Amsterdam Smart City

The first Demoday of the year was a great success! A lot of familiar and new faces gathered at DB55 for an afternoon full of inspiration, exchange and connection with each other. In this article, we give you a quick overview of the Impact Workshop, pitches and worksessions. Interesting in learning more? Read the full reports by our Programme Managers Sophie, Jessica and Pelle (linked below).

About our Demodays

The Demodays are one of the tools we use to stimulate innovation and encourage connection between our partners and community. The purpose of the Demodays is to present the progress of various innovation projects, ask for help, share dilemmas and involve more partners to take these projects to the next level. More information about the Demodays can be found here.

Impact Workshop

We started the Demoday with a workshop about ‘Measuring the impact of our network’. At the start of our new programme period, our partners have expressed their wishes to make the impact of our organisation, events and projects more measurable so that we can share and learn from each other. Our colleague Antonio Carretero from the Amsterdam Economic Board has developed an impact framework with four impact lenses that can help managing change in a different way. Read all about it here.

Pitches

After the Impact Workshop, we continued with four inspiring pitches. Susan van Esch and Bas Schilder (phbm) added a useful instrument to our toolbox for Smart City projects: the “bewustwordingsmatrix” (the awareness matrix), Bas Ruis told us more about the FIXbrigade and their plans for the future, Yanti Slaats (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) gave us an update about CIRCOLLAB and Mariana Garcia E. (World Benchmarking Alliance) pitched the Urban Benchmark Methodology which is currently in development.

Worksessions

Digital | CommuniCity project, by Neeltje Pavicic (municipality of Amsterdam)
Through the CommuniCity project, the municipality of Amsterdam is looking for a structural process for matching the needs of vulnerable communities to solutions of tech providers. In this worksession, the network discussed the current bottlenecks for developing tech for vulnerable communities and potential next steps. Curious about the outcomes? Read the full report by Programme Manager (Digital) Sophie here.

Mobility | Mobility as a Commons, by Job Pék (municipality of Amsterdam)
Cooperative shared mobility or Mobility as a Commons (MaaC), in which vehicles are managed and owned by a group of local owners, can offer opportunities for residents and the city. At the Demoday, Jop Pek and Diederik Basta explained more about Mobility as a commons, and reflected together with participants. Read more in the report by Programme Manager (Mobility) Pelle here.

Energy | 15% GasTerug initiative, by Laetitia Stuit (Amsterdam Economic Board)
The action network 15%GasTerug has been working hard to achieve the goal of 15% gas usage reduction since the war in Ukraine broke out. They reached this goal in January this year and asked the Amsterdam Smart City to help make the impact more visible to the public in this worksession. In the session, led by Remco Marinus from Havas Lemz, the participants brainstormed about possible newspaper headlines on 15%GasTerug. Want to know what they came up with? Read the full report by Programma Manager (Energy & Circularity) Jessica here.

The next Demoday is on Thursday the 16th of May. Do you have an inspiring story or project you want to pitch to the Amsterdam Smart City network? Let us know via sophie@amsterdamsmartcity.com.

The city of tomorrow is already being shaped by parties in the Amsterdam Smart City network. But a shared impact language when working together on transition challenges is missing. At the start of our new programme period, our partners have expressed their wishes to make the impact of our organisation, events and projects more measurable so that we can share and learn from each other. Our colleague Antonio Carretero (Amsterdam Economic Board) has developed an impact framework with four impact lenses that can help managing change in a different way. Together with partners Royal HaskoningDHV and Kennisland, Antonio led a workshop about how we can measure the impact of our network during the Demoday on March 23, 2023.

