Skip to main content
Feb 22 2021
Love0

Organise! Object! Outsmart the Paradigm!

By Uncategorized

Read this publication and use it to learn about smart cities with an added Eastern European perspective, have some fun along the way and feel empowered enough to promote the critical solutions for smart city implementation in your city!

The Charter for the Smart City was produced as part of the project of the same name, and puts the values of democracy, connectedness, human dignity, privacy,  sustainability, and equality at the heart of smart cities. Local politicians and active citizens who share these values may use the principles in the Charter as starting points for democratic debate and informed moral judgment on technological innovations in their communities.

 

Also available in Albanian, Croatian, Russian and Turkish.

This publication was produced within the project “Charter for the Smart City II” organised by the Green European Foundation (GEF) with the support of Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe (CDN) and Wetenschapellijk Bureau Groen Links. It has been realised with the financial support of the European Parliament.

Oct 23 2020
Love0

Smart Cities and Citizen Science

By

About the Event:

This international webinar will offer local government representatives, politicians, municipal officials, as well as academic experts and practitioners from Czech and Slovak cities the opportunity to share their experiences and be inspired by the practices of other cities.

We will discuss how to strengthen the environmental qualities of cities through citizens’ participation. For example, through presenting various examples of using citizens as motivated amateur scientists, equipping them with modern technologies for direct data collection.

Context:

This project is a part of the GEF transnational project “A Charter for the Smart City II”.

All over Europe, so-called ‘smart cities’ are the testing grounds for new technologies that affect how we live, how we organise our societies and what our ethical foundation is. Given the opportunities that new technologies offer for reducing the ecological footprint of cities and creating new urban commons, but also the potential threats they pose to civil liberties and social justice, GEF aims to stimulate the debate on smart cities.

To this end, GEF has developed, with the support of its partners, a Charter for the Smart City, consisting of guiding principles that will make it easier for green European politicians and activists to assess and steer technological innovations in their cities. Throughout 2019, ideas were solicited digitally and through events across Europe, including best practices from NGOs, experts, and local green politicians, as well as from GEF partner foundations and other Green European actors. These resulted in the published Charter for the Smart City.

Speakers:

  • Richard Wouters (Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks, Utrecht) – author of “A Charter for the Smart City” will show how modern technologies often present us with new dilemmas and how to approach them in order to strengthen the fundamental values of a democratic society.
  • Alena Bartoňová (Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Oslo) – Director of Air Quality Research in Oslo, Norway, will highlight concrete examples from European cities of how easier access to monitoring technologies increases people’s interest in the cleanliness of the air they breathe and enables research institutions and municipalities to involve the general public in tackling air pollution.
  • Thomas van Oppens (City Councilor, Leuven) – the city councilor of the Belgian city of Leuven will present inspiring examples of the use of “citizen science” for independent traffic monitoring. You will learn how the city uses this data.
  • Dana Mareková (lawyer, civic activist, Bratislava) – combines law and environmental campaigns and shares her experience from Slovakia regarding the Bratislava air quality measurements carried out before the international Clean Air Forum 2019. She will explain what the situation looked like, what they were trying to achieve, how city and state representatives reacted, and lessons for the future from such campaigns.
  • Michal Šindelář (Partnership Foundation, Brno) – an expert on bicycle transport will reveal how the data collected by city cyclists can be used by local governments to create better conditions for cycling.

Programme:

9:00-9:05 Welcome

9:05-9:15 Richard Wouters (NL)

9:15-9:35 Alena Bartoňová (NOR)

9:35-9:50 Thomas Van Oppens (BE)

9:50-10:05 Dana Mareková (SK)

10:05-10:20 Michal Šindelář (CZ)

10:20-10:30 Discussion and conclusions.

Practicalities:

The conference will take place via videoconferencing platform Zoom in Slovak, Czech and English. Simultaneous English-Slovak interpretation will be provided

Participation in the online conference is free, only electronic registration is required here: https://forms.gle/7CNYS8krsHGToAEs5

——

This conference is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of Institute for Active Citizenship and Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks with the financial support of the European parliament to the Green European Foundation

Oct 21 2020
Love0

Inclusion and Citizens’ Rights

By

About the Event:

When building “digital cities,” how do we ensure inclusivity of new spaces and opportunities?

