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The newspaper Algemeen Dagblad stated that municipalities respond quick and adequate to citizens’ complaints on Twitter. It is no surprise that the number of social media interactions between citizens and the local government increases. However, social media is just one way to connect with a specific kind of citizen and responding on social media is not all the municipality has to do with respect to monitoring the public sphere.

The role of webcare teams is primarily that of a translator: he translates the citizens’ emotional complaint regarding garbage on the street into a well formulated work order in a computer system. Depending on the kind of work order, the maintenance team has a service level agreement to solve the problem within 24 hours or within several days. The social media team tweets back: “Oh yes that’s messy! I have announced in our system. My colleague from maintenance will go after is as soon as possible”. And following on the positive statement of Algemeen Dagblad, I assume that the standard terms to solve a problem are rightly chosen: the social media complaints are not solved faster than ‘regular’ complaints.

Despite the positive experiences, having a good webcare team does not equal being a good government for all inhabitants. Firstly because most social media posts should be perceived as a complaint instead of a dialogue. Second, because people posting complaints on social media represent a limited number of people. Third, because a municipality has an own responsibility in managing the public sphere. Let’s have a closer look at this three remarks to the so-called social media “beep system”.

Complaint rather than a dialogue

As a government you want to communicate in a two-way relation with citizens. However, too often a complaining citizen is confused with a citizen who wants to share his ideas. If the social media relationship between the municipality and the citizen is exclusively about complaints and not on ideas then we miss opportunities to improve. Thus: a social media team should not only translate the complaint into a work order, but should also start the dialogue on continues improvement opportunities. A good example of this approach is the “gardener initiative” of the municipality of Sittard. The dialogue on this Facebook site is moved from demanding for and delivering of solutions to sharing ideas.

Who is complaining

My second remark to the “beep system” is that the type of citizen posting messages is limited. In general, they are citizens who speak up to the government. However, many people (especially from lower social classes) do not. Managing the public sphere at the basis of “beeps” from citizens result in very clean streets in neighborhoods with many posting citizens (mostly higher social classes), and dirty streets in neighborhoods where people do not complain. As an alternative, municipalities should develop tools to measure the quality of neighborhoods. In the one neighborhood the ‘beep system’ is sufficient, in the other it is definitely not.

Own responsibility

Finally, the municipality has an own responsibility which cannot be handed over to citizens. Too often, cost reduction is implemented under the title “enforcing citizen participation”. That citizen participation leads to cost saving does not proof that cost saving is also leading to citizen participation. The challenging task for every municipality is to build a system wherein social media interaction, citizen participation, professional inspection and cost saving go hand-in-hand. Initiatives as the gardener of Sittard are inspiring examples of building this new ecosystems wherein every participant can play its own role.

Check the article in Algemeen Dagblad: http://www.ad.nl/den-haag/steeds-meer-klachten-via-twitter-over-troep-op-straat~a39bb570/

Check the gardener of Sittard on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tuinmansittardgeleen/

The Amsterdam Economic Board has published a Roadmap for European Innovation Cooperation (in Dutch). Every step has an explanation with further links to EU-information, guidance on what you need to know (and what is unneccessary to know at that stage). Intended for cities and regions, but could also be useful for other EU-starters!

Amsterdam Smart City is happy to congratulate Anne Hidalgo with this new role. Relations between Amsterdam Smart City and Paris Ville Intelligente are warm and both programmes contribute to the C40 goals with concrete actions.

Heeft uw bedrijf slimme duurzame oplossingen in huis? En bent u op zoek naar een nieuwe grote afzetmarkt? Kom dan naar 'India heeft de toekomst', een mooie avond over werken en ondernemen in India. Het event vindt plaats in Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam op 12 september en gaat van start om 19:30 uur.

Wat kun je onder meer verwachten:

-> Joeri Aulman van ingenieursbureau Royal Haskoning/DHV over wonen in Mumbai en zijn betrokkenheid bij de aanleg van een vliegveld op een nieuw eiland in die stad.
-> Architect Gert Jan Scholte over de kansen voor Nederlandse bedrijven in de aanleg van Indiase smart cities.
-> Documentairemaker Jochem Smit over zijn reis langs de sterk vervuilde rivier de Hindon.

