Potential usage of the URBAN INNO Toolbox of participatory methods

In August 2017, the Ministry of the Interior, Digitisation and Migration of the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg published a call for applications for funding in the competition ‘Digitale Zukunftskommune@BW’ (Digital Municipality of the Future). Cities and municipalities could apply for funding for the targeted development of digital services for citizens in all areas of life. In May 2018, the Ministry decided to fund five projects.

Amongst other cities, the city of Karlsruhe has successfully applied for funding and will start in the second half of 2018 the project ‘digital@KA’ with the aim to develop a platform for the integration of digital services in form of mobile apps. Any kind of app with an urban context will be able to use an interface provided by this platform and thus to be offered to users (in most cases to citizens), independent if the app provider is from the public or from the private sector. A secure single sign on access to apps offered via the platform will be offered to the users, i.e. they need only one password to use any of these apps. In this way, citizens will be supported to easily use apps to organise their urban life, e.g. with regard to cultural activities, real-time information about traffic or the location of the closest pharmacy.

The URBAN INNO partner CyberForum e.V. is a member of the project consortium and will be, amongst other tasks, involved in the requirements engineering, i.e. to find out the different demands and fears of potential users of the platform. Users can be any kind of citizens, companies, public institutions or the municipality itself. In this context, it will be possible to use the toolbox of participatory methods developed within URBAN INNO in a real, urban-related project.