Professor Boyd Cohen<\/strong> is a leading expert on Smart Cities, having devoted much of his time and effort to the issue since 2011. He perceives three phases in the evolution of the Smart City. The first phase is technology-driven, meaning, in essence, that you look for technological innovations to transform cities into highly efficient havens for innovators. Nevertheless, cities eventually come to realize that while hi-tech is a great tool, it is not the be-all, end-all solution one had hoped for. Enter: a new model (Smart City 2.0) with technology as an enabler, yes, but with the city firmly in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n Still, Cohen has observed recently that there are cities striving to go even further. There\u2019s more and more evidence to suggest that \u201cSmart City 3.0\u201d is emerging, as leading smart cities are beginning to embrace citizen co-creation models that put community into the DNA of the next generation of smart cities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest thing I have seen lately is a shift from top-down tech driven approaches to more co-creation with citizens and entrepreneurs,\u201d says Cohen, adding that this transition is best embodied by the sharing cities movement.<\/p>\n Visit Helsinki \/ Jussi Hellsten<\/p><\/div>\n According to Boyd Cohen, a blend of Smart Cities 2.0 and Smart Cities 3.0 probably represent the best chance for the future. This means, for instance, that city administrators need to continue to lead by example, supporting the growth of broadband digital infrastructure, wireless networks, e-gov and m-gov services and IoT sensor networks. But that\u2019s just for starters.<\/p>\n ‘In Cohen\u2019s opinion, cities need to continue to embrace the innovative capacity of their residents \u2013 the end-users of the urban interface, if you will \u2013 who are able to detect \u201cbugs in the system\u201d well before the city administrators can. The citizens can also work collaboratively to fix the problems and improve the city with rapid, cost-effective innovations.<\/p>\n Cohen\u2019s core message to all Smart Cities is this: you must move from treating citizens as recipients of services (or even as customers, as we hear so often now) and start treating them as participants in the co-creation of improved quality of life.<\/p>\n More often than not, Cohen looks to the North for answers. When he rounded up the world\u2019s smartest cities for Fast Company in 2015, Helsinki scored the highest points in a survey that featured 62 indicators. The results are far from conclusive \u2013 with only 11 cities responding to the survey questions in time \u2013 but it is still no small feat to beat other pioneering smart cities (such as Copenhagen, Barcelona and Singapore) in the race.<\/p>\n According to Cohen, Helsinki is \u201csolid smart\u201d all around, but really shines is the \u201cSmart Government\u201d arena. The city is championing the cause of open data in a way that is nothing short of revolutionary: presently, there are more than 1,200 open datasets for the citizens, communities and companies to use as they will. And what\u2019s more, the City of Helsinki is actively promoting engagement with developers through various means, such as innovation-spouting hackathons.<\/p>\n One specific local neighborhood that has impressed Cohen is the new Kalasatama District in Helsinki. Hand-picked to be a national pilot project for smart cities, \u2018Smart Kalasatama\u2019 combines renewable energy, Smart Grid technology, electric cars and smart traffic solutions to form a true green-edge community.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are exciting inner city transformations occurring in cities throughout the globe \u2013 and Kalasatama District is a good example of this trend,\u201d Cohen says.<\/p>\n According to Cohen, Kalasatama appears to have all the makings of a success story: a former harbor\/industrial area in a prime location with excellent connectivity that can, conceivably, transform into a waterfront diamond.<\/p>\n Jussi Hellsten, Visit Helsinki<\/p><\/div>\n Another international guru that seems convinced by Kalasatama\u2019s chances of making it big is Joe Pine<\/strong>, co-author of the paradigm-shattering book The Experience Economy<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the idea of Kalasatama as a co-creation platform and living laboratory,\u201d he says. What\u2019s more, Pine is ready to buy into the Kalasatama \u201cbrand promise\u201d of gaining an extra hour for each day:<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal of being so resource-wise as to save the residents an hour every day is wonderful in today’s seemingly time-starved world,\u201d he points out.<\/p>\n According to Pine, a lot of the inner workings of Smart Cities are quite in line with the themes of his book, Mass Customization<\/em>. \u201cSmart cities are really about mass customizing the city\u2019s resources to individual citizens, creating greater value for them and thereby receiving greater value from them in their own contributions to the city, its environment, and its experience,\u201d he sums up.<\/p>\n Like Cohen, Pine is no die-hard believer in the omnipotence of technology. He concedes that the Smart City movement has arisen because the state of technological advance is rapidly enabling sensors to be placed anywhere, data to be gathered about anything, and individuals to be connected anywhere (at any time). But \u2013 and this is one audacious \u2018but\u2019 \u2013 technology is not the foremost issue in realizing the vision of a truly Smart City:<\/p>\n \u201cIt is, first of all, a question of value<\/em> \u2013 offering access to not just the physical and digital assets of the city, but to services, experiences, and \u2013 the most highly valued offering of all \u2013 transformations,\u201d Pine believes.<\/p>\n \u201cSecond of all, bringing about the Smart City is a question of organization \u2013 requiring cities to go beyond hierarchy-bound models of mass production and even quality-infused models of continuous improvement to embrace individual-centric models of mass customization.\u201d<\/p>\n Third issue on Pine\u2019s list is management<\/em> \u2013 one must throw off the dictums of traditional managing that governments so desperately cling to and develop a way of managing that regenerates value, organization, and, ultimately, \u201ceven managing itself\u201d. According to Pine, one must address these three key issues first, and then \u2013 and only then \u2013 can one fall in love with the technology.<\/p>\n Esteve Almirall<\/strong>, Director of the Center for Innovation in Cities at ESADE business school in Barcelona, is yet another global Smart City expert who believes that Finland and Scandinavia are in a good position in the race towards Smart.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, this is a global movement, not a local one,\u201d he points out. Almirall has only passing familiarity with Kalasatama, but he is aware of Helsinki\u2019s progressive Open Data policies \u2013 and gives the Finnish capital two thumbs up for her foresight.<\/p>\n Almirall has identified numerous Smart City trends which are a dead-on match for Kalasatama. Primary among these are sharing economy and participation. Talking about the sharing economy, Almirall notes that it is fast shifting to the mobilization of idle resources through platforms that allow them to be marketed with very little effort. Linking with this \u201cuberization\u201d, there is, of course, participation.<\/p>\n \u201cJust as technology has torn down barriers to market entry for many people, it has also enabled mass participation and consultation.\u201d Almirall observes that our (Western) political systems are more than 300 years old, so perhaps an upgrade would not be such a bad idea.<\/p>\nMixing It Up<\/h3>\n
![\"Visit](\"http:\/\/fiksukalasatama.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/20131201_1343_L1008992_3952_1.jpg\")
Who\u2019s The Smartest?<\/h3>\n
The Case for Kalasatama<\/h3>\n
Experience Edge<\/h3>\n
![\"Jussi](\"http:\/\/fiksukalasatama.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/20140405_1216__MG_7863_4081_Jussi-Hellsten_Visit-Helsinki_600x377.jpg\")
Value Comes First<\/h3>\n
Opening Up to the World<\/h3>\n
Going Deeper<\/h3>\n