The Myneighbourhood Project: Towards the Human

Smart City

Álvaro de Oliveira, David Amaral de Brito and Margarida Campolargo

Alfamicro, Sistemas de Computadores Lda,

Alameda da Guia, 192ª, 2750-168 Cascais, Portugal

http://www.alfamicro.pt

Abstract. MyNeighbourhood is a European project, part of the ICT PSP Pro-

gram in the field of Smart Cities, aiming at recreating and strengthening the so-

cial ties within neighbourhoods, envisioning a new approach to the City. The

project is based on an innovative vision, methodologies and tools which intend

to create a Human Smart City starting from the neighbourhood and scaling up

to the city. The project is a test bed of the Human Smart City concept that pur-

poses at developing a citizen-driven, smart, all-inclusive and sustainable envi-

ronment, with a new governance framework in which citizens and government

engage in listening and talking to each other. This public governance model fa-

vours the emergence of a participatory innovation ecosystem that creates jobs,

wealth and ultimately generates happiness for citizens.

1 Introduction

Cities face new challenges every day and, despite the evolution of the tools available

for communication, social cohesiveness appears to have been progressively lost. Due

to the urban and population growth over the years, it is becoming increasingly diffi-

cult for the city authorities to be able to provide suitable services to address citizens'

needs.

Over half of the human population lives in cities today and this figure is estimated

to evolve to three quarters in 2050 [1]. In such scenario, the role of cities is ever more

important and strategic in the influence and definition of people´s life.

Issues such as demographic shifts, desertification, sustainable housing, transporta-

tion and environmental impact have become a priority for most cities. Food and water

sustainability, health care support, and questions related to security and safety are

perceived by citizens as having a direct impact in the whole society.

In reaction to all these changes and possibly emphasized by the financial crisis, it

seems that a new social consciousness arose in the last years.

Changes are happening very fast and both citizens and authorities are considering

new approaches to face and adjust to these transformations. In fact, some signs of

these new approaches are visible and new models of citizen-driven innovation, focus-

ing on the re-definition of city services, are emerging.

The concept of the Human Smart City is build upon the need to address the global

changes at the citizen level: Human Smart Cities use technologies as an enabler to

de Oliveira Ã ˛A., Amaral de Brito D. and Campolargo M.

The Myneighbourhood Project - Towards the Human Smart City.

DOI: 10.5220/0006183000310048

In European Project Space on Information and Communication Systems (EPS Barcelona 2014), pages 31-48

ISBN: 978-989-758-034-5

connect and engage government and citizens, aiming to rebuild, recreate and motivate

urban communities by stimulating and supporting their collaboration activities, lead-

ing to a joint increase of social wellbeing.

This concept is based in the use of "smart" ICT services and citizen generated data

aiming at recreating the social mechanisms that will ensure the link between urban

neighbourhoods and a social system of connected and trusted communities, by en-

hancing the sense of belonging.

2 The MyNeighbourhood Concept

MyNeighbourhood aims at creating a new and "smarter" concept of a "Smart City"

that focuses on people and their well-being rather than just on ICT infrastructures and

dashboards. Paradoxically, the same ICT trends that have – in conjunction with other

urban trends - helped to erode our connection to urban neighbourhoods and commu-

nities also have the potential to help reinvigorating them. A neighbourhood, in most

urban traditions, is an area shaped or determined by a social group that is created

through bottom-up local processes. In the MyNeighbourhood project the aim is to

promote qualitative and innovative solution generation and the identification of a set

of opportunities that will not only influence the neighbourhood but the surrounding

ecosystem of the city.

The MyNeighbourhood project intents at implementing this concept at a neigh-

bourhood scale, demonstrating its viability and positive impact. It will identify the

wishes, interest and needs of the citizens (referred as the WIN methodology) by in-

volving them in a co-design process leading to the co-creation of solutions. "Smart"

ICT services building upon data provided by the citizens are used to recreate the

social bound between neighbours and their link to the physical place of the neigh-

bourhood.

MyNeighbourhood combines new digital technologies and techniques, such as so-

cial gaming principles (gamification), with the Living Lab methodology, to help

strengthen existing ties and resolve community issues in the real daily life of the ur-

ban neighbourhoods. In so doing, it sets forth to unleash a new viral wave of locally

driven innovations that will help make cities healthier, happier and smarter places to

live.

