be raised and dealt with. But if we can ‘t measure it, how can we improve it?

Roel van de Loo - SPPS
Roel has a lot of experience in measuring in the city, e.g. with eNoses in the Port of Amsterdam and starts with warning us that he will make us depressed: ‘Technology is not perfect and limited. Technology is still complicated for non-experts. Cheap sensors can be useful but they do not always tell the truth. They face difficulties for example with calibration and interferences. So be careful: it is not easy to measure. You have to know what a sensor does and what it does not.’

Roel shares some crucial lessons learned:
• Cooperation between governments, companies, foundations and citizens is essential but not easy.
• Make a detailed agreement. Once you share data between government and company, what is going to happen?
• Create a library and share learnings
Roel tells us there is a fundamental distrust of (government) calculations. Citizens only want to know what is wrong and they do not want to pay for it. Starting is easy but ending is hard.
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After the presentations, an interesting discussion started. Some people feel comfortable Google will measure air quality: it’s already happening, so what is the fuzz about now? Others say: Air quality is a fundamental task of the government, so the measurement is the responsibility of the government. If the government starts measuring less because of the collaboration with businesses, will it minimize the measurement capacity? When a business has a different agenda, we have lost measurement capacity.

Leonie asks: What would be ok for you to be measured? Also here different opinions. Collecting data is necessary to make informed decisions and to take emotions out of the discussion. But teach people on how to do that. These data can bring us a lot of positive uses. But how do we use it for good? It’s a fine line between surveillance and service.

Someone else states that data collection is enforced and it takes away freedom of autonomous decision making. Again enough data dilemma’s to discuss. In the audience, Paul Manwaring closes stating we are all part of the city – we have to explore data opportunities, while respecting each other’s rights and be transparent, we’ve got to try!

Het internet is onmisbaar geworden in ons dagelijks leven. Het is waar we elkaar ontmoeten, leren en winkelen. Het is ook een essentieel hulpmiddel voor het realiseren van (kansen)gelijkheid, rechtvaardigheid en billijkheid. Maar wie zit er achter de knoppen? Waar staan de digitale rechten onder druk en hoe houden we de burgerrechten geborgd?

Sprekers o.a.:
- Touria Meliani (wethouder Digitale Stad Gemeente Amsterdam)
- Bianca Wylie (digitale burgerrechtenactivist bij Digital Rights Now)
- Marleen Stikker (mede-oprichter en directeur Waag)
- Ger Baron (Chief Technology Officer gemeente Amsterdam)
- Mikko Rusama (Chief Digital Officer Helsinki)
- Theo Blackwell (Chief Digital Officer London)

Meer informatie over het programma vind je hier: https://wemakethe.city/production/cities-for-digital-rights

In its May 25th edition, the Dutch newspaper 'De Volkskrant' covered the changes that two progressive mayors have induced: In Barcelona, Ada Colou and in Madrid Manuela Carmena. The elections, yesterday June 2nd, have ended their mandates. Although their successors have a radical left background too, their support in both city's councils is minimal. Here and in the national parliament, the socialist party and the center-right parties are the overall winners. Particularly the future of the recently renewed 'smart city-policy' in Barcelona, where Ada Colou and Francesca Bria are 'sisters in arms' is uncertain.
For more detailed information, I enclosed El Pais' English version from today: By the way: the smiling trio are representatives of the right wing Popular Party, not from the socialists as the titel might suggest.

In the last couple of years, there were plenty of inspiring local initiatives measuring and sensing issues, such as air quality, water quality and amounts of people. What were the results of these experiments and projects?

On the 6th of June, Amsterdam Smart City hosts 'Data Dilemma's: Sensing the City' in Datalab. Several bottom-up initiatives will present themselves, share the data they collected and tell you about the challenges they encountered. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/smart-data-smart-city-data-dilemmas-2-sensing-the-city-tickets-61992657708

And you can be part of the program!

Do you have an initiative that can measure air quality, water quality, smell or something else? Let us know and you might get this last-minute chance to pitch on stage!

Drop a line below or send an e-mail to Nancy, via nancy@amsterdamsmartcity.com.

Do you have a smart city solution for digital twins? Pitch your product or service on 5 September 2019 in Antwerp (Belgium)!