The Impact Framework

The impact framework is a broad forward-looking perspective and includes the various dimensions of impact: economic and sustainability impact, social issues, regional ecosystems and breakthroughs at the systems level. This framework can form the basis for a more shared impact language when working together on transitions. Below find an explanation of the four impact lenses developed by Amsterdam Economic Board:

• Lens 1: Economic and sustainability impact: The first lens focuses on the measurable impact on economy and sustainability in the region. Think of the phase-out of fossil fuels and the transition towards a green economy, with the reduction of CO2 as main goal.
• Lens 2: Social impact: Within the lens, social impact is central: how do projects and investments contribute to solving pressing social issues and well-being for residents? For this lens, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a handy stepping stone to test interventions beforehand, but also to review impact afterwards.
• Lens 3: Strategic impact: The third lens looks at strategic impact from an ecosystem perspective: to what extent do interventions contribute to strengthening innovative ecosystems?
• Lens 4: System impact: With the fourth and final lens, we zoom out to the system level. How do interventions contribute to breaking down and building up systems?

Based on these four lenses, Antonio compiled a checklist with questions. To test the framework and checklist, we invited Marcel van Lieshout (municipality of Amsterdam) and Chris de Veer (province of North-Holland/Amsterdam Smart City), who are involved in the Mobility Challenge.

The case: Mobility Challenge

The Mobility Challenge is a coalition of partners who are working together to make CO2 neutral commute to and from the Johan Cruijff ArenA the norm. Using different types of measures, such as discouraging the use of cars, more bike parking, and group transport by bus, the partners are stimulating visitors to travel to the Johan Cruijff ArenA in a more sustainable way.
According to Antonio, the Impact framework provides three interesting perspectives for the mobility challenge:

• Lens 1: Economic & Sustainability impact: How can we determine the impact of all separate measures? How to start measuring, without it costing too much money or time? Currently, there is much unknown about how and from where visitors are travelling to the ArenA. We discussed an easy way to start measuring: with a questionnaire asking visitors about their commute via de Ajax app. In this way, we can create a baseline assessment.
• Lens 3: Strategic & Ecosystem impact: Which other parties should join, and what is the impact of that? It is important to think out-of-the-box when it comes to other potential partners. Think of area development and environmental parties who know a lot about the infrastructure developments in the area.
• Lens 4: System impact: How can we make CO2 neutral commute the norm and learn from this initiative? How can it become the ‘new normal’? The participants discussed how we can collect and share the learnings, and how we can learn from the cooperation as a network. It was also recommended work together with other events in the city, for example SAIL.

Next steps

In the coming months, we will further develop the Impact framework for the Amsterdam Smart City network. To do so, he will use the Mobility Challenge as a case to test the checklist and the framework. Additionally we will use the impact lenses to sharpen questions or projects brought in by partners, and (internally) map the impact of our tools. Do you have any input, or do you want to know more? Let us know in the comments.

On the 16th of March, we gathered at the Marineterrein for the first Data Dilemma's event of 2023. This edition's programming was centered around the Energy transition and considerations for the use of digital technology in such transitions. The different speakers and topics raised questions around inclusion, access and ownership of data. Enjoy our summary of this insightful afternoon!

Alliander’s Local Inclusive Future Energy (LIFE) Project. - Reinier Prins (Alliander)

Reinier introduced his presentation by describing the current state of the Energy domain. Its problems consist mainly of congestion on the energy grid and the rising energy prices, while its solutions are implemented through, for example, law and regulations, new technologies, and the emergence of new forms of local cooperation. Alliander saw an opportunity to contribute to the latter, focussing on the strengthening of local energy communities and reinforcing the existing electricity network.

Within Alliander’s Local Inclusive Future Energy (LIFE) Project, they have set up a Digital Twin in the form of a subway map. The map shows a simplified overview of a specific neighbourhood and shows you a topological map of transformers, its connections, and the maximum capacity of its cables. Studying this simplified map gives you valuable insights. You’ll be able to identify your neighbouring assets, with whom you could potentially exchange energy, and you’ll see which specific parts of the net have limited capacity left.

