My name is Adrian Tavaszi , I am founder of the citizen initiative for democratic smart city in Heidelberg, Germany (https://www.hd-demokratisch-digital.de/). We are looking for policies and guidelines to establish a democratic process of digital transformation. I would like to get in contact with a team member or expert from Amsterdam with some insight into the the basic opearting principles of Amsterdam smart city, the process of establishing the platform and what makes it democratic!
(adriantavaszi@gmail.com)
Thanks
Adrian
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Amsterdam InChange,
Connector of opportunities
at Amsterdam InChange,
posted
ICC Phase 2: Kick off in Brussels
The Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) is one of the European Commission’s largest city support initiatives supporting European cities in their green and digital transitions. ICC delivers knowledge and support services to cities and their local economies to address two major challenges: making the transition to a net-zero economic model, while enabling social inclusion and sustainable development for every EU citizen.
Cities learn how to address these challenges through Local Green Deals: integrated, multi-disciplinary action plans to lead the green and digital transition across sectors from the built environment, urban mobility and renewable energy systems to tourism or small retailers. Cities become members of a vibrant network, gain access to advisory services, innovation and sustainability management techniques, cutting-edge technology and training and get inspiration and advice from peers and mentor cities.
Building on the success of the previous edition of the ICC programme (2020-22) and Digital Cities Challenge (2017-19), the ICC will now enter Phase 2!
Amsterdam as a Mentor City
Like previous years, Amsterdam has been selected to join the support programme as a mentor city. The city will play a leading support role by guiding the 64 core cities as they embark on their two year journey to create impactful strategies and develop innovative solutions that will place the cities at the forefront of the green and digital twin transition through Local Green Deals. A nice compliment, allowing the Amsterdam Region to share their experiences and learnings from setting up Local Green Deal initiatives over the past years.
The Intelligent Cities Challenge Strategy City Lab: Accelerating the Twin Transition (November 2023)
On 23 and 24 November 2023, over 200 people - a mix of Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) core and mentor cities, political leaders and representatives from European institutions gathered for the first time in-person to discuss the status quo of Twin Transition. Through examples and best practices, attendees had the honour to hear from over 30 speakers as they shared insights into collaboration methods, Local Green Deals, climate ambitions, digital transitions and more across the course of 20 sessions.
Amsterdam Smart CIty's Leonie van den Beuken travelled to this gathering in Brussels as one of the representatives of the Amsterdam Region. She summarized her trip as follows:
This EU program helps cities from north to south, east and west to connect, share and learn. A much needed interaction, as we all try to improve the quality of life of our citizens. We all struggle with the ever rising cost of living. And we all want to get our cities to become more sustainable.
None of this comes easy, but we all know that local collaboration plays a key role. Building local coalitions between government, businesses and citizens is one thing, but how do we make sure these so called coalitions of the willing actually become coalitions of the doing?
Some of the learnings we shared from the Amsterdam Region are; the need for political support and the importance of trust and respect.
Local political leadership will inspire and guide society and entrepreneurs to invest and contribute. However, make sure pilotical support doesn’t evolve into political ownership. When that happens, societal parties and businesses tend to step out the coalition.
Take the importance of trust and respect seriously. You need to show long term commitment, take time to create understanding between parties. Take competition between participating SME’s serious and define together how to handle this together. Create a workflow in which smaller parties are allowed to participate less intense but sill feel incorporated.
We'll keep you up to date on our participation in future gatherings and results from ICC Phase 2. Want to know more? Check https://www.intelligentcitieschallenge.eu/
Amsterdam InChange,
Connector of opportunities
at Amsterdam InChange,
posted
Wanted: Community & communication intern Amsterdam Smart City (Dutch)
Ben je een enthousiaste student die het leuk vindt om teksten te schrijven? Heb je interesse in de regio Amsterdam, technologie of duurzaamheid? En zoek je een stage op het gebied van communicatie en communities? Dan zoeken wij jou!
Amsterdam Smart City is het innovatieplatform dat proactieve bewoners, innovatieve bedrijven, kennisinstellingen en overheden samenbrengt en vorm geeft aan de stad van de toekomst. Samen komen we tot innovatieve oplossingen en maken we betere straten, buurten en steden. Zo zorgen we ervoor dat de Amsterdam Metropoolregio leefbaar blijft voor iedereen. Amsterdam Smart City richt zich op vier thema’s: mobiliteit, de digitale stad, energie en circulaire economie. We werken samen met 20 partners en een internationale community van meer dan 8000 leden. Amsterdam Smart City is een netwerkorganisatie die valt of staat met contact met het netwerk. We brengen mensen op verschillende manieren bij elkaar, o.a. via het platform amsterdamsmartcity.com. Communicatie is één van onze kernactiviteiten, waarbij we jouw hulp nodig hebben!
Wij zijn op zoek naar een community en communicatie stagiair(e)!
Het is mogelijk om al vanaf januari te starten!
Wie ben jij?
Je bent een communicatief sterke student in de richting communicatie / media / marketing / journalistiek met affiniteit voor de thema’s duurzaamheid en/of technologie. Je gelooft in de kracht van teamwork en je enthousiasme en leergierigheid inspireren menigeen. Daarnaast ben je initiatiefrijk en flexibel, kun je zelfstandig werken en makkelijk schakelen. Je kunt overweg met online platforms, vindt het leuk om te schrijven, samen aan de slag te gaan en je netwerk te vergroten. Je vindt het leuk om een community te ondersteunen en te stimuleren tot hoge mate van interactie. Een goede beheersing van de Nederlandse en Engelse taal is een must. Ervaring met Photoshop, Indesign en videobewerking is fijn, maar geen must.
