Smart City Strategy

Collective Intelligence: Key Success Factor for the Smart City

Written by Dr. Alexander Gelsin | 31. August 2017

As expressed by a number of urban strategists in the past two years, we have witnessed a gradual shift towards citizen-centric smart city strategies. In an interesting article titled "Making cities smarter: How citizens' collective intelligence can guide better decision making" published by Deloitte University Press, the importance of citizen-centricity is presented clearly.

At bee smart city we completely agree with the authors and are convinced that collective intelligence is the key success factor for smart cities. Why? Because the acceptance and use of smart city solutions call for a user-centric approach that takes the needs and problems of citizens into account.

Implementing smart city solutions

In the business world, it is widely known that an anticipation of “build it and they will come” is not the best course of action. Prior to implementing smart city solutions, it is important to know:

  • why they are needed,
  • how they can be implemented,
  • what the benefits are for their users, and
  • whether possible risks or objections exist.

Thus, to create a truly "smart" city, it is paramount

  • to enable citizen participation and collaboration,
  • to facilitate active engagement in bottom-up thinking and co-creation, and
  • to regard technology as an enabler that needs to be utilized in the right way

for identifying, developing and implementing suitable and citizen-focused solutions that transform into collective good.

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