This workshop focuses on the different aspects (social, environmental, economic, democratic) of this topic with a specific lens on Central and Eastern Europe. We hope to empower participants to influence public debate and local decision-making on technological innovations and their implementation in the cities of the region.

Learnings from this process will be used to create a manifesto on principles of new technologies’ implementation in Eastern European cities.

Context:

This project is a part of the GEF transnational project “A Charter for the Smart City II”.

All over Europe, so-called ‘smart cities’ are the testing grounds for new technologies that affect how we live, how we organise our societies and what our ethical foundation is. Given the opportunities that new technologies offer for reducing the ecological footprint of cities and creating new urban commons, as well as the potential threats they pose to civil liberties and social justice, GEF aims to stimulate the debate on smart cities. To this end, GEF has developed, with the support of its partners, a Charter for the Smart City, consisting of guiding principles that will make it easier for green European politicians and activists to assess and steer technological innovations in their cities. Throughout 2019, ideas were solicited digitally and through events across Europe, including best practices from NGOs, experts and local green politicians, as well as from GEF partner foundations and other Green European actors.

Programme:

Speakers and programme to be announced shortly.

Practicalities:

This event will be taking place online. Please register in advance via this link.

You can listen to our podcast now at https://soundcloud.com/user-881417568/smart-cities

Language: The main language of this event will be English.

This project is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of CDNEE and Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.

Oct 21 2020
Love0

Citizen Scoring

By

About the Event:

Councils all over Europe are now using services to apply algorithms to public data in order to segment and “score” citizens and population groups according to their social group or “risk profile”. We will talk about citizen data scoring and what should be taken in consideration when building up a truly smart city.

This workshop focuses on the different aspects (social, environmental, economic, democratic) of this topic with a specific lens on Central and Eastern Europe. We hope to empower participants to influence public debate and local decision-making on technological innovations and their implementation in the cities of the region.

Learnings from this process will be used to create a manifesto on principles of new technologies’ implementation in Eastern European cities.

Context:

This project is a part of the GEF transnational project “A Charter for the Smart City II”.

All over Europe, so-called ‘smart cities’ are the testing grounds for new technologies that affect how we live, how we organise our societies and what our ethical foundation is. Given the opportunities that new technologies offer for reducing the ecological footprint of cities and creating new urban commons, as well as the potential threats they pose to civil liberties and social justice, GEF aims to stimulate the debate on smart cities. To this end, GEF has developed, with the support of its partners, a Charter for the Smart City, consisting of guiding principles that will make it easier for green European politicians and activists to assess and steer technological innovations in their cities. Throughout 2019, ideas were solicited digitally and through events across Europe, including best practices from NGOs, experts and local green politicians, as well as from GEF partner foundations and other Green European actors.

Speakers:

Michiel Filippart – Regional councilor for GroenLinks in the Netherlands and an adviser to the GroenLinks group in the Dutch senate. A contributor to the Charter for the Smart City; he will talk about Citizen Scoring and the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in it.

Julian Hauser – PhD student in philosophy of mind and cognitive science at the University of Edinburgh. He researches the self and how it is changed by modern digital technologies, focusing in particular on the constitution of its boundaries. He will talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its ethical aspects.

Practicalities:

This event will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube.

You can listen to our podcast now at https://soundcloud.com/user-881417568/smart-cities

Language: The main language of this event will be English.

Acknowledgements:

This project is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of CDNEE and Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.

Jul 09 2020
Love0

A European Charter for Smart Cities: Applications at Local, Regional, Federal Level? (Liège)

By

About the Event:

In 2019, the Green European Foundation, with the support of its partner foundations Wetenschappelijk Bureau Groenlinks (Netherlands), Green Economics Institute (United Kingdom) and Institute for Active Citizenship (Czech Republic) created a Smart City Charter to assess and pilot technological innovations in cities. This event, with the support of Etopia, will promote, discuss, and build on the Charter further with regional experts and perspectives.

