The previous initiative successfully carried out the plans it had set out for itself at the outset. This Smart Cities Marketplace initiative was created as a community and a variety of workshops were held to determine the optimum way in which to tackle the wide variety of technical and non-technical obstacles, which currently prevent citizen data from being fully used within the smart cities and the data economy environments. Many projects inputted into this endeavour.
The original aim had been to “help to build the conditions and relationships, whereby the citizen will be willing to share personal data with a city and with other actors in the data economy.“
The results were published in an open access book, in print and available online, which was launched on the Commission’s stand at the Barcelona Smart Cities Expo in 2022. https://smart-cities-marketplace.ec.europa.eu/media/2870
Transition to a “Personal Data-Smart Cities” Focus Group
Our attention has now turned to how best to implement the set of activities and solutions which were presented in the concluding chapter of the book, whilst also focussing on how best we can contribute to, support and gain from the two emerging DataSpaces which are focusing on Smart and Sustainable Cities and a Citizen’s Personal Data and in utilising the Minimum Interoperability mechanisms (MIMS) approach to help do this.
The core will be our endeavours to show how the addition of personal data to any data currently being used in a Smart and Sustainable City environment can only be rewarding.
Important new links will be forged with Horizon projects such as PISTIS and its sister projects to take this work forward in a future proof way.
What Next?
There is now an intention to bring together a group of Net-Zero Cities to collaborate on implementing the detailed conclusions from the final chapter of the book, “Personal Data Smart Cities”. We will continue “helping to build the conditions and relationships, whereby the citizen will be willing to share personal data with a city and with other actors in the data economy.“ But to demonstrate to those contributing to the development of the DataSpaces, how the value of existing data can be enhanced by complementing this with an input of citizens’ data, under their control and compliant with all regulations. In the terminology of the Horizon PISTIS project, we will be supporting the creation of a “Personal Data Factory”. With this, we will be enhancing the suite of tools being built to support the DataSpaces and, the Smart and Sustainable Cities DataSpace”.
PISTIS is creating tools which will be utilised in its Data Factories focussing on data in the following areas:
- Urban Planning, Urban Transport, Airports, Economic Development (Athens)
- Energy (Spain)
- Automotive Industry with data from cars and their drivers (Germany –Austria)
- Weather Data supporting all the data factories
- Open Data (Fraunhofer) -supporting all factories
- A Living Lab Factory supporting all factories
As a starting point, the re-vamped initiative will concentrate on how personal data may be of benefit in these fields.