With the continued advances of technology, cities have been pervaded by various

information communication technologies (ICT) systems, which increase the physical

capital of a city, thus contributing to the next phase of the urbanization process with

the emergence of the designed smart cities. Although the initial vision of smart cities

is to provide a smart environment for smart living of people with smart governance

and economies, most solutions confine themselves to the physical, most of the exist-

ing solutions have neglected even further the truism that cities are about people.

A change is required in the current phase of urbanization, with cities facing big

epochal challenges that can be effectively summarized by three phenomena:

• The devastating effects of the financial crisis undermining the European so-

cial model. This is leading to severe limitations in cities’ abilities to invest in

new infrastructures, and in some areas is even leading to severe reductions of

EPS Barcelona 2014 2014 - European Project Space on Information and Communication Systems

funds available for the provision of basic city services such as transportation

and social services.

• The increasing threat and disruption brought about by climate change to our

territories. Once perceived as a global issue, climate change by now directly

affects everyday life in cities. As major floods and droughts become ever

more common, the environmental effects of urbanisation and the lack of ad-

equate tools and behaviour patterns becomes increasingly evident.

• The demand for more effective representation set forth by our constituencies.

The so-called democratic deficit is a cause for alarm for governance at any

scale, but it also adds to the difficulty of building trust and engaging stake-

holders and citizens in collaborative processes aimed at addressing common

problems.

These challenges call for a transformation in the way we all work, live, play, and

build our future, which in turn places a special burden on those of us holding the

responsibility to govern such processes with an optimum usage of the public re-

sources available. To respond these challenges cities have been considering the prom-

ises offered by the “smart city” idea towards a sustainable growth and well-being. As

such, smart cities are envisioned as contexts where whatever interaction is mediated

by technologies

Building upon the six recognised levels of social innovation [2]

the MyNeigh-

bourhood Living Lab approach will develop local socio-digital innovation environ-

ments that help to:

1) Rebuild neighbourhoods,

2) Empower neighbourhoods, and

3) Scale neighbourhood value up

In a manner that reconnects people, recreates communities and, ultimately, makes

cities smarter.

In MyNeighbourhood, the meaning and value of socio-spatial communities con-

nectedness is re-created thanks to the Living Lab approach, which lets the communi-

tarian Gemeinschaft (close attachment between people, their places of physical dwell-

ing and their material, social and environmental concerns) come to life and scale up

to the urban level, driven by the engaging power of existing ICT. Plural and shared

conceptions of what liveability and sustainability of places mean are co-created from

the inside of daily neighbourhood practices. ICT and Future Internet technologies

widen the sense of the “collective”, augment the perception and awareness of lived

experiences, emphasise meanings and value sharing. This vision is being experiment-

ed in the four City pilots of Aalborg (DK), Birmingham (UK), Lisbon (PT) and Milan

(IT) that will use our proposed solution to kick-start a viral effect wherein neighbours

and friends adopt the open MyNeighbourhood portal to reconnect with one another,

share ideas, create new ways of interacting and help make their daily lives ‘smarter’

in the target subject areas of: health, environment, participation, and transport.

Combining the elements provided (the Human Smart Cities approach and the

promising potential of ICT for socio-spatial connectedness), the neighbourhood of

MyNeighbourhood is where:

The six levels are: 1.Prompts, inspirations and diagnoses; 2. Proposals and ideas; 3. Prototyping and

pilots; 4. Sustaining; 5. Scaling and diffusion;6. Systemic change.

The Myneighbourhood Project - Towards the Human Smart City

1) there is close attachment between people, their places of physical dwelling

and their material, social and environmental concerns comes to life driven by the

engaging power of existing ICT;

2) Stakeholders collaborate with the public actors and with the citizens to de-

velop needs-guided solutions from the neighbourhood up to the urban scale;

3) plural conceptions of what liveability and sustainability in places can mean

are co-created from the inside of neighbourhood practices and daily lives, where

technologies widen the sense of the “collective”, augment the perception and aware-

ness of lived experiences, emphasise meanings and values sharing;

4) People invest in what and whom is around them and develop ability to influ-

ence their own life out of a self-perspective, through a community awareness, up the

urban scale.

3 The Methodology and Tools

The MyNeighbourhood project proposes to build a socio-technical system whereby

existing communities can interact in a synergic way, in order to:

a) Strengthen and widen a sense of belonging from a single community to the

neighbourhood.

b) Assure mutual interdependency characterized by a multiplicity of urban di-

mensions (social, economic, environmental,...).

c) Redirect the singularization mechanism that is typical of contemporary urban

societies towards a highly connected one.

In fact, individuals are nowadays more and more focussed on personal utility and

satisfaction, which demolishes the relevance of common, social, collective values

(social capital) able to develop reciprocity and solidarity mechanisms, which we con-

sider at the base of the neighbourhood’s life and conception.