While this map is a great tool for the development of more local/cooperative energy communities, the detailed info it provides on the net’s energy capacity leads to a dilemma for Alliander. They are worried that if they make this info on (future) congestions public, people and companies will rush to buy and invest in all assets where there’s enough energy capacity left, which is not the desired effect. The crowd responded to this dilemma with critical questions and advice. They mainly revolved around the idea that that citizens and its perspectives should be more involved in the design of the map and its purpose. Also, Alliander should not be afraid to discuss this very dilemma with a group of users/citizens and ask for their advice on the matter.

Digital Technologies for spatial planning and the energy transition. - Paul Strijp (Provincie Noord-Holland) and Allerd Nanninga (Rathenau Instituut).

Together with his team from the Province of North-Holland, Paul Strijp is setting up a Digital Twin for the ‘North Sea Canal Area’. This area, crossing multiple cities and municipalities, is home to many challenges regarding housing and energy production. This will help the Province in overseeing all the problems in physical space and decide who should govern each of those challenges. While the first prototype of this Digital Twin will be delivered in a few months, Paul Strijp took on a side quest with Romy Dekker and Allerd Nanninga from Rathenau Instituut; looking at the bigger picture and asking the ’slow questions’.

As Allerd Nanninga clarified in his part, retrieving data form the physical world, displaying this in a virtual space, and using this information/process to create new solutions or interventions, involves a lot of steps where subjectivity is involved. Even though working with data seems like an objective practice, all those steps involve decisions which could have political motives. For this reason, special attention should be given to justifying all choices made in each step. This difficult task is accompanied by the fact that you’re never able to measure ‘everything’. There is that, which technically can not be measured, and there is data which can not be seen because of a project’s focus. These mentioned dilemma’s translated into this presentation’s key message: ‘We need knowledge to flourish, though knowledge can misguide and obscure’

Later, when comments and questions arose from the audience, Paul Strijp touched upon a hard truth. While research and talks like these do a great job in convincing you to take the mentioned considerations into account, parties with a technical focus are often hard to convince because of the story’s lack of straight forward causalities. Another challenge is rooted in the fact that the Province doesn’t have a strong tradition of communicating with its citizens. Communicating and collaborating is something that’s necessary in a time where digital technologies intertwine with societal transitions and public participation wishes.

How do we, as a community, keep control over data, monitoring software and models for the energy transition? Julia Jansen (Waag)

Open source or cooperative development of digital systems. That’s Julia Jansen’s answer to the question above. In her presentation, Julia used different examples to show what open source or cooperative development of digital systems could look like. Hoomdossier, Econobis and the COFY-Box are all open source solutions which aren’t concerned with trading data of its users. The development of these (online) products can be co-decided and monitor by its ‘customers’; energy cooperatives who ‘own’ the product collectively.

This alternative way of developing and using data and software is something we should aim for if we wish to prevent big data factories to posess all of our systems and its yields. Additionally, it inreaces transparency and accountability of the systems, and it increases innovation by re-use and sharing between communities.
Julia Janses ended her presentation by stating that ‘technology developed with public finds should be returned to society as much as possible.’ If you build something with the help of data from the public, its product or result should be serving the public as well. A great first step towards democratizing technology is that open source should be the standard.

Would you like to join our next Data Dilemmas? The upcoming session is scheduled on the 25th of May (topic and speakers to be announced). Keep an eye out on our platform for the programme!

In Today’s Changemakers, we talk with pioneers in our network who are all, in their own way, shaping the city and region of the future. Our first interviewee is Romy Dekker, senior researcher at the Rathenau Instituut. She studied Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, where she quickly learned that our societal drive for growth comes at the expense of our planet, and that development does not always mean improvement for all. This insight motivated Romy to combine her interest in science with sustainability. Currently, she works as a senior researcher on topics at the intersection of sustainability, digitalisation and democracy. Her latest work caught our attention. She just started a study on how new technologies, such as Digital Twins, can contribute to tackle societal challenges in the built environment. The following paragraphs describe our insightful conversation about the complexities when using digital technology, her first learnings, and personal ambitions.

