UW: What role should technology companies, such as Ubiwhere, play in developing smarter cities?

MC: Urban Management Platforms are an essential component in transforming a more analogue society into a more digital one, enabling us to capture the aspirations of citizens and obtain concrete data on various aspects — climate, transport, environment, lighting, waste, rubbish. 

A platform therefore brings together, or should bring together, a wealth of data that provides information about people and their aspirations and interests. If the platform is able to support local authorities, or at the national level, the country’s administration, in creating public policies better tailored to citizens, then Urban Management Platforms fulfil a particularly important role.

UW: Should citizens be concerned about the security of their data? What measures should companies adopt to ensure citizens are not harmed?

MC: Often, citizens lack a clear understanding of how their data is handled. If they did, perhaps they would not share so much personal information with major platforms and social networks — information about their lives and activities that, in a way, reveals an individual lifestyle and allows very detailed profiles to be created. These profiles are then sold to advertisers, at best, but sometimes to unknown entities.

Even if citizens are not fully aware of the potential malicious use of their data, platforms have regulatory obligations in Europe, particularly under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Additionally, there is now the Artificial Intelligence Act, which clearly defines the contexts in which AI can be used, the conditions, and how issues related to data use, especially personal data, should be mitigated.

Therefore, even though citizens may not be completely aware, and digital literacy must be improved, it is crucial that providers of Urban Management Platforms act responsibly. Above all, anyone aiming to transform a city or territory into a smart territory must understand that this must be done without bias, without abusive data use, with the ability to trace exactly who used the data and for what purpose, ensuring transparency and that governments are accountable towards citizens.

UW: Citizens are sometimes unaware that urban management platforms exist. How do citizens benefit from these platforms?

MC: The first thing to understand is that major industrial revolutions only reach maturity when we no longer notice we are using them daily. This happened with electricity — who thinks about the history of innovation, research, and infrastructure that guarantees the light turns on when we flip a switch?

The same applies, or will progressively apply, to data use, to the notion of a smart society, digital society, digital administration, smart city. When a person, without knowing the complexity behind it, has at their disposal a set of services that bring administration closer to the citizen, that are close, that anticipate concerns, desires, or needs — whether that’s booking an appointment with local public administration or ensuring parking near a hospital is available when needed.

When we can anticipate — when public administration, local or national, knows that a citizen has a specific need at a particular moment and can anticipate providing what they require — we have a smart city. If we can do this, what I call “Triple As” — Approaching the citizen, Anticipating, and Automating — we transform the jargon “smart city” into a city that is close to its citizens and used daily by them. Only human-centred cities are truly smart cities.