The solution deployment in MyNeighbourhood is based upon three key phases:

Phase I: Rebuilding Neighbourhoods

• Use the Living Lab methodology to deploy and promote a MyNeighbourhood

website that builds upon and improves existing City Information Apps by enabling

local residents to connect with each other and share resources – user data such as

time, assets & knowledge, ICT tools/ apps - to improve their own neighbourhoods;

• Work with pilot cities, to ‘kick start’ the site in the target subject areas: health,

environment, participation, transport;

• Embed a gamification layer in the MyNeighbourhood site that motivates users to

1) keep returning to the site, 2) do more for their neighbourhood and 3) engage their

friends to set up a new MyNeighbourhood site in their own neighbourhood.

Phase II: Empowering Neighbourhoods

• Use the MyNeighbourhood portal to feed a resident query or need into a ‘Neigh-

bourhood Advisor System’;

• Establish a database that will understand the request and map it against potential

outcomes – ranging from a relevant existing app through to direct contact with others

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in the neighbourhood who can help or potential crowdsourcing options to create new

solutions;

• Include a feedback loop into each solution to draw the user back into gamifica-

tion.

Phase III: Scaling Neighbourhood Value

• Ensure the MyNeighbourhood portal offers a quick and easy one-stop portal for

people to add local content, ideas applications and needs about their own neighbour-

hood – thereby facilitating a viral effect;

• Make ideas and apps widely and openly available – whether newly created or al-

ready existing – through on- and offline channels and tactics such as developer com-

petitions;

• Aggregate and navigate needs at the neighbourhood, city and EU level to provide

scalable intelligence at all three of these le

The government and public administration is challenged by the need to improve

the quality of the services provided to the citizens. This is a big challenge, because it

clashes with the inertia of bureaucratic structures and requires higher flexibility of the

structure and a positive attitude towards innovation. It is important to include all the

actors of the cities (and therefore of the neighbourhood) in the co-creation of con-

sistent and coherent solutions, by stimulating citizens’ creativity. This process needs

to be supported by proper tools that support the various phases of implementation,

from the early ideas for service scenarios and for a service structure. Therefore a

handbook was created to provide tools, developed by designers or adapted from other

disciplines. In order to create this handbook two activities suggestive and supportive

examples of existing engagement tools and approaches used in living lab environ-

ments as well as co-design methods were collected. Forty seven cases have been

collected, analysed and synthetically described in a table while twenty of them have

been described in detail in dedicated cards as in the figure 1.

Following the work carried out on the cases, coherent guidelines have been devel-

oped for citizens and municipalities as main actors of the pilots’ work in MyNeigh-

bourhood Project.

The Methodology and tools used in the MyNeighbourhood project were created

and shared amongst the pilot teams in order to facilitate the field work. A first trans-

mission workshop among the project participants took place at the project meeting in

Aalborg in June 2013. During this workshop, the pilots identified how some of their

services can be gamified on the MyN Platform, thus expressing ideas of how the

services could not only use the MyN Platform, but what capabilities can be supported

to engage citizens to use the platform, using ideas from gamification. The co-design

handbook general structure was also presented to the Pilot teams and represented the

basis of the field work carried out in the project. The co-design work preceding the

implementation and testing work, has been divided into two main phases: the context

analysis phase and Service Design phase.

The Myneighbourhood Project - Towards the Human Smart City

Fig. 1. Detailed case description card.

Fig. 2. Gantt chart of the co-design activities in the Lisbon Pilot.

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3.1 Context Analysis Phase

The context analysis phase consisted in the identification of the stakeholders, the

existing projects and all the factors that are considered to have influence in the social

context and in the solution creation. The field work consisted of interviews, guerrilla

observation and post-it sessions that created a link favouring the listening and the

talking amongst the main actors, including citizens, professionals, experts and volun-

teers.

The data collection during this phase resulted in the identification of WINs (Wish-

es, Interests and Needs) of the citizens and also the needs of the local associations and

the municipalities.

3.2 Co-Design Phase

During the co-design phase the data collected in the previous phase was used to co-

create solutions and services to address the neighbourhood needs. Several workshops

and meetings were held to share ideas and co-design services together with the local

stakeholders and citizens. Some tools, such as Blueprints, Stakeholder maps and

Journey maps, were used to facilitate the interaction and to progress quicker and

obtain results.