In Romy's work, she looks at the role of data and digitalisation in the energy transition in two ways. The first is data as an enabler for a just energy transition.
“The convergence of sustainability transitions and the digitisation of society represents two of the most defining trends of our era. The intersection of these trends has a significant impact on society. The Rathenau Instituut wants to provide tools for a broad discussion about what is needed to use digital technology and data for just sustainability transitions.”

“In our report Stroom van Data, we investigated how data can be used for a just energy transition. It's becoming increasingly clear that data are indispensable for the energy transition. Data can help with keeping the energy system affordable, reliable and clean, for example by better aligning the demand for and supply of energy and by providing citizens insights into their energy behaviour. However, there are also genuine concerns about citizens' control over their data, the cybersecurity of the energy supply, the environmental impact of digital technologies and the distribution of benefits and burdens of a digitalized energy-market. Addressing these issues is necessary to achieve a socially responsible energy transition.”

The second approach concerns how digital technologies, specifically Digital Twins* (definition can be found at the end of this page), can contribute to decision-making regarding spatial planning for sustainability challenges, such as the energy transition. Are Digital Twins merely a hype or a hope?
“Urgent societal challenges are often interdependent, meaning that an intervention in one area can have an impact on another; a decision to build a house somewhere, for example, has an impact on achieving other urgent energy, water, and climate goals. To tackle this complexity and improve the information available to stakeholders, public and private parties turn to data and digital technologies, and more specifically to Digital Twins.”

“However, as digital technologies and data are neither neutral nor apolitical, it is important to remain critical on how Digital Twins can contribute to tackling societal problems. The use of Digital Twins in decision-making and governance may influence our definition and understanding of problems. Consequently, it may determine what is governed, who has the ability to exercise power and be involved, and how we act. Ultimately, this can determine if social challenges are genuinely and fairly addressed. When simulating an urban region, there are also many ecological, social and political-economic aspects. How do you take these factors, which cannot easily be measured, into account?”

“Because the Digital Twin is gaining popularity as a tool for decision-making, the Rathenau Instituut will investigate how such technologies can contribute to tackling societal challenges in the built environment. Can Digital Twins help to make more integral decisions and engage citizens and other relevant stakeholders in decision-making? And if so, how? What are risks associated with using these technologies and how can they be mitigated?”

Romy’s considerations for the Amsterdam Smart City community
“A bit of an open door, but nonetheless very important; technology is a means and not an end in itself. It is important that its use takes place in a responsible manner, with an eye on public values such as equality, fairness, and democratic governance and that it is carefully considered how its use contributes to the urgent societal challenges we face. Finally, public involvement in sustainability transitions is important, but only if it takes place in a meaningful way. Otherwise, it can do more harm than good. This requires a clear answer to questions such as: is it clear what the purpose and process of public participation are and what will be done with the input?”

Using science to tackle societal challenges
“I used to doubt whether I wanted to work as a scientist or not. Because although scientists do very important work, they can sometimes be a bit disconnected from concrete societal issues, causing their work to lose relevance. I like how at the Rathenau Instituut, we really stand between science, politics and society. We want to make scientific insights accessible to a wider audience, and also actively involve citizens through participatory methods. It motivates me that in my work, I’m increasingly looking at how science, technology and innovation can contribute to tackling major societal challenges in a just way.”

“My dream for the urban region of the future? A liveable city for both humans and non-humans that operates within planetary boundaries and ensures an equitable distribution of both burdens and benefits.”

Romy and her colleagues recently started their research on using digital technologies, including Digital Twins, to address societal challenges that come together in a specific (urban or regional) area. Are you currently working on a Digital Twin project, or as a policymaker interested in the use of Digital Twins but facing certain challenges? And would you like to contribute to Romy’s research? Shoot our community manager Sophie (sophie@amsterdamsmartcity.com) a message and she will connect you with Romy!

