The Role Corporate Social Responsibility Has in the Smart City Project in Spain

The object and justification of this chapter is to analyse how Smart Cities will have an impact on workers' social welfare. Another aspect is the opportunity for businesses immersed in Smart Cities to improve working conditions through corporate social responsibility, reverting in this way to the society all that they have to offer. The future of employment in Smart Cities is analysed. Anyway, the realisation of the present work also has allowed to check how finds Spain in the implantation of this model of Cities and as they are involved the Spanish companies. In this sense, the investigation after an unproductive analysis and conceptual of the terms business social responsibility and smart quote analyses the implication of the right of the work in the new cities through the repercussion of these in the conditions of work of the workers taken by the companies so much of the small, of the average as of the big company, to finish with conclusions. It analyses the normative activity that Spain has developed specifically in this regard and his plans in the aim 20/20.

Limits and Potential for eGov and Smart City in Local Government

This study explore ICT infrastructure in the towns of Paraná State, reflecting on the potential and limits of ICT in the local government and the possibilities of these cities developing into smart cities. A quantitative study was conducted using multivariate data analysis techniques. The data are secondary and were obtained through a Municipal Basic Information Study in Brazil in 2012. The main result was the identification of five distinct municipal clusters in terms of ICT use and infrastructure. The size of a town is not a determining factor for towns to use and make web based services available to its citizens. Many towns remain lacking in basic infrastructure, with every profile showing different needs. There are a few strong patterns of eGov development and local conditions that could be treated as the foundation for some different policy packages that would be appropriate in these five situations. There are aspects that characterize the challenges and potential of towns than the emphasis placed on eGov. These aspects should be considered in studies of eGov and smart city.

The Smart City and Its Citizens

Smart cities are associated almost exclusively with modern technology and infrastructure. However, smart cities have the possibility to enhance the involvement and contribution of citizens to urban development. This work explores the role of governance as one of the factors influencing the participation of citizens in smart cities projects. Governance characteristics play a major role in explaining different typologies of citizen participation. Through a focus on Amsterdam Smart City program as a specific case study, this research examines the characteristics of governance that are present in the overall program and within a selected sample of projects, and how they relate to different typologies of citizen participation. The analysis and comprehension of governance characteristics plays a crucial role both for a better understanding and management of citizen participation, especially in complex settings where multiple actors are interacting.

On Internet of Things and Big Data in University Courses

In this paper, the authors discuss Internet of Things educational programs for universities. The authors' final goal is to provide a structure for a new educational course for Internet of Things and related areas such as Machine to Machine communications and Smart Cities. The Internet of Things skills are in high demands nowadays and, of course, Internet of Things models, as well as appropriate Big Data proceedings elements should have a place in the university courses. The purpose of the proposed educational course is to cover information and communication technologies used in Internet of Things systems and related areas, such as Smart Cities. The educational course proposed in this paper aims to introduce students to modern information and communication technologies and create the formation of competencies needed for such areas as Machine to Machine communications, Internet of Things, and Smart Cities. Also, the authors discuss Big Data issues for IoT course and explain the importance of data engineering.

When Wearable Computing Meets Smart Cities

In this chapter, wearables are presented as assistive technology to support persons with disabilities (PwD) to face the urban space in an autonomous and independently way. In the Inclusive Smart City (ISC), everyone has to be able to access visual and audible information that so far are available just for people that can perfectly see and listen. Several concepts and technologies – such as Accessibility and Universal Design, Pervasive Computing, Wearable Computing, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Cloud Computing – are associated to achieve this aim. Also, this chapter discusses some examples of use of wearables in the context of Smart Cities, states the importance of these devices to the successful implementation of Inclusive Smart Cities, as well as presenting challenges and future research opportunities in the field of wearables in ISC.

Implementation of Social Media Concepts for E-Government

Some governments have proven social media's potential to generate value through co-creation and citizen participation, and municipalities are increasingly using these tools in order to become smart cities. Nevertheless, few public administrations have taken full advantage of all the possibilities offered by social media and, as a consequence, there is a shortage of case studies published on this topic. By analyzing the case study of the platform Santander City Brain, managed by the City Council of Santander (Spain), the current work contributes to broaden the knowledge on ambitious social media projects implemented by local public administrations for e-Government; therefore, this case can be useful for other public sector's initiatives. The case studied herein proves that virtual social media are effective tools for civil society, as it is able to set the political agenda and influence the framing of political discourse; however, they should not be considered as the main channel for citizen participation. Among the results obtained, the authors have found that several elements are required: the determination and involvement of the government, a designated community manager to follow up with the community of users, the secured privacy of its users, and a technological platform that is easy to use. Additionally, the Public Private Partnership model provides several advantages to the project, such as opening new sources of funding.

Civic Crafting in Urban Planning Public Consultation

Minecraft is a popular video game that allows players to interact with a 3D environment. Users report that it is easy to learn and understand, is engaging and immersive, and is adaptable. Outside North America it has been piloted for urban planning public consultation processes. However, this game has not yet been studied to determine how and whether it could be used for this purpose. Using key informant interviews, this study asked practicing urban planners to assess Minecraft's potential. Key findings address Minecraft's usefulness as a visualization tool, its role in building public trust in local planning processes, the place of play in planning, and the challenges associated with its use in public consultation. The paper concludes with reflections as to how this game could effectively be used for public consultation, and offers key lessons for urban planners whose practice intersects with our digitally-enabled world.

Smart Citizens, Wise Decisions

This chapter takes as its research starting point a critical and convergent review and reexamination of existing theory and knowledge about entrepreneurship and sustainability. We question whether smart cities provide the ideal context for sustainability entrepreneurship (SE) to emerge and how sustainability-driven entrepreneurs can contribute to the development of smarter and more sustainable tourism destinations. Hence, we examine SE tourism and hospitality businesses implemented by these so-called ‘smart citizens' in Lisbon (Portugal), a city that arguably provides the necessary context for smart decisions to flourish. This chapter thus aims at opening up new modes of inquiry and questioning existing epistemologies on the study of smart cities and entrepreneurship that help breaking new ground about the role of entrepreneurs in the tourism activity.

In Search of Indicators for Assessing Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities' Performance

The goal of the paper is to elaborate on sustainability aspects of smart sustainable urban environments. More specifically, at a first step the paper aims at critically reviewing globally initiated state-of-the-art approaches for assessing smart cities' performance as to sustainability objectives. The scope of this effort is to identify sets of indicators used in different approaches as well as convergence/divergence among them. Secondly, an attempt to integrate different indicator sets into a more enriched and coherent indicator system is carried out which, by effectively embedding smart and sustainable city development into sustainability indicators' sets, can be used by various types of cities' examples. Finally, the rationale of the indicators' selection process is depicted, in order to support policy makers and planners' guidance towards choosing an appropriate, city-specific set of sustainability indicators for carrying out relevant assessments.

Introduction to Smart City and Agricultural Revolution

In this chapter, a discussion is presented about what Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT) really is and what intricacies are used while building big data and internet of things. Further Big Data and Internet of Things have been used for building an application used for Smart City & Agriculture. A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and communication technology (ICT) solutions. Smart city's goal is to improve quality of life with technology to improve the efficiency of services and meet residents' needs. Smart agriculture approach is to develop, transform and reorient agricultural development under new realities of climate change. It increases productivity enhances resilience (adaptation), reduces mitigation with achievement of national food security and development goals. This chapter includes detailed discussion on Smart City and Smart Agriculture along with planning, designing as well as various approaches used to build and implement them effectively.