3.3 Implementation Phase

The project entered recently in the application phase and solutions are being applied

to each pilot context, in order to observe how the proposed concepts and their imple-

mentation fits to the real needs and how people are using products, services and tech-

nologies proposed as a result of the co-design process. The aim of this phase is to

provide useful feedback from the users that can be used to improve the services and

the Platform.

The following picture outlines the proposed, 3-stage methodology instantiation

pathway.

Fig. 3. Methodology instantiation pathway.

The Myneighbourhood Project - Towards the Human Smart City

In stage 1 (PLAN), the representatives of the four participant Cities, supported by

the respective universities and technical developers (if present within the MyN part-

nership), have been asked to deliver a Service Implementation Plan, or a structured

formalisation of the steps foreseen to finalize the co-design activities still on-going at

pilot level, generate detailed (ICT/Human Resources/Communications) requirements

for the specific service at hand, schedule technical delivery and setup a testing and

evaluation environment.

3.4 The MyNeighbourhood Platform

The goal for MyNeighbourhood platform is to implement the technical solution that

meet the goals and services envisioned from the MyNeighbourhood Vision and Con-

cept and from the work done in the living labs and co-design activities within the

pilots.

The MyNeighbourhood platform will provide technological solutions to help rec-

reate a lost sense of neighbourhood that is rooted in the local place, were people share

the same interests and needs. As such, the platform intends to provide the means of

identifying, searching and managing the needs of the individuals within the context of

the neighbourhood. This also entails the sharing of knowledge and expertise across

the neighbourhood.

The MyNeighbourhood platform combines web technologies, existing products,

social networks, semantic technology and gamification to ensure the engagement of

the citizen and the effective response to their wishes, interests and needs.

The platform architecture takes into consideration the bottom-up design process

derived from the co-design activities, enhancing the human focus. The design of the

platform is based on user-centred methods, and includes a set of tools and principles

that will be reflected in the system and in the user interface. The conceptual model,

based in a user-centred design and needs and interests of the user is has a crucial role

in the success of the platform, since it makes products usable and understandable for

an easy use of the platform.

In the Product Discovery

activity, that was the base of the creation of the Plat-

form architecture, we envision product solutions from the business intentions and the

project vision. This activity will drive the development of the platform. The Product

discovery is not just about the solution. This activity will lead the stakeholders to

spend the required time understanding more than just what to build: the solution con-

text, business and product strategy, customer segments, product usages, regulatory

constraints, legacy product and architecture, users and user goals and how the product

will touch the lives of its users.

The starting point and input for conceiving the Platform architecture was the Product Discovery Process.

This process describes a set of system requirements and features that address the project goals and re-

sponds to the identified services and needs, captured from the field work. As a result of this activity a

product roadmap was created and validated in a technical session in Lisbon in July.2013.

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Fig. 4. System component model. (Source: MyNeighbourhood Project Deliverable 3.1 - Plat-

form Architecture)

4 The MyNeighbourhood Pilots

The MyNeighbourhood project has four pilots: Lisbon, in Portugal, Aalborg, in Den-

mark, Birmingham, in UK and in Milan in Italy. The four pilots have different issues

and specific characteristics: the work developed in the Mouraria (Lisbon) neighbour-

hood, came up with services more oriented to the social inclusion and local economy

issues; in Ladyhood (Birmingham) the challenges addressed were mostly related to

transportation and mobility; in Quarto Oggiaro (Milan) the needs identification re-

vealed issues related to maintenance of public areas and elderly people social integra-

tion; in Nørresundbyv (Aalborg) the solutions created concerned health care and

social inclusion of people with disabilities.

The choice of these four places enabled the creation of a set of different solutions

that can be replicable in other neighbourhoods:

 Aalborg (3 services) = Voluntary Help; Accessible City; Cultural Assistance;

 Birmingham (2 services) = Women on Wheels; Travel Buddies;

 Lisbon (2 families of services) = Ó Vizinho; Made in Mouraria;

 Milan (2 services) = Quarto Food Club; Quarto Gardening.

The Pilots´ work will be briefly described bellow pointing out different aspects,

tools and results for each pilot. It is important, nevertheless to keep in mind that the

The Myneighbourhood Project - Towards the Human Smart City

Fig. 5. Methodology for the Implementation plan.

methodologies and tools used were the same in all the pilots, this resume only aims at

showing the most variety of results.

4.1 Aalborg Pilot

The specific pilot goals in the Aalborg Pilot are to improve quality of life for people

with disabilities and relieve (in)formal caregivers, by:

 Engaging citizens from the neighbourhood to perform voluntary work;

 Engaging people with disabilities to share own knowledge and retrieve

knowledge from others, thus creating awareness about accessibility per se

and the city service offerings in this domain;

 Engaging businesses/institutions of the city in offering new services to peo-

ple with disabilities.

