No longer hype, not yet mainstream? Recalibrating city digital twins' expectations and reality: a case study perspective

While the concept of digital twin has already consolidated in industry, its spinoff in the urban environment—in the form of a City Digital Twin (CDT)—is more recent. A CDT is a dynamic digital model of the physical city whereby the physical and the digital are integrated in both directions, thus mutually affecting each other in real time. Replicating the path of smart cities, literature remarks that agendas and discourses around CDTs remain (1) tech-centered, that is, focused on overcoming technical limitations and lacking a proper sociotechnical contextualization of digital twin technologies; (2) practice-first, entailing hands-on applications without a long-term strategic governance for the management of these same technologies. Building on that, the goal of this article is to move beyond high-level conceptualizations of CDT to (a) get a cognizant understanding of what a CDT can do, how, and for whom; (b) map the current state of development and implementation of CDTs in Europe. This will be done by looking at three case studies—Dublin, Helsinki, and Rotterdam—often considered as successful examples of CDTs in Europe. Through exiting literature and official documents, as well as by relying on primary interviews with tech experts and local officials, the article explores the maturity of these CDTs, along the Gartner's hype-mainstream curve of technological innovations. Findings show that, while all three municipalities have long-term plans to deliver an integrated, cyber-physical real-time modeling of the city, currently their CDTs are still at an early stage of development. The focus remains on technical barriers—e.g., integration of different data sources—overlooking the societal dimension, such as the systematic involvement of citizens. As for the governance, all cases embrace a multistakeholder approach; yet CDTs are still not used for policymaking and it remains to see how the power across stakeholders will be distributed in terms of access to, control of, and decisions about CDTs.Urban Data Scienc

Back to Roots: Reconsidering Data-As-Resource to Introduce a Commons-Based Modulating Approach to Open Data

This paper takes the lead from the acknowledged ongoing mismatch between open data provision and actual open data demand by users, both public and private. To tackle such mismatch, the paper suggests remodulating data openness through a commons approach, which seeks to account for all data actors’ needs, while maintaining their interests in balance. In other words, data commons enacts an ecosystemic approach by default to data provision and demand, whereby data actors and their relations are mutually co-dependent. Yet, the application of the concept of the commons to data is not straightforward. This is due to data’s hybrid nature, which requires reconsidering the normative understanding of data as a resource, if we really want to develop a governance model that is beneficial to all actors and the whole data ecosystem. Building on recent literature in this direction, the paper will briefly outline the pillars of a commons-based data ecosystem.Urban Data Scienc

Federated data as a commons: a third way to subject-centric and collective-centric approaches to data epistemology and politics

Purpose: This study advances a reconceptualization of data and information which overcomes normative understandings often contained in data policies at national and international levels. This study aims to propose a conceptual framework that moves beyond subject- and collective-centric normative understandings. Design/methodology/approach: To do so, this study discusses the European Union (EU) and China’s approaches to data-driven technologies highlighting their similarities and differences when it comes to the vision underpinning how tech innovation is shaped. Findings: Regardless of the different attention to the subject (the EU) and the collective (China), the normative understandings of technology by both actors remain trapped into a positivist approach that overlooks all that is not and cannot be turned into data, thus hindering the elaboration of a more holistic ecological thinking merging humans and technologies. Originality/value: Revising the philosophical and political debate on data and data-driven technologies, a third way is elaborated, i.e. federated data as commons. This third way puts the subject as part by default of a collective at the centre of discussion. This framing can serve as the basis for elaborating sociotechnical alternatives when it comes to define and regulate the mash-up of humans and technology.Urban Data Scienc

Shaping a Data Commoning Polity: Prospects and Challenges of a European Digital Sovereignty

The concept of “digital sovereignty” has gained momentum due to the emergence of a multipolar geopolitical scenario based upon different visions of today’s digital society. In this scenario, the United States, China, and the European Union are major players, each pursuing their understanding of digital sovereignty and their approach to digital transformation. The EU conceives of digital sovereignty as technological autonomy from other competitors, and to achieve this it has carved for itself the role of international regulator. De facto, however, the EU enacts an individual-centric and economic-driven digital strategy that hinders the possibility of a fully-fledged European digital sovereignty. Notably, the concept fails to embed the collective-level dimension proper to sovereignty as such. To tackle this, the paper explores data commoning as the basis for shaping a well-formed European polity, key to its digital sovereignty.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Urban Data Scienc

‘Data sovereignty’ or ‘Data colonialism’? Exploring the Chinese involvement in Africa’s ICTs: a document review on Kenya