Speakers:

  • Richard Wouters, Wetenschappelijk Bureau Groenlinks
  • Pascal Hillewaert, green alderman for Ecolo
  • Veronica Cremasco, Walloon deputy for Ecolo
  • Carine Basile, COO of the Smart City Institute
  • Isabelle Rawart, Agence du numerique

The moderator is Quentin Le Bussy (municipal councilor Vert Ardent Liège).

Programme:

This event will cover:

  • The definition of ‘Smart City’ and presentation of the Charter
  • Local applications and the question of whether these bring real added value
  • The link to Wallonia’s Smart Region initiative

Practicalities:

When: Friday, August 28th from 14:00 to 15:30.

Where: The Francisco Ferrer Room in Cité Miroir (Liège, Belgium).

Language: French

Register via this event page. Please note that the event will be livestreamed via Facebook here.

May 29 2020
Love0

Public Values and Technology in the Corona Crisis

By

About the Event:

The Green European Foundation and the Green Economics Institute are delighted to invite you to a webinar on smart cities in corona times. All over Europe, municipalities want to become ‘smart cities’, front-runners in the use of sensors, big data, algorithms and apps. Smart technologies offer opportunities for improving the quality of life in cities, for reducing their ecological footprint and for creating new urban commons. But they may also present threats to civil liberties and to social justice. The smart city should not be an end in itself. A smart city is only really smart if data collection and artificial intelligence are steered by values. How do we ensure that public values such as democracy, human dignity, privacy, equality and sustainability are put at the heart of smart cities?

This webinar will gather experts, practitioners, activists and (local) politicians. The online discussions will cover two mornings. Participants can choose to take part in one session or in both sessions. The webinar takes the Green European Foundation’s Charter for the Smart City as a starting point. The results of the webinar will feed into the online version of the Charter.

Speakers:

Friday:

  • Richard Wouters – Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks, project leader A Charter for the Smart City. (Netherlands)
  • Prof. Maria Madi – Specialist in the Digital Economy and Innovation Philosophy. (Portugal/Brazil)

Saturday:

  • Monika Sobiecki – Barrister specialising in Digital Technology, Data and AI Law; senior associate in a Privacy and Cybersecurity team. (United Kingdom)
  • Dr. Vandana Shiva – Scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, and anti-globalization author; Founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. (India)
  • Dorothy Nalubega – Minority rights activist, feminist, and environmentalist; African Coordinator for the Global Greens Women’s Network and Chairperson of the East African Greens Women’s Network. (Uganda)
  • Natalie Louise Bennett – Former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales; member of the UK House of Lords; specialist in Mass Communication and former editor of The Guardian Weekly. (United Kingdom)
  • Ewa Sufin-Jacquemart – Director of the Green Polish foundation “Strefa Zieleni”, writes for the Green journal „Zielone Wiadomości”, and coordinator of the Green Centre of the Congress of Women. (Poland)

Programme:

June 19th 11:00 – 13:00

    • Presentation of the Charter for the Smart City, value-led development of technology and its relevance in times of corona by Richard Wouters (Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks, NL), followed by discussion.
    • Presentation and discussion on digital surveillance. Will the corona crisis take the surveillance of citizens and workers to new heights? Can and should we counter this tendency? Is there a role for local politics?

June 20th 11:00 – 13:00

    • Presentation and discussion on digital innovations. The corona crisis has given a boost to the digitalisation of work, commerce, education and social life. How do we deal with the socio-economic inequalities which arise from this? Can we prevent Big Tech from becoming even more powerful? What role for local politics?
    • Presentation and discussion on a Green New Deal. The economic crisis and the climate crisis must be tackled simultaneously. Does this create new opportunities for green technologies? What role for local politics?

Practicalities:

Platform

We will use the Zoom video conferencing platform. It is recommended to join the webinar via a PC. You do not need to install additional software. However, for the best user experience and full participation features, we recommend to install the Zoom Desktop App, which is free.

Registration

This event is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. You can register via the GEI website, via Eventbrite, or by emailing info@geiconferences.org.

Please consider making a donation to enable the Green Economics Institute, a not for profit, to continue its work. The suggested donation is around £25.00 per person.

Preparation

The Charter for the Smart City is available on the website of the Green European Foundation. Click here to download.

This event is organised by the Green European Foundation and the Green Economics Institute, with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.

