"However truly smart - and real - cities are driven bottom up by citizens and organizations as innovators rather than by top down visions and plans that ignore the innovative potential of grassroots efforts, while governments should play the role of mediator bringing companies, research organizations and creative people to work in concert (Ratti, Townsend). The connection between smart environments and bottom-up innovation practices in the framework of cities and urban agglomerations is the main focus of the Special Issue. In particular we explore how collaboration platforms, embedded systems, open data, and semantic web technologies sustain a new round of innovation driven by the creativity of the population and the collective intelligence of collaboration. The concept of Living Labs takes its point of departure in the consideration of people as innovators, and envisions environments of open and user driven innovation. As infrastructures and social networks become more advanced and widespread, the role of the Internet as an enabler of city services has become more important for urban development. Cities are increasingly assuming a critical role as drivers of innovation in areas such as health, inclusion, environment and business, a trend that will surely continue as more people and devices will become part of the Future Internet even than are connected today. Cities are increasingly becoming a living lab itself, a playground of innovation and transformation."
(via dagoneye)