In order to realise those goals, three services are to be implemented:

 Voluntary Help: consisting of volunteer support in visiting / helping disabled

citizens when at home or accompanying them when going out;

 Accessible City: consisting of information sharing about accessibility facili-

ties and friendliness of local businesses towards disabled customers;

 Cultural Assistance: consisting of local businesses offering free assistance to

people with disabilities on the occasion of cultural events.

The contextual analysis supporting service development focuses on a target group

that is broader than a specific geographical neighbourhood. This because the propor-

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tion of people with disabilities in one single neighbourhood is relatively low. There-

fore, the pilot instead engages people from both the neighbourhood of Nørresundby

and the entire City of Aalborg, in order to reach a sufficient number of users.

Fig. 6. Requirements for the Implementation plan.

4.2 Birmingham Pilot

The specific pilot goals in the Birmingham Pilot are twofold:

 Give local women the opportunity to learn a new skill, increase fitness, build

confidence and meet new contacts/friends in the neighbourhood;

 Help BCC make cycling an integral part of the city transport network, with

cycling being a part of everyday life for all and mass participation a reality.

In order to achieve those goals, two services are being implemented:

 Women on Wheels: consisting of the promotion of healthy lifestyles in

women through a new, dedicated social networking facility focused on cy-

cling;

 Travel Buddies: consisting of the provision to lone women of the opportuni-

ty to meet a female chaperon and be accompanied by her on public transport

trips.

The contextual analysis supporting service development focused on a target group

that is located in the neighbourhood of Ladywood, Birmingham.

4.3 Lisbon Pilot

The context analysis generally starts with explorative activities aimed at entering the

context trying to keep interaction with people as small as possible and to identify

possible situations as possible context entry points. This explorative work is “expan-

sive”, i.e. it is a process in which all the factors are considered that could influence a

social context. It requires imagination and openness to any possibility and perspective

The Myneighbourhood Project - Towards the Human Smart City

Fig. 7. Focus group in Birmingham.

and also a good capability to listen and to talk with the main actors in the context,

including citizens, professionals, experts and volunteers.

An exploration Story of the Lisbon Pilot was written in order to better understand

the context:

The Mouraria neighbourhood is a very special territory in the heart of the city of

Lisbon. It is one of oldest neighbourhoods, full of earmarks and a very particular

ancient soul and we knew from the begging that the analysis of this context would be

a great challenge. We started the approach to the neighbourhood by contacting the

key actors, starting with GABIP Mouraria (The Office for Support the Priority

Neighbourhoods Interventions) which is a special office of the Lisbon Municipality

located in the main square of Mouraria, called Martim Moniz Square. Through

GABIP we were presented to the most important local stakeholders whom we thought

were the mean to reach people in neighbourhood streets. This office has a strong

work done in the field guided by PDCM (The Mouraria Communitarian Development

Plan) which was produced based on many work-groups debates and Post-it sessions

with the local community. In the first few meetings we understood that the contact

with people had to be done by going to the streets. In spite of being a small neigh-

bourhood with no more than 6500 inhabitants, about 40 local associations are work-

ing on Mouraria. Due to this we felt some difficulties to engage the neighbourhood

through the associations since they represent very different sensitivities and some-

times the discussions were centered in bureaucratic issues and not so much in the

people’s wishes, interests and needs. Upon this, we decided to go to the field and talk

with people with the support of Nuno Franco, a neighbour who works for Renovar a

Mouraria – one of the most important local associations. We started the Guerilla Ob-

servation and the Walks in the streets which were very important for analyzing the

urban and social contexts and also for identifying the neighbourhood most important

characters. In all this process, one of the most important steps was the Mouraria con-

text analysis video through which we absolutely reached the associations and above

all the neighbours´ trust.

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The specific pilot goals in the Lisbon Pilot are twofold:

 Getting and providing services and products through exchanging¡¨: Provide

means to respond to people identified necessities in the neighbourhood in

general but also in specific social groups. The purpose is to promote the ex-

change of experiences and knowledge in order to create a social cohesive-

ness in the neighbourhood.

 Empowering neighbourhood economy through mentorship¡¨: Empower the

local businesses through a mentorship process. The goal is to build the ca-

pacity of people from Mouraria, especially unemployed people, to open their

businesses in Mouraria and also provide tools that allow existing businesses

to create innovative and creative products that bring new value to Mouraria.