May 25 2020
Love0

Public Values in Smart Cities (Webinar)

By

About the event

All over Europe, municipalities want to become ‘smart cities’, front-runners in the use of sensors, big data, algorithms and apps. Smart technologies offer opportunities for improving the quality of life in cities, for reducing their ecological footprint and for creating new urban commons. But they may also present threats to civil liberties and to social justice. The smart city should not be an end in itself. A smart city is only really smart if data collection and artificial intelligence are steered by values. How do we ensure that public values such as democracy, human dignity, privacy, equality and sustainability are put at the heart of smart cities?

This online workshop will offer an opportunity for politicians, experts, practitioners and activists from cities in the Czech Republic and neighbouring countries to share their experiences. They will explain about specific technological innovations in their municipalities, discuss conflicting values and identify best practices. The conclusions may feed into the online version of the Charter for the Smart City.

The speakers at the event include Richard Wouters (Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks, NL), Marie Schäffer (member of the Brandenburg Parliament, Greens, DE), Tomáš Koláčný (deputy Mayor of the City of Brno, Pirates, CZ), Jana Drápalová (city district Mayor, Brno-Nový Lískovec, Greens, CZ) and Ondřej Veselý (user application developer, CZ).

Platform

We will use the Zoom video conferencing platform. It is recommended to join the webinar via a PC. You do not need to install additional software. However, for the best user experience and full participation features, we recommend to install the Zoom Desktop App, which is for free.

Languages

Czech and English. Translation will be provided.

Registration

Please register here to receive the meeting link.

Preparation

The Charter for the Smart City is available in Czech, English, German, French and Dutch on the website of the Green European Foundation. Click here to download.

This webinar is organised by the Green European Foundation, with the support of Institut Aktivního Občanství and Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks.

May 05 2020
Love0

Growing out of Growth: A New Future after the Crisis (Webinar)

By

About the Event:

The second webinar on digital technology in cities will explore how the current crisis is exposing the systemic shortcomings of our economies and impacting our urban structures. A discussion will be made on the position of technology and its role in shifting growth led urban strategies to more resilient, socially inclusive, and green cities.

Context:

All over Europe, so-called ‘smart cities’ are the testing grounds for new technologies that affect how we live, how we organise our societies and what our ethical foundation is. These technologies often involve the use of big data and devices that can act with a degree of autonomy. The development of new technologies therefore cannot be left to engineers and managers; it requires public debate and democratic control.

To this end, GEF developed, with the support of its partners, a Charter for the Smart City, consisting of guiding principles that will make it easier for green European politicians and activists to assess and steer technological innovations in their cities. Many of the issues that the Charter deals with, such as algorithmic discrimination, automated facial recognition and smart mobility, will rise in prominence in the coming years.

In 2020, this transnational project is devoted to the dissemination of the Charter and its contents, available in multiple languages, through a series of events across Europe.

Programme:

18:00-18:15 Introduction: Links of the corona crisis and the economy

18:15-19:00 Smart cities as instruments to achieve priorities: case studies with speakers

Discussion: Redefining priorities of smart cities

Speakers:

Kim van Sparrentak, Member of the European Parliament for GroenLinks (Greens/EFA)

Lisa Gutu, former member of CDN’s Executive committee and Head of Business at Salt Edge

Registration:

This webinar will be taking place on the open source meeting platform Jitsi. No prior account or download is necessary. A link to join the meeting will be posted on the Facebook event page shortly before the start.

May 05 2020
Love0

Hacking the Narratives of Smart Cities

By

About the Event:

In the first of the two webinars on digital technology in cities, young activists interested in digital and urban topics will get the opportunity to discuss the different narratives connected with smart cities. They will observe what stands behind the utopistic, critical and realistic storytelling on technology in cities. This will be done through the exploration of smart cities from the perspectives of pop culture, journalism and business, referring to actors such as New York Times, IBM, and the different series such as Black Mirror.

Context:

All over Europe, so-called ‘smart cities’ are the testing grounds for new technologies that affect how we live, how we organise our societies and what our ethical foundation is. These technologies often involve the use of big data and devices that can act with a degree of autonomy. The development of new technologies therefore cannot be left to engineers and managers; it requires public debate and democratic control.

