The document discusses the importance of fostering connectivity and interactivity among urban entities to create livable and lovable cities, emphasizing inclusiveness and community participation. It addresses challenges related to network technologies, open data, and user engagement, proposing solutions that utilize accessible tools for communication, physical interaction, and service discovery. The aim is to enhance citizen involvement and awareness in urban decision-making through innovative projects and open source platforms.

1. Fostering Connectivity & Interactivity
Between all Urban Entities
Charalampos Doukas
@buildingiot

2. Livable & Lovable Cities
What can make citizens happy??
RReessiliileiennccee
Inclusiveness
AAuutthheenntticicitityy

3. Livable & Lovable Cities
Inclusiveness
is about creating social integration and
cohesion. Inclusive
cities are open for participation from
the widest range of
civil society, irrespective of gender, age,
ethnicity, cultural
heritage, beliefs, religion and economic
status. Inhabitants
should have equal opportunities to
participate in the
activities of a city. Inclusiveness
enhances community
feelings, the sense of ownership
towards the city, the sense
of belonging to a place.
Connectivity
Interactivity Creativity

4. Connectivity
Between entities
• Citizens
• Public Services
– Traffic
– Environment
– Resources
– Health
– Waste management
– …
Between objects
• City objects
• Vehicles
• Buildings
• Exhibits
• Places
• …

5. Connectivity
Between entities
• Network technologies
{Cellular, WiFi, …}
Tools {smartphones,
apps,..}
• Open Data
– Traffic
– Environment
– Resources
– Health
Between objects
• Internet of Things
technologies
– Making objects sense & act
– Communicate
– Present information in
different ways

6. Connectivity - Issues
Between entities
• Network technologies
– Not everywhere / High cost
in some cases
• Open Data
– Unstructured
– Undiscoverable
– Unuseful
Majority of citizens by default
Between objects
• Connectivity, complexity,
storage, privacy, …
• Lack of motivation /
benefit
• Lack of awareness

7. Interactivity
Context Interactivity
• Data representation
– Media types (light, sound,
visual)
• Based on:
– User input/feedback
– Context driven {information,
ambient sensing, location, …}
Actuation
• Users can make actions
– Modify information
– Change information flow
– Trigger communication
• Data access control

8. Interactive city projects
TED2014 Vancouver with Chrome-powered
aerial sculpture
Burble
(Umbrelium)
Linguine
(Umbrelium)

9. Interactive city apps
Community driven
• CitizenKit
• AirQuality Egg
• OxfordFlood
• OpenEnergyMonitor
• …
Public Data driven
• Traffic Applications
• Public Administration
• Public Transportation

10. Interactive city projects
What is missing?
• More participation
– Usage
– Producing data
– Consuming data
– Making process
What is missing?
• Linkage to:
– Urban entities
– Urban data

11. Combine Connectivity + Interactivity?
with urban data….
Increase Participation
InInccrreeaassee s skkilillsls
CCrreeaattee A Awwaarreenneessss
Identify urban
problems
Identify urban
problems

12. Combine Connectivity + Interactivity?
with urban data….
Visualize air
pollution on public
spaces
Transform city objects
into citizen best practice
indicators
Visualize city
Visualize city
resources in public
resources in public
spaces
spaces
your idea
here..
Allow citizens
personalize the city
apps

13. Combine Connectivity + Interactivity?
Challenges?
• How?
• Address urban entity
connectivity issues?
• Foster interactivity among
entities?
• Minimize resources (time &
cost)?
• Minimize complexity
Solutions
• Accessible Technology &
Tools
• Communities
• Spaces (hackerspaces,
FabLabs)
• Public Data
• Creativity

14. COMPOSE Project
What is it?
• Open Source & Free tools
for:
– Physical object interaction
– Communication between
entities
– Discovery of services
– Development & Deployment
of applications
How it can be used?
• Connected projects that
sense, interact, utilize
public data information
• Discover services
• Make services discoverable
• Minimize the effort &
resources needed

15. COMPOSE Project
Physical object interaction
• Libraries for simple
communication with
objects
– Various types of devices
– Many communication
protocols
– Modular to support future
ones
– Collect/Store/Process sensor
data
Communication between entities
• Open APIs
• Support for cross-platform
mobile development
• Multipoint communication
– Bi-directional
• Drive actuations on objects
from Web/Mobile apps

16. COMPOSE Project
Discovery of services
• Ask (text queries) for
services online
– Traffic services in cities
• Identify resources
• Provide service endpoints in
easy to consume way
Development & Deployment of
applications
• Full Cloud-based PaaS
• Host user applications and
scale them
• Built on top of popular open
frameworks (CloudFoundry,
Node-RED, …)

17. COMPOSE Project

18. COMPOSE Project
How to use it?
• Grab tools you need
• Online instance for
experimentation
• Download your own
version & deploy
• Open Source
• Forever free
What we are looking for
• Use cases on urban entities
interactivity
• People
• Data
• Ideas
cdoukas@create-net.org
cdoukas@create-net.org
@buildingiot
@buildingiot
wwwwww.c.coommppoossee-p-prroojejecctt.e.euu

19. About me
Researcher
• Information &
Communication Systems
Engineer
• PhD in Health Informatics
• Senior Researcher in CREATE-NET
• COMPOSE Project
Maker
• IoT Blogger
– Many DIY IoT Projects
• Workshops (Makerland,
Makerfaire…)
• Author
– Building Internet of Things
with the Arduino
• Consultancy
@BuildingIoT
hdouka
s

20. Thank you!
Technology does not solve problems…
….people do!
#gettogether
#becreative