*A digital twin (DT) can be seen as a virtual representation of a physical product, process or (eco)system. They can be used to simulate how a physical object or system will perform under different conditions and scenarios, allowing for a better understanding and optimization of processes.

Op donderdag 23 maart organiseert Amsterdam Smart City een Demodag rondom onze vier transitiethema’s: energie, circulair, mobiliteit en digitaal. Er staan weer veel mooie initiatieven en vraagstukken op het programma die we met ons netwerk gaan verdiepen en verrijken. De Demodag vindt plaats bij DB55, een inspirerende locatie in de Amsterdam Houthavens waar innovatie, onderwijs, sport, gezondheid en kunst samenkomen.

Demodagen zijn onderdeel van ons innovatieproces en bedoeld om de voortgang van verschillende innovatieprojecten te stimuleren, hulpvragen op tafel te leggen, dilemma's te delen en anderen te betrekken bij projecten of uitdagingen. Dit gebeurt in de vorm van zogenaamde ‘pitches’, met een korte hulpvraag aan de hele groep, en in werksessies waarin we een aantal vragen met een kleine groep wat grondiger behandelen. Meer informatie over wat de demodagen precies zijn en waarom je mee wilt doen, vind je hier.

Klinkt het programma interessant? Je bent welkom om aan te sluiten. Laat het ons weten in de comments of mail naar info@amsterdamsmartcity.com. De Demodag is van 14:00-16:30 met een borrel na afloop.

Pitches

Bewustwordingsmatrix - Susan van Esch en Bas Schilder (phbm)
In deze pitch voegen we een gereedschap toe aan jouw Toolbox voor Smart City-vraagstukken; het BewustwordingsModel. Dit model maakt de positie en wensen van jou en de ander expliciet en voorkomt dat er ruis ontstaat over het niveau van ‘slimheid’ in de leefomgeving. Hoe slim is de ideale leefomgeving wat jou betreft, nu en in de toekomst? Wat betekent dat voor o.a. je strategie, diensten en technologie?

FIXbrigade – Bas Ruis (FIXbrigade Amsterdam)
De FIXbrigade is een leer-werktraject en helpt mensen met een krappe beurs om hun huis beter te isoleren. Daarvoor geven ze praktische tips én voeren ze de benodigde isolerende maatregelen uit. Bas vertelt in zijn pitch meer over het leer-werktraject, de behaalde resultaten tot nu toe en de toekomstplannen van de FIXbrigade.

CIRCOLLAB - Yanti Slaats (Hogeschool van Amsterdam)
CIRCOLLAB is een consortium van 33 partners, gericht op het identificeren welke technologische, sociale, economische en creatieve innovaties er in de Metropool Regio Amsterdam (MRA) nodig zijn om veranderingen in een stroomversnelling te brengen en hoe deze met interdisciplinair praktijkgericht onderzoek te realiseren zijn. Yanti vertelt ons meer over deze samenwerking.

Urban Benchmark methodology – Mariana Garcia Espindola (World Benchmarking Alliance)
(Pitch in English) The World Benchmarking Alliance will translate SDG-11 and The New Urban Agenda into a roadmap for the private sector, outlining the clear commitments that companies must make to help transform our urban system. This will open the door for innovative initiatives to ignite and spread, so that the cities of our future are cities that work for everyone. Mariana introduces the Urban Benchmark methodology and invites Amsterdam Smart City partners and network to contribute to its development.

Werksessies

Digitaal | CommuniCity – Neeltje Pavicic (gemeente Amsterdam)
De gemeente Amsterdam wil dat iedereen kan profiteren van de kansen en mogelijkheden van digitalisering. Binnen het CommuniCity project worden in de komende drie jaar door heel Europa honderd pilots uitgevoerd om technologische oplossingen te ontwikkelen voor en met kwetsbare gemeenschappen. Hoe zorgen we ervoor dat de behoeften en uitdagingen van deze doelgroepen beter in beeld zijn? En hoe koppelen we toepassingen die tech bedrijven hiervoor hebben aan maatschappelijke organisaties die een digitale oplossing zoeken? Gemeente Amsterdam onderzoekt hoe we de behoeften van kwetsbare gemeenschappen beter kunnen matchen aan tech partijen en hun oplossingen. We nodigen het Smart City netwerk uit om de huidige knelpunten samen met ons te onderzoeken, de rol van de gemeente te verkennen, en oplossingen te bedenken. Denk je met ons mee?

