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Getting Technology into the Open: Local Challenges & Global Solutions
EngagingCities is supported by Living Labs Global and CityMart.com, which helps cities to articulate challenges, and matching those with technologies and solutions around the world that can rapidly improve lives of millions of citizens.
In 2009 we had an idea, to bring together a group of global cities to share their challenges with the international technology community. Our hypothesis was that a solution to any challenge is out there already, and that by finding it we can learn and avoid re-inventing the wheel. Since then, the Living Labs Global Award has become the world’s most significant call for solutions, in its current edition 21 global cities call for technologies to improve the lives of 110 Million citizens.
What this gives us is best illustrated by our past edition, which was completed in May 2011. The cities of Barcelona, Cape Town, Eindhoven, Lagos, San Francisco, Sant Cugat, Stockholm and Taipei presented one challenge each, in areas such as urban services, open government, smart living, community financing and urban lighting. More than 40 jurors assisted the cities in selecting the winners, which were presented at an Award Ceremony and Summit in Stockholm.
Case Study: Barcelona’s Automated Urban Services Challenge
In our view, major challenges require a global view. Take Barcelona’s challenge to automate urban services, in particular traffic. As a compact Mediterranean city, traffic can become a major nuisance and pollutant. Yet, in the current economic climate the city is not seeking to undertake speculative high-tech investments, but find areas in which technologies can create efficiencies.
Jurors on the Barcelona evaluation team identified CitySolver by Bitcarrier as the most promising solution, out of 87 entries from 27 countries – in itself a remarkable portfolio that exceeded the city’s expectations. Bitcarrier uses antennas to detect the unique signal of Bluetooth devices carried by people in cars to create real-time visualisations of traffic flows. This information is used to manage the transport system in real-time, preventing traffic jams and responding to capacities.
For Bitcarrier, winning the Award opened an opportunity to bring the solution onto the street. Already 4 months after winning the Award the pilot was completed, and by December the city had procured a larger installation. According to Bitcarrier, this accelerated the sales cycle 5-fold, which is good not just for business but technology diffusion.
Like Bitcarrier, winning solutions by Worldsensing (FastPrk parking sensors), PoweredbyVC (hybrid Venture Capital fund for social innovation) and Netown (Babybot home care technology) found their way rapidly into real-world pilots, in which the city provides access to infrastructures and data, whilst companies provide and manage their technologies.
Public Call For Solutions Helps Build More Efficient Systems
For us, these pilots are the beginning of a new system of deploying technologies in cities, an alternative to the culture of expert committees that behind closed doors take major technology and infrastructure decisions that will shape citizen’s lives for a generation. Instead, the Living Labs Global Award starts by a public call for solutions, which citizens and local media follow with interest. By bringing solutions first onto the street (at no financial cost to the city), all stakeholders can see results and help to build a more efficient procurement system.
Innovative companies enjoy the faster times to markets, whilst cities become more accountable – and share responsibility with others.
The Living Labs Global Award 2012 is now open for submissions until February 17th 2012. Follow the Award process, learn where 21 global cities including San Francisco, Glasgow, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Fukuoka plan to undertake pilots of the most promising innovations to transform their communities.
About the Author
Ashoka Fellow, General Director and Co-Founder of Living Labs Global and CityMart.com
Sascha Haselmayer is the General Director and Co-Founder of Living Labs Global and CityMart.com. Trained as an architect, he has dedicated his career to promote open markets and more accountable decision-making in cities, in particular in the high-impact area of technologies which should spread rapidly. He is an Ashoka Fellow, has published recent guidebooks on service innovation in cities and new trends in public procurement and has lectured widely around the world.
