Introduction

The following research is based on a critical reflection about the use of Open Data by the cities and the challenges of today to build a collective intelligence by citizens.

With the contribution of different experts involved in the world of data from different points of view, we had the opportunity to investigate the role of the topic and interpret its current dynamics.

Opportunities – Conclusion

From the research path and the experiences explored in this article, it is clear how the data available to cities hold a strong link with the citizens themselves, suggesting scenarios in which they can play an active role in the identification of data that are able to describe specific needs. It also emerges the need to promote educational models able to increase the consciousness not only of the simple data collection but also of the power represented by the human capital.

Because data can be produced anywhere as a human being. But the collection, the editing, the reuse of the data, the tools and the people with the capacity to work on this data to convert and transform this into insights, case study and best practices represent today the real key point.

Cities of any type or size, now, have the responsibility to build an open data infrastructure that is capable of generating active citizen participation. Only in this way will they be able to benefit from the creative potentials generated by collective intelligence, following the example of more data-rich cities, and co-designing better cities.

Data Citizen in Action is a project of IAAC, Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed at Master in City and Technology in 2020/21 by students: Simone Grasso, Kevin Aragón, Sasan Bahrami and faculty: Mathilde Marengo