On 5 September 2019 Economic Board Utrecht (EBU) and Future City Foundation organise the Networking excursion Digital Twin to Antwerp (Belgium) for administrators with delegation leader Klaas Verschuure (alderman for the Municipality of Utrecht). We want to learn about the possibilities of a digital twin for municipalities and provinces.

To bring supply and demand together and share knowledge, we offer tech companies and data experts the opportunity to pitch their smart city solution for an audience of 40 administrators and the top of municipalities and provinces from the Netherlands. Interested parties can register their pitch until 10 July 2019.

What kind of pitches are we looking for?
- Smart city solutions for that municipalities or provinces face (physical, social and economic)
- Successful smart city projects or experiences from local governments which are interesting for other municipalities or provinces.
- Innovative smart city business ideas from smart entrepreneurs, app builders or other techs.

There is room for 15 pitches, participation is without charge and possible until 10 July 2019. Pitches can be given in Dutch or English.

Interested? Check our website for more information and to register: https://future-city.nl/pitches-antwerp-eng/

Wanted: pitches of smart city solutions for digital twins

On 5 September 2019 Economic Board Utrecht (EBU) and Future City Foundation organise the Networking excursion Digital Twin to Antwerp (Belgium) for administrators with delegation leader Klaas Verschuure (alderman for the Municipality of Utrecht). We want to learn about the possibilities of a digital twin for municipalities and provinces.

To bring supply and demand together and share knowledge, we offer tech companies and data experts the opportunity to pitch their smart city solution for an audience of 40 administrators and the top of municipalities and provinces from the Netherlands. Interested parties can register their pitch until 10 July 2019.

When & where
Thursday 5 September 2019
In Antwerp (Belgium), exact location t.b.a.
12.00 – 17.30 hr (lunch and drinks included), pitches 14.00 – 15.30 hr

What kind of pitches are we looking for?
- Smart city solutions for that municipalities or provinces face (physical, social and economic)
- Successful smart city projects or experiences from local governments which are interesting for other municipalities or provinces.
- Innovative smart city business ideas from smart entrepreneurs, app builders or other techs.

What we offer
- 4 minutes in the spotlight
- Meet & Greet: before and after the pitch, pitchers get their own stand in the reception area (where the lunch and drink takes places)
- A direct reach of 40 administrators and senior civil servants of municipalities and provinces from the Netherlands and Flander, who are interested in digital twins.
- Participation in the pitches is without charge
- Travel and accommodation costs are for your own account. Lunch and drinks during the program are included.

Check for more information our website: https://future-city.nl/pitches-antwerp-eng/
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Op 5 september organiseren Economic Board Utrecht (EBU) en Future City Foundation de Netwerkexcursie Digital Twin naar Antwerpen voor bestuurders, met delegatieleider Klaas Verschuure (wethouder Gemeente Utrecht). We willen daar leren over de mogelijkheden van een digital twin voor gemeentes en provincies.

Om vraag en aanbod bij elkaar te brengen en kennis te delen, bieden we techbedrijven en datadeskundigen de kans om tijdens de Netwerkexcursie Digital Twin op 5 september in Antwerpen hun smart city oplossing te pitchen voor een publiek van 40 bestuurders en de ambtelijke top van gemeenten en provincies uit Nederland. Zo komen we samen verder. Geïnteresseerden kun tot 10 juli 2019 hun pitch aanmelden.

Waar & wanneer
Donderdag 5 september 2019
In Antwerpen, exacte locatie volgt
12.00 – 17.30 uur (inclusief lunch en borrel), pitch carrousel 14.00 – 15.30 uur

Wat voor pitches zoeken we?
- Concrete smart city oplossingen voor de uitdagingen waar gemeenten of provincies tegenaan lopen (fysiek, sociaal en economisch)
- Succesvolle smart city projecten of ervaringen van lokale overheden die ook interessant zijn voor andere gemeenten of provincies.
- Innovatieve smart city businessideeën van slimme ondernemers, appbouwers of andere technerds.

Wat bieden we?
- 4 minuten in de spotlight
- Meet&Greet: voor en na de pitch krijgen pitchers hun eigen stand in de ontvangstzaal (waar de lunch en borrel is)
- Livestream via ons Youtube-kanaal (en die laten we gewoon staan)
- Een direct bereik van 40 bestuurders en de ambtelijke top van gemeenten en provincies uit Nederland die interesse hebben in digital twins.
- Deelname aan de pitchcarrousel is gratis.
- Reis- en eventuele verblijfskosten zijn voor eigen rekening.