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become a crucial sector of China–Africa relations. As scholars have noted, Africa’s 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) risks transforming into a new ‘scramble’ with foreign actors harnessing Africa’s data. The present article explores this issue at a discursive level, i.e. delving into policies, bilateral agreements, and laws. The focus is specifically on Kenya in that it is one of the most developed ICT markets in Africa and it is here that the Chinese tech giant Huawei began its investments in 1998. Via a document review, the article provides a preliminary discursive assessment of the extent to which Kenyan actors are effectively (dis)empowered with regard to their own 4IR. The analysis shows that both pan-African and bilateral agreements remain at a high level of abstraction: while this is the typical Chinese way of framing discourses on technological innovation, it also leaves room for political manoeuvring and potential forms of data colonialism.Urban Data Scienc

Huawei Knowledge Transfer in Africa: Corporate Communication and Users’ Responses on Social Networks

This article focuses on the launch by the Chinese company Huawei of ICT academies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and Kenya especially. Existing literature shows contrasting findings concerning the impact of such formation and recruitment centres. Through high-level thematic and sentiment analyses, this article examines various Huawei accounts on social networking sites (SNSs) – that is, Facebook and Twitter – in order to better assess: (1) the kind of online corporate communication unfolded by the company with particular regard to these centres; and (2) how the advertising of such centres is perceived by users. The results suggest that Huawei’s online corporate requires better fine-tuning with local SNSs’ users.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care. Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Urban Data Scienc

An ethics assessment list for geoinformation ecosystems: revisiting the integrated geospatial information framework of the United Nations

To achieve sustainable development goals, georeferenced data and geographic information systems play a crucial role. Yet, the way in which these data and systems are summoned upon rests on positivist assumptions which overlook both epistemological and ethical concerns. This is epitomized by the integrated geospatial information framework (IGIF) of the United Nations, which, from the perspective of sustainable development, aims to provide guidance for the management of geoinformation and related tools, considering these as mirrors of the physical world. In this respect, the article has three main goals. First, it delivers an epistemological and ethical critique of the IGIF, by highlighting its internal tensions. Second, it suggests how the IGIF and similar geoinformation initiatives can benefit from an ethical reflection that allows to conduct georeferenced practices in a fair(er) way. Third, it designs an ethics assessment list for self-evaluating the ethical robustness of geoinformation initiatives as ecosystems.Urban Data Scienc

A fourth way to the digital transformation: The data republic as a fair data ecosystem

To harness the promises of digital transformation, different players take different paths. Departing from corporate-driven (e.g., the United States) and state-led (e.g., China) approaches, in various documents, the European Union states its goal to establish a citizen-centric data ecosystem. However, it remains contentious the extent to which the envisioned digital single market can enable the creation of public value and empower citizens. As an alternative, in this article, we argue in favor of a fair data ecosystem, defined as an approach capable of representing and keep in balance the data interests of all actors, while maintain a collective outlook. We build such ecosystem around data commons—as a third path to market and state approaches to the managing of resources—coupled with open data (OD) frameworks and spatial data infrastructures (SDIs). Indeed, based on literature, we claim that these three regimes complement each other, with OD and SDIs supplying infrastructures and institutionalization to data commons’ limited replicability and scalability. This creates the preconditions for designing the main roles, rules, and mechanisms of a data republic, as a possible enactment of a fair data ecosystem. While outlining here its main traits, the testing of the data republic model is open for further research.Urban Data Scienc

(Non)negotiable spaces of algorithmic governance: Perceptions on the Ubenwa health app as a ‘relocated’ solution

This study explores relocated algorithmic governance through a qualitative study of the Ubenwa health app. The Ubenwa, which was developed in Canada based on a dataset of babies from Mexico, is currently being implemented in Nigeria to detect birth asphyxia. The app serves as an ideal case for examining the socio-cultural negotiations involved in re-contextualising algorithmic technology. We conducted in-depth interviews with parents, medical practitioners and data experts in Nigeria; the interviews reveal individuals’ perceptions about algorithmic governance and self-determination. In particular, our study presents people’s insights about (1) relocated algorithms as socially dynamic ‘contextual settings’, (2) the (non)negotiable spaces that these algorithmic solutions potentially create and (3) the general implications of re-contextualising algorithmic governance. This article illustrates that relocated algorithmic solutions are perceived as ‘cosmopolitan data localisms’ that extend the spatial scales and multiply localities rather than as ‘data glocalisation’ or the indigenisation of globally distributed technology.Urban Data Scienc