To this end, GEF developed, with the support of its partners, a Charter for the Smart City, consisting of guiding principles that will make it easier for green European politicians and activists to assess and steer technological innovations in their cities. Many of the issues that the Charter deals with, such as algorithmic discrimination, automated facial recognition and smart mobility, will rise in prominence in the coming years.

In 2020, this transnational project is devoted to the dissemination of the Charter and its contents, available in multiple languages, through a series of events across Europe.

Programme:

18:00-18:10 Introduction: Evolution of the discourse on smart cities

18:10-18:40 Reflections on smart cities by different stakeholders: pop-culture, business, media

18:40-19:00 Discussion: Who defines the way we talk about smart cities?

Registration:

This webinar will be taking place on the open source meeting platform Jitsi. No prior account or download is necessary. A link to join the meeting will be posted on the Facebook event page shortly before the start.

Apr 23 2020
Love0

Public values in smart grids (Webinar)

By

About this webinar

A fully renewable electricity system is largely powered by wind and solar. These are intermittent energy sources. How do we keep supply and demand in balance? Data and artificial intelligence will play a major role in this balancing act. Smart electricity grids help adjusting supply and demand, using data on the forecasted weather, the available power storage and conversion capacity, and the willingness of companies and households to make their electricity consumption dependent on supply and price.

A smart grid is not necessarily fair, transparent, and privacy-friendly. It doesn’t necessarily allow for human control over algorithms and democratic participation.  How can we integrate these public values into the design of smart grids, from local microgrids to centralised macrogrids?

The Green European Foundation, Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks, and Oikos will try to find answers to this question in a webinar. It will gather (local) politicians, practitioners, activists and members of energy cooperatives from various European countries, in a coronavirus-proof way.

The webinar will start with two presentations:

Fabian Reetz (100 prozent erneuerbar stiftung, Berlin) will explain the basics of a smart electricity grid and its importance for speeding up the transition towards a 100% renewable energy system.

Christine Milchram (Delft University of Technology) will speak about smart grids and energy justice. How can fairness, data privacy and other public values be integrated into smart grids?

The first comments to the presentations will be delivered by Yvonne van Sark, president of homeowner’s association Schoon Schip, which runs a smart microgrid in Amsterdam.

The webinar will be facilitated by Dirk Holemans (Oikos).

This is a joint event of the GEF projects A Charter for the Smart City and Cities as Places of Hope.

Timetable

14:00  Welcome by Dirk Holemans

14:15  Presentation on smart grids and the energy transition by Fabian Reetz

14.35  Q&A

14:50  Short break

15:00  Presentation on smart grids and energy justice by Christine Milchram

15:20  First comments by Yvonne van Sark

15:25  Q&A

15:40  Group discussion

16:00 Closing words by Dirk Holemans

Language

The webinar will be conducted in English.

Platform

We will use the Zoom video conferencing platform. It is recommended to join the webinar via a PC. You don’t need to install additional software. However, for the best user experience and full participation features, we recommend to install the Zoom Desktop App, which is free.

Registration

Required. Please note that the number of participants is limited, so register soon following this link.

——

Background information

Energinet, Smart Grid Denmark (video), 2011
Fabian Reetz & Céline Göhlich, Prinzipien für die Energiepolitik der Zukunft, policy brief Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (in German), 2020
Marten Boekelo, ‘Full interview with Christine Milchram on energy justice in smart grids’, The Social Life of Energy blog, 2020
Christine Milchram & al., ‘Energy Justice and Smart Grid Systems: Evidence from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom’, Applied Energy, 2018
Otto Barten, ‘Smart grids in de slimme stad’, Handvest voor de Slimme Stad, pp. 85-112 (in Dutch), 2019
European Data Protection Supervisor, TechDispatch #2: Smart Meters in Smart Homes, 2019
Green European Foundation, A Charter for the Smart City, 2019

Mar 23 2020
Love0
Social Scoring

Citizen scoring – towards a surveillance state for the poor? (Webinar)

By

About this webinar

What’s your opinion on ‘citizen scoring’? Big data analytics is gaining traction among local and national governments. By feeding large swaths of personal data into algorithms, they try to predict which social benefit recipients are most likely to commit fraud or which children are most at risk of abuse or neglect, for instance. Does the ‘scoring’ of citizens by algorithms boost government efficiency or is it a threat to privacy, social justice and the transparency of government? Which legal restrictions apply to citizen scoring and which ethical boundaries should we set?

