3D Illustration by Ruixian Made. Every year more and more municipalities around the world launch various Open Data initiatives in an attempt to align with modern neoliberal ideals of a progressive and transparent city. For example, The Open Government Partnership launched in 2011 with just 8 participating countries “to make governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens”, now has more than 75 members. Another initiative - What Works Cities - now works with 90

5 years ago, when we launched 31ºNorth, Smart Cities was the new buzz word around town and startups were scrambling to engage cities with new products and services driven by the internet era. Very quickly, it became clear that Parking was a hot hot topic and that new solutions were being developed for a problem (mainly apps at that time) that could ease the pains of parking. We met a dozen players ranging from apps for parking payment, parking booking, parking sharing, parkin

Can our future cities track and solve our problems? Could they actively identify pain-points within our society and become a driving force in highlighting those sectors in most need? then, once identified, can cities use the power of big data to drive insights that can mobilize city departments to work together to make exceptional changes that can solve problems and improve resident lives. Exceptional Cities around the world are already doing this, asking questions about resi

Today’s suburbs are a long-lasting extension of cities. In many of the world’s capitals the number of workers, students and tourists commuting in an out of cities often exceeds the number of citizens living in the city - making the official borders of cities more fluid than ever and accordingly city jurisdiction more complex to determine. The impacts on physical and metaphysical aspects of transportation, health, education and sustainability are becoming more and more a regio

Guy Pross with the leaders of the Central Bohemian Region Innovation Center, discussing innovation, urban farming, open data, sharing economy and much more. See more details here #Municipality #SmartCity #SmartRegion #CzechRepublic #ExceptionalCities #CentralBohemianRegion #TEDx

Nations around the world are seeing the emergence of the smart city as an opportunity to improve the quality of life for city-dwellers, enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of local municipalities, improve use of resources and reduce emission levels. However, the municipality of the 21st century is anticipated to deliver far more than just efficiency and excellence in services for residents. The new municipal vision is about reaching a deeper engagement with the communi