Citizeneer?

Citizeneer is a word of my own created out of the words citizen + engineer. Citizeneers would be the people living in the core of cities, using new technologies and information to interact ubiquitously between them and the city and, with their actions and traces, shaping the decisions on the future of the city.

I had the extreme luck of being born with a computer under the arms (IBM 286, wonderful times!) and that discovered the Internet when being a teenager. Now, I am standing flabbergasted watching how advances in technologies help creating alive urban spaces, putting citizens back at the centre of cities, empowering them to let them actively participate in the era of the intelligent cities. And this amazes me.

In this blog I would like to write about the interaction of cities and new technologies: the so-called models and projects of intelligent cities, smart cities, open data, the Internet of Things, citizen participation, services co-creation, living labs... The list of topics will be, as blogs are, completely dynamic. And on the top of it all, I would like to talk about the social implications of the introduction of new technologies in people’s life and how they can impact them. I hope you find it useful!

It has taken me a long time to decide to start this blog. Before, I have been following for years very interesting long-lasting blogs written by visionary people with strong solid opinions on the topics of my interest. My objective is not to write one of those blogs but simply create a space to share my views with others, to allow discussion and hear from others‘ own experiences.

I decided to write this blog in English precisely to reach a wider group of people (so please natives, if you find any error -there will be plenty of them-, correct me!). I am truly convinced of the power of globalizing (certain) discussions, such as those around cities evolution. As prestigious sociologist Saskia Sassen explained, global cities around the world are creating unique own spaces, linked one to the other, surpassing the limits of nation-states with the advance of technology.