Kijk voor alle informatie en aanmelden op: https://future-city.nl/pitches-antwerpen/

Begrijp jij data en vind je het leuk om daarmee oplossingen te bedenken voor complexe problemen? En wil je leren hoe je écht datagestuurd ontwerpt om zo de stad beter te maken? Dan is de summerschool ‘Design de toekomst van Zuid-Holland’ iets voor jou! In 3 dagen gaan we een digital twin (een digitale 3D-versie) maken van (een deel van) Zuid-Holland die het geluk en/of de leefkwaliteit van Zuid-Hollanders meet en voorspelt. We hebben nog enkele plekken beschikbaar dus meld je snel aan!

Je kan GRATIS meedoen als je nog studeert of net aan het werk bent en begrijpt dat er voor ingewikkelde problemen geen eenvoudige antwoorden volstaan. En soms ook wel. Je hebt een achtergrond in data science, ruimtelijke ordening, planologie, techniek, smart city, GIS, Geo en mediadesign, gamification, bestuurskunde, stedenbouw of iets anders interessants.

Data: 1, 2 en 3 juli
Locatie: verschillende locaties in Zuid-Holland
Deelname is gratis voor jongprofessionals.
Kijk op de website voor alle informatie en aanmelden: https://www.kennislabvoorurbanisme.nl/project/summerschool-juli-2019/

In this meetup we welcome students, teachers and business representatives who are open to support students and will introduce them to the concept of Blockchain; “what is Blockchain and why is everyone talking about it”? Next to this explanation some use cases will be shared.
Apart from the introductory lecture about Blockchain, you can also join a workshop "Blockchain for business without code", where you can create smart contracts and learn to work with a toolset that can integrate different Blockchains into any IT-system, without using a single line of code.
At the end there will be plenty of time to network!

This week the City of Amsterdam announced that for the upcoming year, Google will measure the air quality in the city.
In the last couple of years, there were plenty of inspiring local initiatives measuring and sensing issues, such as air quality, water quality and amounts of people.
What were the results of these experiments and projects?

On the 6th of June, several initiatives will present themselves, share the data they collected and tell you about the challenges they encountered.
Did these examples have an influence on governmental policy?

Speakers:
Leonie van den Beuken - Director Amsterdam Smart City
Introduction

Ron van der Lans - City of Amsterdam

Judith Veenkamp - Waag
Air quality in the Smart Citizens Lab, Smart Citizen Kit and demo of sensor of project Hollandse Luchten

Tom van Arman - CITIXL
Upcoming camera vision experiment using UMBO to keep the Marineterrein safe and secure for it occupants and visitors.

Roel van de Loo - SPPS
Sensing in the Port of Amsterdam and reflexions

Would you like to present the results of your measurements?
Send an e-mail to nancy@amsterdamsmartcity.com.

Warm greetings to everyone!

My name is Zuzana and I am doing my bachelor thesis about the impact of civic hacking on government transparency. If you are working for the municipality of Amsterdam or you identify yourself as a civic hacker than I have an interesting offer for you!

What I need from you as a participant:
- You either work for the municipality of Amsterdam or identify yourself as a civic hacker and
you have been involved in a project where the mutual collaboration took place.
- You are willing to do an interview with me and answer questions like how the collaboration itself looked like, what was the input of civic hackers, and in what ways this input helped to achieve effective outcomes, i.e. improve the information exchange between citizens and the municipality.

What you get from me as a participant:
- You will have a chance to share your experience over a nice cup of coffee or tea
- You will help me with my research and eventually contribute to creating more understanding of how the public sector can benefit from collaboration with civic hackers.

In total, I am looking for 10 participants. If you are interested or know someone who can help me, please send me a message on zuzka.kapustikova@gmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you!

Zuzana

Until recently, no mayor asked me how to become a smart city. Recently, I talked to an audience of mayors and civil servants in Zagreb. When I told them that the first step to become smart is not about technology, their attention was caught. Then I advised them to go through six steps. Does your attention be caught too? Read my post.
You will find a Dutch version here: https://wp.me/p32hqY-1Ll

Samen met partners uit de regio heeft de Board het manifest ‘Tada – duidelijk over data’ opgesteld, met daarin de belangrijkste uitgangspunten voor een digitaal verantwoorde stad. Met deze bijeenkomst willen wij het manifest een stap verder brengen. Hoe kun jij binnen je organisatie deze waarden consequent toepassen en écht bewust omgaan met data?