'India heeft de toekomst' is bedoeld voor iedereen die geïnteresseerd is in de razendsnelle, maar onderbelichte economische ontwikkelingen in India. De avond wordt georganiseerd door IndiaConnected en de Gemeente Amsterdam. De entree is gratis en aanmelden kan via: https://dezwijger.nl/programma/india-heeft-de-toekomst

De ANWB en Menzis willen Nederland helpen om zo actief mogelijk te leven en gezond en veilig onderweg te zijn. In vrijheid en met plezier. Met Get Moving zoeken beide partijen de samenwerking met startups op. Voor innovaties op het gebied van o.a. lichamelijke beweging en sociale participatie. Maar ook voor persoonlijke hulp bij pech of een acute zorgbehoefte onderweg. Word jij hun nieuwe partner? Meld je startup voor 22 september aan en pitch bij incubator UtrechtInc op 11 oktober voor de CEO’s van beide bedrijven. Je maakt dan kans op een vervolglunch met de directie, investering en/of (pilot)opdracht bij de leden en klanten van ANWB en/of Menzis! www.utrechtinc.nl/getmoving

Losser municipality wants to develop dog policy in collaboration with its citizens. Losser used Civocracy for digital participation. During 6 weeks all citizens were able to contribute to the online discussion. Over 50 constructive comments were posted. This input will now be used in developing the dog policy.

Since the launch of the Amsterdam Smart City Community, at the beginning of June 2016, the amount of users of the Platform has increased rapidly. The network already consists of more than 800 people from more than 200 cities all over the world.

What can the community do for you?

Here are a few options:

- Post news articles from your company and get great expose! www.amsterdamsmartcity.com/posts

- Share the projects you and your colleagues are working on and read about others which might be of use. www.amsterdamsmartcity.com/projects

- Ask the community everything you need! By posting requests, others can help you with your concrete questions. www.amsterdamsmartcity.com/requests

- Looking for visitors for your event? Add the event on our Event Page (www.amsterdamsmartcity.com/events). People from all over de world might show up...

Sta jij op het punt een huis of appartement op te knappen en wil je deze fors energiezuiniger maken? Kijk dan eens naar de City -Zen renovatie subsidie (www.amsterdamsmartcity.nl/subsidie). Deze kan vanaf nu weer aangevraagd worden door Amsterdamse woningeigenaren. Van villa tot woonboot, van voormalig kantoorpand tot huurcomplex: de City-Zen renovatie subsidie (www.amsterdamsmartcity.nl/subsidie) staat open voor particulieren en VVE’s, maar ook voor woningcorporaties of andere organisaties die woningen in hun bezit hebben. Er is €50 per m2 beschikbaar voor eigenaren die een huis of appartement heel energiezuinig willen maken.

In de eerdere aanvraagrondes viel het brede scala aan projecten op, vertelt Annelies van der Stoep, coördinator van City-zen voor Amsterdam Smart City. “Van de €2.600.000 subsidie die de Europese Commissie ter beschikking heeft gesteld via het project City-zen, is inmiddels bijna €2.000.000 uitgegeven. Voor de laatste 6 ton zoeken we nog inspirerende projecten.” Het niveau dat gevraagd wordt is hoog. Naast isoleren en isolerend glas, wordt ingezet op slim ventileren, zuinige installaties en duurzame energie zoals zonnepanelen of een aansluiting op het warmtenet. “Voor elke woning is het puzzeltje net anders”.

