NOVA IMS and GEO-C team are glad to welcome the visit of Dr. Stéphane Roche

8th June 2018 geoc

Dr. Stéphane Roche is a well-known researcher in the field of Geographic Information Science and Smart Cities. The GEO-C team invited him to visit NOVA IMS school (4th to 8th of June) to talk about the current transition from the Smart City technological paradigm to a more citizen-centric approach. Furthermore, he provided feedback to improve and collaborate in the research of #ESR04. We are excited for the opportunity to work with him.

Stéphane Roche, Eng.. Ph.D.

Engineer and Geographer, Stéphane Roche is a full professor of Geospatial sciences and vice-dean for research at the Faculty of forestry, geography and geomatics, Université Laval, Québec City, Canada. He teaches GIS and spatial analysis (undergraduate and graduate) and, a graduate seminar on Geospatial data quality. Roche is especially interested in exploring the role of social geolocation (LBSN), open data and crowdsourcing to support the implementation and operation of smart city concepts. He is also involved in research projects dealing with spatial skills and spatial reasoning as the main sources for a new form of urban intelligence. Roche has contributed to the Ethics and Smart City Panel of the Commission for Ethics in Sciences and Technologies of the Governement of Québec. He has recently been selected as one of the 13 jury members for the Smart City Challenge of Infrastructure Canada Minister. Roche is an active member of the Information Technologies and Society Institute (ITIS – Université Laval) and of the Centre for Research in Geomatics (CRG – Université Laval). He is also a research affiliate to the MIT Senseable City Lab and Honorary Principal Fellow to the Department of Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Opening Smart cities: challenges to engage citizens through information systems – ECIS workshop

20th June 2017 geoc

To organize a scientific event in the form of a workshop as part of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). ESR 01,03,04,05,06,13 and 15 gathered in Guimaraes – Portugal to discuss the topic of “Opening Smart cities: challenges to engage citizens through information systems.”

The workshop aimed to allow space for the participants and organizers to reflect on current smart cities practices and their challenges, and possible ways to address them. It was particularly emphasized by the call that the participants considered and proposed over the importance of effective citizen engagement strategies and platforms within the smart cities’ context.

Different activities took place during the workshop: presentation session and brainstorming session. The presentations covered a broad range of topics (citizen engagement, privacy from the smart city’s point of view, participatory budget and transformation of smart and sustainable cities). After the presentations, an interactive session was built on the group discussion and brainstorming. The topics included “IoT & Privacy in smart cities,” “Openness in smart cities: challenges and impact” and “Sense of place to promote participation in smart cities.” Participants were divided into two groups, and finally, they all agreed on common issues concerning the participation of citizens in city contexts such as isolation, exclusion and lack of participation.

More information on the workshop can be found here:

http://www.ecis2017.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ECIS2017-OSC.pdf

Pictures of the workshop:

GEO-C ESRs developed a map survey at Lisbon’s Freguesia de São Domingos de Benfica meeting

21st April 2017 geoc

Yesterday, Albert Acedo (ESR04) and Manuel Portela (ESR15) developed a survey as a part of their joint research with the local community of San Domingos de Benfica, a neighbourhood in Lisbon. The meeting was organized by the Junta de Freguesia de Domingos de Benfica and the NGO CDI Portugal for the promotion of the participatory budget.

The survey was the first step to test how dwellers of the neighbour can perceive and feel their sense of place and social capital by mapping themselves and their social groups in a local cartography. The next steps will include a digital application that Acedo is developing and will be released next month, and an ethnographic experience that will be held with same participants next week.

The outcome of the research, is meant to provide some insights on how neighbours can improve their quality of live by enhancing their neighbourhood sense of belonging, emotional engagement, and civic participation.

CfP Workshop @ ECIS2017: Opening Smart Cities: Challenges to engage citizens through information systems

7th March 2017 geoc

We, some of the ESRs from the “GEO-C – Geoinformatics: Enabling Open Cities” project, would like to invite you to our half-day pre-conference workshop part of the 25th Annual European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2017). This workshop entitled “Opening Smart Cities: Challenges to engage citizens through information systems” aims to explore and discuss the potential of information systems to engage citizens in the development of smart cities through e-participation technologies.

The session will take place on June 6, 2017, in conjunction with the ECIS 2017 in Guimarães, Portugal. The deadlines for short papers (max. 2000 words) submissions are on April 3, 2017 and we encourage you to submit your paper as a .pdf to us, along with the authors’ names and contact details to geoc3.ecis@gmail.com. The main topics we will address will be:

E-participation in smart cities
Citizen engagement platforms in smart cities
Open data and governance towards open and inclusive cities
Participatory and critical design in urban decision-making processes
New kinds of interaction between citizens and other stakeholders in open cities
Different performance of citizens on using ICT for e-participation: gender, age, education, etc
Reflections for e-participation: Best practices, failures & practical challenges.

We are looking forward to your submission!
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