In order to achieve those goals, two services are to be implemented:

 Oh Vizinho!: consisting of establishing a mechanism of credits for products

and services exchange;

 Made in MourariaA: consisting of a mentorship and consultancy network

supporting new and already existing businesses in the neighbourhood.

4.4 Milan Pilot

The specific pilot goals in the Milan Pilot are to:

 Improve the social life of a vulnerable group of elderly citizens from Quarto

Oggiaro;

 Give young people (esp. students) an opportunity to be recognized while do-

ing practical training, having the possibility also to test new business model

hypotheses;

 Allow the Municipality to access the competences of the students of the local

Agricultural School and Hotel Management School to take care of some of

the urban issues of the Neighbourhood: the green areas and some social clus-

ters.

In order to realise those goals, two services are to be implemented:

 Quarto Food Club: consisting of a meal preparation service for elderly peo-

ple that is totally managed by pupils of the local Hotel Management School;

 Quarto Gardening: consisting of a green area maintenance service that is to-

tally managed by pupils of the local Agriculture School.

5 MyNeighbourhood Project Results

The Project is already creating and testing in practice ecosystems of urban innovation

in which the city government, citizens and their organizations work together in a

transparent, open, participatory and efficient way. The city government acts then in

full knowledge of the citizens’ will, based on a strong relationship of trust that aims

The Myneighbourhood Project - Towards the Human Smart City

Fig. 8. Blueprint for Quartofood service.

to recreate the values and the culture inherent to neighbourhood communities with a

strong identity and willing to collaborate with each other. Ultimately, the approach

adopted contributes to increase the satisfaction with the city administration and the

services made available: happier, healthier and cohesive neighbourhoods as residents

work together, creating and accessing services they want and need; cities and busi-

nesses feeling more democratically engaged as they have more influence through

neighbourhoods; cities and businesses feeling greater ownership of their neighbour-

hoods and services, thereby reducing dissatisfaction with city. The four city councils

partners in the MyNeighbourhood consortium – Aalborg, Birmingham, Lisbon and

Milan are already feeling these results.

The services co-created and co-designed within the four neighbourhoods are the

result of a great process of engaging and empowerment, talking, discussing, listening

and cooperation with local neighbours. From this practice four big main intervention

areas emerged: social, business, health and ecology.

In what concerns the social area, in Milan the "QuartoFood Club" service is being

implemented with a great success. This service improves the social life of a vulnera-

ble group of elderly citizens from Quarto Oggiaro neighbourhood, by giving them

meals prepared by the students of the local Hotel Management School. This allows

students recognition and also the integration of elderly who suffer from isolation.

Also in Lisbon, the "Ó Vizinho" service aims at promoting services and products

exchanges within the neighbourhood, thus promoting the interchanging of mutual

help between neighbours and creating a huge social impact.

MyNeighbourhood aims to change the way citizens look to business and collabo-

rate with each other to develop local services and regenerate social responsibility at a

neighbourhood level. It also aims at stimulating the entrepreneurship inside each

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community. New or enhanced business opportunities (including increased profits)

may stem from using MyNeighbourhood. SMEs can use data extracted from

MyNeighbourhood platform to create new applications and services that the market

wants and needs and have access to a focus-group pool formerly only available to

larger companies. In Lisbon, e.g., the Project supports the local businesses through a

mentorship process. The goal is to empower people from Mouraria, especially unem-

ployed people, to open their businesses in the neighbourhood and also provide tools

that allow existing businesses to create innovative and creative products that bring

new value to the community. As a tangible remark in Mouraria, we can give the ex-

ample of "Pastéis da Mouraria" a new pastry brand run by a very young entrepreneur.

João, the youngster, joined MyNeighbourhood and through the mentorship process is

consolidating the brand and increasing the sales.

At the same way, MyNeighbourhood is also looking to improve quality of life for

people and strengthen the participation in the city life. In what concerns health and

wellbeing, for example, in the Aalborg Pilot, MyNeighbourhood is engaging citizens

from the neighbourhood to perform voluntary work to support people with disabilities

by sharing knowledge and time and is also engaging businesses and institutions of the

city in offering new services to people with disabilities. In order to achieve those

goals, three services were implemented: Voluntary Help – volunteer support in visit-

ing/helping disabled citizens when at home or accompanying them when going out;

Accessible City – information sharing about accessibility facilities and friendliness of

local businesses towards disabled customers; and Cultural Assistance – local busi-

nesses offering free assistance to people with disabilities on the occasion of cultural

events. At least more than 3 health centers and dozens of volunteers are working with

MyNeighbourhood in Aalborg.