Mobiliteit | Mobility as a Commons – Jop Pék (gemeente Amsterdam)
Wil de stad haar ambities halen op het gebied van autoluw én sociaal blijven dan zal er iets moeten veranderen. Coöperatieve deelmobiliteit of Mobility as a Commons (MaaC), waarbij voertuigen in beheer en bezit zijn van Amsterdammers, kan kansen bieden voor bewoners en de stad. De gemeente Amsterdam vertelt jullie graag meer over het concept, de aanpak van het project en hoe de Europese samenwerking tot stand is gekomen. Ook willen zij graag met jullie reflecteren op het project, wat er nodig is voor een paradigmashift binnen de mobiliteitssector en andere projecten die relevant zijn.

Energie | Impact in kaart brengen van 15% GasTerug – Laetitia Stuijt (Amsterdam Economic Board)
Vanuit het Actienetwerk 15% GasTerug wordt sinds het uitbreken van de oorlog in Oekraïne gewerkt aan het structureel versnellen van energiebesparing. In januari is het doel van 15%GasTerug gehaald, maar wat betekent dat precies? Welke impact hoort daarbij en op welke niveaus? Hoe haal je de benodigde data op uit data-blind-spots? En hoe vertaal je de impact naar een helder verhaal? Voor de voortzetting van 15%GasTerug is het van belang dat de resultaten goed in kaart worden gebracht. Actienetwerk 15%GasTerug wil daar graag over in gesprek met het netwerk tijdens deze werksessie.

Circulair | CircuLaw – Romy Snijders, Yvonne de Meij van Streefkerk en Arjan Hassing (gemeente Amsterdam)
De circulaire transitie schiet nog niet erg op. Als we doorgaan zoals we nu bezig zijn, worden de 2030 halveringsdoelstellingen voor materiaal nooit gehaald. Meer ‘drang en dwang’ is nodig, maar slechts 1% van de beleidsinstrumenten van decentrale overheden is van dwingend van karakter. CircuLaw wil hier verbetering in brengen, door juridische instrumenten aan te bieden en beleidsmakers, projectleiders en inkopers te helpen bij de toepassing ervan. Graag halen zij perspectieven vanuit de markt, overheid en kennisinstellingen op om CircuLaw verder te ontwikkelen. Hierbij ligt de focus op: wat is precies een goede manier om regelgeving toe te passen?

Foto door Dieuwertje van der Stoep / Meisje met de camera

City governments can have grand ideas and dreams about changing a city and revolutionizing services, but without a clear design and focus on building a base, many ideas and innovations can fall through. Amsterdam Smart City’s Programme Director, Leonie van den Beuken, was invited to speak about how to design a city from the bottom-up at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.

Ralf Kleindiek, Chief Digital Officer and State Secretary for Digital Affairs and Administrative Modernization for the City of Berlin, and Caroline Paulick-Thiel, Executive Director for Politics of Tomorrow and the Co-Founder of nextlearning, joined her in this discussion.

Leonie highlighted that it is crucial to include residents in decision-making processes, but at the same time, we need to address how difficult the process and outcome may be. For example, if we want streets with less cars, residents need to give up their cars and find other alternatives. Key to designing the city from the bottom-up is to ask the right questions in an understandable and tangible way.

Watch the full interview and other interesting talks via the website Tomorrow. City: https://tomorrow.city/a/berlin-and-amsterdam-or-designing-the-city-from-the-bottom-up