“Wat vooral opvalt is het enthousiasme waarmee de aanvragers hun woning verduurzamen. Ze zijn ontzettend ambitieus en vertellen graag hun verhaal.” vertelt Annelies verder. Zo hebben de broers Daan & Joost Lucas met behulp van de City-zen subsidie, een volledig pand in de Pijp uit begin 19e eeuw, bestaande uit 4 appartementen, helemaal energiezuinig gerenoveerd. Nu zijn 3 van de 4 appartementen energieneutraal. “We hadden geld geërfd en het voelde daarom goed er iets mee te doen als nagedachtenis. We zijn beiden erg geïnteresseerd bij te dragen aan duurzaamheid.” Daarnaast wilden de broers, van wie Joost aannemer is, een case bouwen die andere mensen makkelijk kunnen kopiëren. “Steeds als ik renovaties deed in Amsterdam en energiebesparende maatregelen voorstelde, vonden mensen het te duur. Toen dacht ik: dit is de ideale kans om eens om alles zelf te onderzoeken en te kijken of wij iets anders kunnen doen zo dat het niet zo duur wordt!”

Woningeigenaren die een aanvraag willen doen kunnen deze tot uiterlijk 1 december 2016 indienen, tenzij de subsidiepot eerder leeg is. De aanvragen worden op volgorde van binnenkomst behandeld. Alle voorwaarden en de aanvraagprocedure zijn te vinden op www.amsterdamsmartcity.nl/subsidie.

De renovatiesubsidie is een van de onderdelen van City-zen. Dit project, in Amsterdam en Grenoble (Frankrijk) richt zich op het verduurzamen van de stad door slimme elektriciteitsnetten, warmte- en koude toepassingen, energieopslag, games en duurzame renovatie van huizen.

Meer informatie over City-zen: www.cityzen-smartcity.eu of www.amsterdamsmartcity.com/projects zoekterm City-zen

The way we monitor the quality of the public space is changing. In the past, municipalities hired gardeners and assigned them to mow the lawn twenty times a year. Later, they instructed the gardeners about how the lawn should look: “I don’t care how many times you mow the lawn, but make sure it always looks like the instructions”. The municipality hired an inspector one or two times a year to check whether the gardener did a good job.

Nowadays, we see that the quality of good work is measured in the residents’ satisfaction, rather than following instructions: “no matter how many times you mow the lawn, no matter how the lawn looks like, I want the residents to give a positive evaluation for the lawn!”.

Although the definition of quality and quality measurement has changed last decades, the way of measuring quality hasn’t changed. A professional inspector is still hired to inspect the public space once or twice a year.

A lot of research has been done about influencers of citizen perception of quality in public space. For example, the level of waste on the street is an important influencer. Measuring this daily gives municipalities the possibility to improve the quality of the street every day. Different measures against waste can be tried and evaluated in a short period of time. And thus putting real effort in resident satisfaction.

To be more effective as municipality or entrepreneur in the public space, three ingredients for the monitoring system are required: Firstly, an actual overview of the current state of assets and pavements: are they clean and undamaged? Secondly, a system to measure the perceived quality of the public space, this may differ for various kinds of neighborhoods. Third, a protocol to translate this data into operational processes. Actual measurement data should be connected to operational processes far more than is done now.

Only when these three ingredients are present, different interventions on cleaning, repairing and increasing citizen satisfaction van be monitored and evaluated.

As concept developer for Amsterdam Smart City, I have conducted theoretical and applied research for a real-time based monitoring system for the public sphere. When we combine data citizens create (using social media and dedicated public space apps), data on weather conditions and events and data the mailman collects, we can build such a monitoring system.

The mailman, as eyes and ears on the street can collect data on a daily basis. For example, by taking pictures of certain locations in the city. Moreover, he can be trained to make judgements about the quality of the public space. Finally, he can check whether complaints of citizens have been solved properly.

On September 13th, the Royal Society for Waste and Cleaning management (http://www.nvrd.nl/homepage) organizes a conference on the future of the management of the public spaces. During this day, I will give a plenary speech on the results of one and a half year’s research I conducted together with Harro Verhoeven, Simon Bos and Johan Ruijten. As an example of the projects we ran, take a look at this movie: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xg06K63nOE>

For more information on this conference, check (note: the website is in Dutch) <http://www.nvrd.nl/bijeenkomsten/website/themadag-beheer-openbare-ruimte#programma>

Once again the City of Amsterdam is inviting startups to devise innovative solutions to social issues related to four themes: Urban Mobility, Vibrant City, Circular Economy and Healthy City. Applications are open until the 18th of September.