Regarding ecological impacts of MyNeighbourhood, the specific goals of the ser-

vices in the Milan and Birmingham pilots are good examples of the results achieved

so far. In Milan, QuartoGardening service allows the Municipality to access the com-

petences of the students of the local Agricultural School to take care of some of urban

issues of the neighbourhood: the green public areas and their maintenance. In the

Ladywood neighbourhood in Birmingham the implemented services contribute to

improve the air quality in the city and to strengthen a sustainable urban spatial devel-

opment, as they encourage using soft modes of transport – cycling – and public trans-

ports, through the service Women on Wheels and Travel Buddies, respectively. The

Women on Wheels service, e.g., consists on the promotion of healthy lifestyles in

women through a new, dedicated social networking facility, something that in broader

terms also contributes to the Birmingham City Council policy to make cycling an

integral part of the city transport network.

4 The Human Smart Cities Vision

The Human Smart City concept is built on emergent, sustainable models for urban

living, working and governance enabled by Future Internet infrastructures and ser-

vices. At the core of the vision is the human perspective, as gained through the appli-

cation of citizen-centric and participatory approaches to the co-design, development,

The Myneighbourhood Project - Towards the Human Smart City

and production of Smart City services that balance the technical “smartness” of sen-

sors, meters, and infrastructures with softer features such as clarity of vision, citizen

empowerment, social interaction in physical urban settings, and public-citizens part-

nership. The HSC approach is gaining increasing support from city governments

across Europe as well as the Smart City research community, as it more effectively

addresses key challenges such as low-carbon strategies, the urban environment, sus-

tainable mobility, and social inclusion through a more balanced, holistic approach to

technology.

This vision is labelled ‘Human Smart City’, which focuses on people and their

well-being rather than just ICT infrastructures and dashboards alone.

The Human Smart City concept appears as an improvement of the Smart City, fo-

cusing on creating a healthier and happier environment for citizens. Its aim is to de-

velop and provide solutions by involving citizens in co-creation processes to address

their own wishes, interests and needs (the WIN methodology). In the Human Smart

City, the city government implements and supports an ecosystem of urban innovation

(Urban Living Lab), which applies co-design and co-production of social and techno-

logical innovation services and processes, in order to solve real problems. The gov-

ernment agrees to be engaged and involved in citizens' initiatives on the basis of an

open, transparent and reliable relationship. In this ecosystem, information technolo-

gies are used to solve social problems and address economic and environmental is-

sues, focusing on the welfare and happiness of the citizens.

The Future Internet vision set forth in Periphèria project sees ICT as shifting from

bounded, do-it-all applications to a universe of ubiquitously available “fragments” in

the form of apps (Internet of People), sensor feeds (Internet of Things), resources

(Internet of Services), etc. The integration of these elements occurs in part through

technical interoperability, as has always been true, but also through an increasing role

for people-citizens-end users who “compose” the way different apps fit together

through human action: “People in Places”.

In addition, since this service composition occurs only in a sort of “run time”

where actual people do something specific, the role of the “place” where this happens

takes on increasing importance. The rise of location-based apps is a first testimony of

the importance of place not only in defining the context for automatic service compo-

sition and delivery (see for example Google Now), but also for defining the human

sequence of events that, in a city, gives meaning to the use of technology. Converse-

ly, the use of a given technology (through the presence of a given infrastructure) in a

given place changes that place as well.

Within such a Human Smart City approach, MyNeighbourhood exploits many

ways of designing the interaction between people, urban spaces, and technologies),

which could be supplied at many diverse urban scales. The neighbourhood scale is

the most promising one in the MyNeighbourhood vision– having been already proved

in the past to be effective in creating healthy, secure, liveable, happy cities.

Coherently, Human Smart Cities do not (only) focus on solutions, they rather

found on the way solutions are created, implemented and scaled up to the urban scale:

these solutions are rooted in citizens experiences of everyday urban problems and

challenges; these solutions are co-designed, co-experimented and co-produced; these

solutions consider that technology can contribute frugally rather than being the most

significant element.

EPS Barcelona 2014 2014 - European Project Space on Information and Communication Systems

This adds new momentum to the co-production of public service concept, which

becomes more sustainable and resilient in both time and scope, by embedding a pro-

active involvement of urban stakeholders in all aspects of the design and instantiation

of neighbourhood services. This also paves the way to a new model of public service

delivery, where those who have been normally targeted as passive end-users now tend

to become collaborative co-producers, as an alternative, if not in substitution, for

local public authorities; and to a next generation of urban smart citizenship, where

those who have traditionally been considered as parts of the problem become effec-

tive agents of the most appropriate solution.

