Diner Pensant – The Transparent City 

Due to a lack of transparency about the introduction and implementation of so-called “smart” technology in the public space of Amsterdam, there was a desire to have an open conversation about this with a broad group of stakeholders. We did not start it from the perspective of professional roles but from each of our human values, which we wanted to explore with each other. 

On July 4^th 25 people – citizens, researchers, designers, innovators, civil servants, and councilors – got together at the Marineterrein. The importance of the open atmosphere became clear in statements like “It’s great to be able to ask someone from the technical department questions and hear how seriously things are taken” and “Very good to hear what people’s concerns are, but also how much knowledge people actually have.” 

Areas of transparency

We talked about topics like the origin of the vision of the smart city and the possibility for citizens to slow down the growth of smart city technology in public spaces. We concluded collectively that there is a democratic deficit and a need to bring together knowledge from various ‘bubbles’ to achieve a multi-voiced collective of knowledge. 

Six preliminary areas of transparency with respect to smart city tech emerged from the conversation: problem-solution identification, decision-making, long-term consequences, characteristics, workings and functions of applications, characteristics of the infrastructure needed, and data processing by the applications and executive branch of the municipality.

For more information, check out below the ‘living’ report Transparent City (version 06-11-2024) made by Tom van Arman