Last week, we published the first part of Ann Hellenius' interview, following the "European CIO of the Year" prize she was awarded during ICT Spring 2016. Today, the CIO of the City of Stockholm tells the IT One team about the cooperation between cities, businesses and people when it comes to build a smart city.  It will be one of the key topics addressed on October 4th, for the 6th edition the Luxembourg Green Business Summit.

Since demand for better infrastructures and services is increasing but public budget is under pressure, developing smart cities requires new business models and financing solutions for decreasing risk. Capacities must be developed and knowledge itself needs to be shared effectively. How do you cooperate with private businesses, academia, other city's services, NGOs, and ordinary people?

The sheer complexity of a smart city indeed makes cooperation between a large number of stakeholders a requirement – both a larger extent of and more systematical cooperation than earlier. For us, cooperation is a priority: the City of Stockholm already participates in triple helix cooperation with academia and private businesses, such as in the currently ongoing Digital Demo Stockholm project. Here, we explore ways of jointly financing smart city pilot projects. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, citizens’ views were carefully considered when developing the smart city strategy itself: interviews, workshops as well as an online survey eliciting above 3,000 responses.

 

However, even more cooperation is needed to succeed with the strategy. A quadruple helix perspective is preferred, where public organizations, academia, private businesses as well as citizens and NGOs work together towards common goals. Cooperation is needed not only within the city, but also regionally, nationally and internationally. In addition, cooperation is needed with respect to a number of different topics. Technical questions such as what platform to use cannot be addressed by a single department in the City. To name another example, specific projects, such as those pertaining to traffic solutions, may need the City to cooperate with other municipalities in the greater Stockholm area. We are currently actively working with these questions and addressing them systematically as part of the smart city strategy.

 

Connecting – both physically and virtually – city systems is easier said than done. What are the main “pain points” that hold back smart city development?

In order to provide high-quality and uniform services to citizens, connecting city systems is a prerequisite as well as a challenge. Naturally, this challenge is technical in large part, but it is also organizational. As I elaborated on previously, systematic cooperation is a key ingredient also in the technical domain.

 

Smart city-related technologies such as the internet of things, big data, and advanced analytics have developed rapidly during the past few years and no generally accepted standards have emerged so far. This renders it difficult to make some of the important technical choices, as the solution should be relevant for a time to come and robust to technological changes.

 

Furthermore, the extent and use of data collection poses difficult questions. A typical balance is that between individualizing solutions to citizens and respecting their integrity. In part, this question also pertains to the legal domain. For example, new solutions may stretch the definitions of what is included in the City’s general assignment, as that specification was written before these solutions were conceived. In our strategy, an important initial task is to investigate the legal conditions and create guidelines for the various projects that are to be carried out.

 

You have worked with digital issues both in business and in the public sector, including the responsibility for the digitalization of the public schools in Stockholm. What role should education play in the development of smart cities and as a source of smart citizenship?

Education is important for creating a united city with opportunities for everybody, especially in these times of rapid digital development. This is included as one of the objectives we have set up in the smart city strategy: a smart city also means a socially sustainable city. Education plays a key role in opposing a digital divide, i.e. a case where some citizens have less access to or use of the technical solutions the smart city has to offer.

 

It has been recognized in Stockholm’s education system that digital plays a key role, first and foremost by facilitating learning – in general as well as in e.g. environmental questions, relating to smart citizenship. Also, frequent use of digital aids entails that the students gain general experience useful for utilizing other digital solutions in the smart city, reachable by means of a digital unit, i.e. a smartphone, tablet or computer. In the City of Stockholm, the “1:1” project has paired all students in upper secondary school with a digital unit, at no cost for the students or their families. In addition, much effort is made to increase teachers’ digital knowledge, to maximize the effectiveness of the digital tools.

 

However, it should be recognized that some citizens will choose not to participate in all the digital development, for example by refraining from internet or smartphone usage. Our strategy explicitly recognizes that projects and investments should also be made to benefit this group. 

 

Interview by Michael Renotte