Design smart city apps using activity theory.

In this paper we describe an innovative approach to the design process of Smart City interventions. We tested it with participants enrolled in the Master\u2019s Degree program in \u201cInnovators in enterprise and public administration\u201d: the objective of the Master was to stimulate the acquisition of technical and methodological skills useful in designing and implementing specific Smart City actions. During the "project work" phase, participants learned about a design method named SAM \u2013 Smart City Model - based on the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). We present an overview of design criteria for Smart City projects, the description of the theoretical framework of Activity Theory, and our proposal of the SAM design model. We also present some examples of student\u2019s \u201cprojects\u201d and a more extensive description of one case study about the full design process of an App planned using SAM, for \u201csmart health\u201d vaccine management and monitoring services. The App was later published and made available to the citizens and was successful in attracting thousands of users. All the participants considered the model very useful in particular because it made possible to understand the interaction and solve contradictions between different stakeholders and systems involved

Defining and assessing the transformational nature of smart city governance: Insights from four European cases

Smart cities are a new approach to urban development based on the extensive use of information and communication technologies and on the promotion of environmental sustainability, economic development and innovation. The article is aimed at discussing whether the adoption of a smart city approach entails the transformation of existing institutional structures and administrative practices. To this end, four cases of European smart cities are analysed: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Turin and Vienna. The article describes their models of governance, investigates the level of transformation that occurred in their governmental structures, outlines the main drawbacks and identifies possible connections with the emergent paradigm of the New Public Governance

Hearing the voice of citizens in smart city design:The CitiVoice framework

In the last few years, smart cities have attracted considerable attention because they are considered a response to the complex challenges that modern cities face. However, smart cities often do not optimally reach their objectives if the citizens, the end-users, are not involved in their design. The aim of this paper is to provide a framework to structure and evaluate citizen participation in smart cities. By means of a literature review from different research areas, the relevant enablers of citizen participation are summarized and bundled in the proposed CitiVoice framework. Then, following the design science methodology, the content and the utility of CitiVoice are validated through the application to different smart cities and through in-depth interviews with key Belgian smart city stakeholders. CitiVoice is used as an evaluation tool for several Belgian smart cities allowing drawbacks and flaws in citizens’ participation to be discovered and analysed. It is also demonstrated how CitiVoice can act as a governance tool for the ongoing smart city design of Namur (Belgium) to help define the citizen participation strategy. Finally, it is used as a comparison and creativity tool to compare several cities and design new means of participation.status: publishe

Collaborative Governance in the Digital Transformation Age: A Systematic Literature Review with Bibliometric Mapping

Purpose: The article aims to provide an updated and comprehensive overview of academic research in the field of collaborative governance and digital transformation, with an emphasis on the emerging topic of collaborative digital transformation. Digital transformation is a recurrent theme in today’s society, fuelled by events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, global climate challenges, and other crises reshaping the world. As societies increasingly rely on digital platforms and online communication, the prime urge and necessity of the human race – i.e., to communicate and collaborate in tackling these challenges – puts collaborative governance in digital transformation high on the agenda of governments, the private sector, and citizens.Design/Methodology/Approach: To address this topic, we performed a bibliometric analysis using various analytical and visualisation tools to evaluate and visualise existing scientific bibliographic materials. The analysis covers 286 articles published in the Scopus and Web of Science databases over the past two decades in the area of collaborative governance and digital transformation, employing established and innovative bibliometric approaches. Graphical analyses are used to illustrate co-authorship, keywords co-occurrence, research topics evolution, and the network of influential researchers within collaborative governance and digital transformation.Findings: The results show that the relationship between collaborative governance and digital transformation is still limited and needs further study, considering that these two concepts have been emerging trends in public administration over the past two decades. In addition, the findings reveal a significant growth in research of these topics over time, although not specifically focused on collaborative digital transformation.Practical Implications: The article provides a summary of key aspects of collaborative governance and digital transformation research and helps lay the foundations for shaping the future of this evolving field of public administration. Thus, it helps researchers understand the development of collaborative digital transformation research over the past two decades, as collaborative digital transformation is a relatively new field of research characterised by rapid growth and evolution.Originality/Value: The research contributes to the understanding of collaborative digital transformation as a distinct research area within the broader concepts of digital transformation and collaborative governance, which is still seeking its own identity in academic literature, and offers a definition of collaborative digital transformation (CDT)

Exploring the democratic potential of online social networking: The scope and limitations of e-participation

Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Information Systems.The availability and promise of social networking technologies with their perceived open philosophy has increasingly inspired citizens around the world to participate in political activity on the Web. Recent examples range from opposing public policies, such as government funding cuts, to organizing revolutionary social movements, such as those in the Middle East and North Africa. Although online spaces create remarkable opportunities for various forms of political action, there are concerns over the power of existing institutions to control and even censor such interaction spaces. The objective of this article is to draw together different insights on the online engagement phenomenon, highlighting both its potential and limitations as a mechanism for fostering democratic debate and influencing policy making. We examine recent examples from Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. Finally, we summarize the implications of our work and outline directions for further research

Electronic governance with an infrastructure reporting platform: The case of Züri wie neu.

This master thesis researches how the interaction between the administration of the city of Zurich and users of the infrastructure reporting platform Züri wie neu (ZWN) is mediated. The thesis is a case study of an internet and communication solution adopted in state-led digitized governance structures often understood under the moniker of e-governance in so-called smart cities. Like characterizations found in literature on smart cities, literature on comparable infrastructure reporting platforms and ZWN specifically sees those platforms as a bottom-up tool to increase participation while fostering more accountability of governments, govern more transparently and efficiently. With the help of a heuristic platform walkthrough, semi-structured interviews with officials of the city of Zurich involved in the management and maintenance of ZWN and a spatial analysis of the openly available data this thesis questions some of the fundamental promises of digitized governance such as increased efficiency and accountability, foster active participation and provide improved services. The interaction through ZWN is mediated in ways that protect the administration from stirring up wrong expectations by creating distance between the administration and users through a standardized, nudged, and one-sided communication, allowing them to deal better with time consuming users, ‘naggers’ and prevent political discussion the administration is unable to deal with due to a structural problem. Further, ZWN appears as an isolated tool within the organization of the city of Zurich with limited benefits for the efficiency of the administration in providing infrastructure maintenance services which is already extensively managed apart from the usage of the platform. Simultaneously, the platform serves as an image caretaker showcasing the performance of the administration. Lastly, compared to other studies on infrastructure reporting platforms from the US, UK and Belgium no apparent differences over space in report contribution to the platform have been found