The Green European Foundation and Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks will try to find answers to these questions in a webinar. It will gather people who are active in (local) politics from various European countries, in a coronavirus-proof way.

The webinar will start with three presentations:

Richard Wouters (Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks, NL) will introduce the Charter for the Smart City that the Green European Foundation published in 2019. The Charter contains the warning that the use of big data to combat benefit fraud may lead to ‘class injustice’.

Lina Dencik (co-director of the Data Justice Lab, Cardiff School of Journalism, UK) will present the results of an extensive investigation into the use of citizen scoring by local authorities and police forces in the UK.

Ronald Huissen (Bij Voorbaat Verdacht, NL) will explain the ground-breaking verdict against the Dutch fraud detection algorithm SyRI. In February, a court ordered the immediate halt of SyRI because it violated the right to privacy. Huissen represents the NGO coalition which filed the lawsuit against SyRI.

The first comments to the presentations will be delivered by Kathalijne Buitenweg (MP for GroenLinks, NL) and Martin Fodor (local councillor for the Green Party in Bristol, UK; rapporteur on smart cities for the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe).

The webinar will be facilitated by Carlotta Weber (Green European Foundation).

Timetable

14:00 Welcome by Carlotta Weber

14:20 Presentation of the Charter for the Smart City by Richard Wouters

14:25 Presentation on citizen scoring in the UK by Lina Dencik

14:45 First comments by Martin Fodor

14:50 Q&A

15:05 Presentation on the SyRI court case in NL by Ronald Huissen

15:25 First comments by Kathalijne Buitenweg

15:30 Q&A

15:45 Break

15:55 Group discussion

16:55 Closing words by Carlotta Weber

Language

The webinar will be conducted in English.

Platform

We will use the Zoom video conferencing platform. It is recommend to join the webinar via a PC. You don’t need to install additional software. However, for the best user experience and full participation features, we recommend to install the Zoom Desktop App, which is for free.

Registration

Required. Please note that the number of participants is limited, so register soon following this link.

Background information

Green European Foundation, A Charter for the Smart City, 2019
Data Justice Lab, Data Scores as Governance. Investigating uses of citizen scoring in public services, 2018
The Guardian, Automating Poverty series, 2019
AlgorithmWatch, Automating Society. Taking stock of automated decision-making in the EU, 2019
UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Report on the digital welfare state, 2019
The Hague District Court, SyRI legislation in breach of European Convention on Human Rights, 2020

Can’t attend? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter  to keep up-to-date with the discussions at the webinar.

Feb 28 2020
Love0

Public Values in Smart Cities (Webinar for the Euregio)

By

About this event

All over Europe, municipalities want to become ‘smart cities’, front-runners in the use of sensors, big data, algorithms, and apps. Smart technologies offer opportunities for improving the quality of life in cities, for reducing their ecological footprint, and for creating new urban commons. But they may also present threats to civil liberties and to social justice. The smart city should not be an end in itself. A smart city is only really smart if data collection and artificial intelligence are steered by values. How do we ensure that public values such as democracy, human dignity, privacy, equality, and sustainability are put at the heart of smart cities?

This webinar will gather politicians, experts, practitioners, and activists from the Euregio, comprising cities such as Münster and Enschede. They will explain about specific technological innovations in their municipalities, discuss conflicting values, and identify best practices. The conclusions may feed into the online version of the Charter for the Smart City.

The event will be chaired by Tom van den Nieuwenhuijzen (member of the Dutch parliament). It will feature Christoph Almering (director Euroregio), Gerdien Looman (coordinator Smart Enschede), Thomas Terstiege (project leader digitalisation Smart City Münster), Kirsten Fiedler (policy advisor to Alexandra Geese in the European Parliament, winner Felipe Rodriguez Award 2018), Richard Wouters (Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks), and other speakers.