Een veilige en inclusieve maatschappij waar ieder kind en iedere volwassene zich gezien en gerespecteerd voelt. Dat is de missie van Stichting Challenge Day.
Stichting Challenge Day werkt sinds 2011 in Nederland en België samen met middelbare scholen, sportclubs en organisaties aan een veilige schoolcultuur en een veilig sport- en werkklimaat.
Via onze High Impact workshop van 1 dag reiken we tools aan om op gezonde manieren met emoties om te gaan en verbinding te creëren. Omdat we van mening zijn dat sociaal emotionele ontwikkeling superbelangrijk is voor mensen om stevig in hun schoenen te kunnen staan en een veilige maatschappij te creëren. In de praktijk dragen wij dan ook rechtstreeks bij aan vele onderwijs- en ontwikkelthema’s zoals acceptatie, inclusie, goed burgerschap en het oplossen van vroegtijdige schoolverlating (VSV).
Omdat het niet altijd duidelijk is voor VO scholen en gemeentes dát we hieraan kunnen bijdragen willen wij onze werkwijze en onze missie beter voor het voetlicht brengen. Want wij kunnen het niet alleen. Daarom organiseren wij een voorlichtingsmiddag voor gemeentes en het onderwijs. We nodigen je hiervoor van harte uit op vrijdag 24 mei om 14.00 u op het A-Lab, gelegen aan het IJ achter Centraal station, naast de A’dam (oude Shell) toren in Amsterdam.

Een middag die je zal raken. We gaan het hebben over onze overtuiging dat iedereen recht heeft op veiligheid, liefde en respect. Begrippen waar ieder mens waarde aan hecht. De uitdaging is om dit breed maatschappelijk te bereiken. Graag willen wij het werk van Stichting Challenge Day dan ook tastbaar maken voor een breed publiek. Om samen met zoveel mogelijk anderen deze missie voor elkaar te krijgen.
Om wat meer beeld te krijgen bij de impact van een Challenge Day nodigen we je uit deze video alvast te bekijken op youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw6aCR6v_Q4

Talk 1: Lorna Goulden, director Digital Experience, initiator of Eindhoven IoT meetup.
Talk 2: A backbone for crowdsourcing citizen-sensordata @ SurfSara
Sensemakers is involved in collaborations on gathering data around sound-polution, waterquality and more. We will give you an update on these projects and learnings and David Šálek from SurfSara will explain the backbone they have configured for us and the ways it can be used (dashboard, create your own graphs, create (a) Jupyter notebook(s) to access the cooked and raw data and do anything with the data Python allows, publication service via MQTT)

The more smart objects (things) and our surroundings become the more our behavior is anticipated but also influenced. How does IoT change our perspectives?
After an introduction on the increasing complexity and influence of IoT (irt smart cities, AI and cybercrime), Iskander Smit will discuss what it means when things can predict and anticipate our behavior.

Speculative Futures is an international community of meetups focused on Speculative & Critical Design, Design Fiction, Futurism, and Strategy & Foresight and any vision or approach which involves using design as a vehicle to speculate about potential or alternate futures. Speculative Futures is an effort steered by the Design Futures Initiative.

The Digital Society School is proud to announce the opening of the Speculative Futures Chapter, Amsterdam.

Speculative Futures is an international community of meetups focused on Speculative & Critical Design, Design Fiction, Futurism, and Strategy & Foresight. Together, we will examine the ephemeral and the tangible; showcasing creative projects, far out research, and tangible strategies for affecting change. In our meetups we will be hosting workshops around speculative design for those interested in speculative design, critical design, discursive design, strategic foresight, futurism, science fiction and visionary approaches that use design and visual culture to imagine potential futures. From time, we would like to invite speakers—practitioners, teachers, students, and other professionals who will talk about their work and methods.

If you’re interested and would like to keep up to date with our meetups, please consider joining our meetup group: https://www.meetup.com/Speculative-Futures-Amsterdam/

The chapter will be lead by Theo Ploeg, design and media sociologist and Mick Jongeling, Digital Transformation Designer at Digital to Physical track.