Wat ga je doen tijdens je stage?
- Je bedenkt samen met het team welke (interactieve) content interessant is voor het netwerk. Je vindt haakjes met de actualiteit, komt met creatieve ideeën. Daarnaast ga je op zoek naar relevante content uit de community.
- Je beheert en bewerkt de content geplaatst door de community.
- Je schrijft of, als je het leuk vindt, maakt video’s en plaatst deze op de website.
- Je activeert de Amsterdam Smart City community door contact met de leden te onderhouden.
- Je werkt aan de social media kanalen Twitter en Linkedin en zet deze actief in om onze content verder onder de aandacht te brengen.
Wat bieden wij?
- Een uitdagende meewerkstage op het gebied van communities en communicatie voor minimaal 4 dagen per week. Je kunt een zomerstage doen of in september beginnen.
- We bieden je een fijne werkplek op het Marineterrein in Amsterdam, met een informele en collegiale sfeer en voldoende ruimte. Uiteraard kun je ook vanuit huis werken.
- Jouw eigen inbreng en enthousiasme zijn erg welkom.
- Een stagevergoeding van 350 euro pm bij een 40-urige werkweek.
Geïnteresseerd?
Vind je dit allemaal goed klinken? Denk je dat deze stageplek goed bij je past? Stuur dan je CV en een korte motivatie naar info@amsterdamsmartcity.com. Voor meer informatie over de functie kun je bellen met Menouschka Plugge via : 06 43 75 26 36. Hopelijk spreken we elkaar snel!
Anonymous
posted
Transition from Smart to Inclusive city
The primary objective of this research project is to enhance an understanding of the concept of inclusion and its criteria in Smart city discourse. The research ambition is applying the result as a tool for benchmarking inclusive smart cities, which can assess and improve them. To apply the result, we aim to work with cities like Amsterdam, The Hauge, and Rotterdam.
Dear Herman,
thank you very much for your lengthy comment and for the links to further articles you shared. I have the impression that we have to come up with a new definition of "democracy" in the context of digital society, and we have to outline a new role for government institutions in the process. Most German cities are still in phase 1, focussing only on technological solutions.
We are going to discuss these ideas and texts in our group in Heidelberg and come back to the conversation with you with more specific questions!
Yours
Adrian
dear Adrian,
Your question is not easy to answer. I will give you a few cues and a couple of references to some articles that I have written about smart cities. In these articles every now and then I make a difference between smart city 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 (see for instance:http://smartcityhub.com/technology-innnovation/smart-beyond-technology-push/)
The smart city types 2.0 and 3.0 are morst relevant in relation to your questions.
In smart city 2.0 smart city technology is explicitly related to the solution of urban problems with the consent of democratic institutions, like a city council. This is important because in the narrative of big technology companies technology and urban problems have always been connected in an ideological way; see: http://smartcityhub.com/governance-economy/smart-city-smart-story/)
The explicit connection with political institutions and political parties is just one way of framing democratic processes. Historically in a city like Amsterdam, citizens always took some distance from established politics, power and parties. Often Amsterdam has been called a 'free state' in order to accentuate the rights and power of citizens. If you could visit the Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age in the Amsterdam Hermitage, you would experience that these portraits do not picture political elites in the first place, but instead the citizens who have laid the foundation for the city as it is now. Within the context of those days, citizens were the class of merchants and artisans. Democracy in those days differed from what is pretended nowadays!
Smart city 3.0 is connected with the empowerment of citizens and it has has stayed a main characteristic of Amsterdam until today. Just as in the golden age, the question to be answered is who are those citizens. If you try to answer this question from some distance s (probably through the eyes of a non-Amsterdam native, like me), than the most powerful contemporary citizens are (young) start-ups, entrepreneurs, political activists and intellectuals in the first place. It is this group of 'influencers' who are the active members of the the Amsterdam Smart City-community. At the same time the 'creed' of putting 'ordinary citizens' in the center is often heard. A neighbourhood-oriented approach is an internationally recognised starting point to reach this goal (see: http://smartcityhub.com/collaborative-city/smart-cities-1-0-2-0-3-0-whats-next/). However, in my view Amsterdam has a long way to go towards this end. A city like Barcelona is a few steps beyond.
I also ask your attention for the question whether from a 'democratic angle' becoming a smart city is a smart objective after al. In the first place because technology is not the first priority of most citizens. A broader umbrella like 'inclusive city' might be more appropriate (see: http://smartcityhub.com/governance-economy/amsterdam-better-than-smart/).
The most important lesson from Amsterdam is that becoming 'smart' or 'inclusive' has nothing to do with 'operating principles' ( the jargon of Smart city 1.0 ). The growth of any city is a chaotic process that can best be understood from a complexity viewpoint. In practice, I advise to use multiple angels, realising that some of them might be effective and others not. These angels are: mobilising 'influencers', make a short agenda ('charter') and ask all political parties, the city government and other institutions to adopt it, try to establish a community-platform approach in as many neighbourhoods as possible (see the before mentioned example from London), collaborate with universities, and consider becoming a smart city (or whatever you are calling it) as a long journey with ever changing objectives, none of them will be accomplished fully.
Needless to say that I welcome any further exchange of thoughts.
Hi Adrian, I can help with you about the basic operating principles of Amsterdam smart city and the process of establishing the platform. @hermanvandenbosch2 do you have any scientific insights about Amsterdam as a democratic city?
Hi Nancy,
not yet, unfortunately! Do you have an idea what I could do?
Hi Adrian, thank you for your question! Are you in touch with someone from Amsterdam already?
@gijswaagorg @amyrook @tessadegeus can you share some insights on the democratic process of digital transformation?