The webinar is organised by the Green European Foundation and Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks. It replaces the workshop in Glanerbrug that was announced earlier.

Date & time

Friday 5 June, 14:00 – 16:00 CEST

Timetable

14:00  Opening by Tom van den Nieuwenhuijzen

14:10  Welcome by Christoph Almering

14:15  Introduction of the Charter for the Smart City by Richard Wouters

14:20  Presentation on the European Union and smart cities by Kirsten Fiedler

14:40  Q&A

14:50  Presentation on Enschede as a smart city by Gerdien Looman

15:00  Break

15:10  Presentation on Münster as a smart city by Thomas Terstiege

15:20  Q&A

15:30 Group discussion on (conflicting) public values in smart cities, on the basis of local examples introduced by participants

16:00 Closing words by Tom van den Nieuwenhuijzen

Languages

Participants may use German, Dutch, and English interchangeably. No interpretation is provided.

Platform

We will use the Webex videoconferencing platform. Registered participants will receive a link and a password that give them access to the webinar. It is recommended to join the webinar via a computer.

Registration

Send an e-mail to Richard Wouters at Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks.

Preparation

The Charter for the Smart City is available in German, Dutch, English, French, and Czech on the website of the Green European Foundation. Click here to download.

Jan 31 2020
Love0

Call for Prep-team: Outsmarting the Paradigm

By

We are announcing a call for Prep-Team members for the international training “Outsmarting the paradigm: Implementation of new technologies in cities”. The seminar will take place between 26th and 30th May in Riga (25th and 31th are travel dates). The event is implemented as a part of the transnational project “A Charter for the Smart City II”.

Objectives:

  • Train 25 young people in critical assessment of technology in cities and re-evaluate its role in the urban environment;
  • Assess the Charter for the Smart Cities through the Central and Eastern European lens;
  • Create a platform for exchange of best practices for young people interested in exploring the connection between Urbanism and/or Technology;
  • Create a set of outputs relevant and useful for the young people in the Central and Eastern Europe tackling the connection between the Cities and Technology.

If you are young (till 30) person from Eastern and Central Europe (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo*, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine) interested in how the integration of new technologies in cities can affect the democracy, social and economic influences on youth, this project will be very much relevant.

In order to achieve these objectives, we are looking for young activists to join the preparatory team. Prep-team members should speak English, be available during the preparation period, be responsible about fulfilling their tasks, have good organisational skills, be good team players and committed to the aims of the project and CDN’s values and be familiar with non-formal education methods.

Main responsibilities of the prep-team:

  • Active participation in the regular online meetings prior to the event (March-May/ 2-3 h a week);
  • Participation in a live prep team meeting in Riga: 14-15 March (2 full working days), arrival day 13th, departure 16th.
  • Dissemination of the call and selection of participants, preparation of participants for the event and providing them with all the necessary information regarding the program;
  • Preparation and facilitation of the programme of the Training; designing and preparing sessions based on non-formal education methodology, invitation and communication with speakers, experts, trainers and partners in accordance with the project aims (4-6 h a week);
  • Helping with the promotion of the event and ensuring media visibility;
  • Taking care of practicalities and of the general well-being of the participants;
  • Full participation during the entire event and prep team meeting before and after: Arrival 23rd of May, departure 1st of June;
  • Supporting the finalisation of the outputs;
  • Helping with the reporting of the seminar.

Being a prep-team member at CDN event would offer you:

  • Working in a lively international urban activist environment;
  • Experience in managing youth projects – preparation, implementation and reporting;
  • Getting familiar with Green values and CDN work;
  • Getting to know local activists and Alternative Urbanisation activists and their work;
  • A possibility to develop your leadership and group work skills;
  • A lot of work and a lot of fun!

Practicalities: 

Accommodation, food, working space, travel and visa costs for preparatory team will be fully covered. For selection of travel means the condition is to combine the most economic and environmentally friendly way (lowest price + travel time + CO2 emissions).

DEADLINE for submitting online applications is 5th of February, Midnight CEST. 

You will be informed by e-mail approximately in 2 weeks time after the deadline. Please add project.coordinator@cdnee.org to your contacts, so that you do not receive our reply in spam folder.

Apply here.

This project is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of CDNEE and Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.