A Human Smart City is able to integrate, within a design thinking approach, crea-

tive citizens and communities, with collaborative enterprises and participative institu-

tions in the production of collaborative services from the micro up to the urban scale

thus being able to make the city making a process of socio-digital innovation. As

such, the HSC approach is gaining increasing support from city governments across

Europe as well as the Smart City research community, as it more effectively addresses

key challenges such as low-carbon strategies, the urban environment, sustainable

mobility, and social inclusion through a more balanced, holistic approach to technol-

ogy. In the following some note on these components of HSC.

The Human Smart Cities Manifesto was publicly announced and signed in Rome

on the 30th May 2013, during the Forum PA Conference, with the aim to address the

main challenges that cities, all around the world, are facing today. As stated above,

the new challenges call for a transformational change in the way we work, live, and

play by applying optimization processes to the usage of public resources. If urban

policies adequately consider citizens and their innovation capacity as their most valu-

able resource, technological and social innovation could be an important contribution

to achieve those goals. The cities involved in this process want to reach out to citizens

and enterprises in order to join them in an attempt to co-create and implement suitable

strategies for each city.

In October 2013, in Bologna, the Human Smart Cities Network was launched hav-

ing initially 70 cities expressing their interest in membership (including 27 cities, in

16 countries where Alfamicro lead Human Smart Cities’ projects). On the 12th and

13th March 2014, in Lisbon, it was also organised the "Human Smart Cities confer-

ence - the future of cities today". Both can be considered as a starting point to affirm

in the world scene the sense of urgency of adopting Human Smart Cities as a valid

approach.

5 Conclusions

MyNeighbourhood established itself as a powerful test bed for the implementation of

a Human Smart Cities vision and methodologies. The project is based on the premise

that neighbourhoods represent a heretofore untapped, yet powerful, catalyst for hu-

man smart city change. MyNeighbourhood aims to transform the city governance by

engaging citizens in an open, transparent and trusted dialog, enhancing and easing the

interaction with the city administration: this makes it easier for citizens and business

to transmit priorities and needs to city administration, reduces the need for time con-

The Myneighbourhood Project - Towards the Human Smart City

suming face-to-face interactions with city administration and removes the burden of

bureaucratic processes by facilitating greater neighbour-to-neighbour exchanges.

Human Smart Cities use technologies as an enabler to connect and engage gov-

ernment and citizens, aiming to rebuild, recreate and motivate urban communities,

stimulating and supporting their collaboration activities leading to a joint increase of

social wellbeing. Human Smart Cities "hear and speak" with citizens; policies and

supporting services make the city government more transparent, participatory, effi-

cient and a mirror of the citizens’ will. Human Smart Cities empower citizens to co-

design and co-create solutions for their Wishes, Interests and Needs, recreating a new

sense of belonging and identity, leading to a better and happier society.

References

1. Katz, B., Bradley, J.: The Metropolitan revolution: how cities and metros are fixing our

broken politics and fragile economy. Washington DC: Brookings institution press (2013)

2. Murray, R., Caulier Grice, J., Mulgan, G.: The Open Book of Social Innovation. The

Young Foundation/ NESTA. (2010)

3. MyNeighbourhood Project Deliverable 3.1 - Platform Architecture (2013)

4. MyNeighbourhood Project Deliverable 2.2 - Handbook of co-design activities for co-

designing services (2013)

5. Oliveira, A.: Human Smart Cities: an ecosystem of neighbourhood platforms and Urban

Living Labs. Presentation given at the "Citisense - Innovation from within". Barcelona.

(2013)

6. Oliveira, A.: Cidades Inteligentes e Humanas - A Experiência Europeia. Presentation given

at the "Rio Cidade Inteligente | 14ª Rio Wireless" conference. Rio de Janeiro (2014)

7. Oliveira, A.: Cidades Inteligentes e Humanas. Ecossistema de Inovação Social e

Tecnológica. Presentation given at the "Conferência Internacional -Cidades Inovadoras".

Curitiba (2014)

8. Oliveira, A.: MyNeihbourhood Vision. Presentation given at the "Human Smart Cities

Conference - The future of cities today". Lisbon (2014)

9. Rizzo, F. Strategie di co-design, teorie, metodi e strumenti per progettare con gli utenti.

Milan: Franco Angeli. (2009).

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