Crowdsourcing Solution through Civic Innovation Group

The pursuit of Smart City requires partnership of all elements of city actors. City of Boston established New urban Mechanics, a civic innovation group that support the city government to create innovative human-centred design solution for the city. This innovation group is embedded in the city government and work across departments and communities to evaluate and experiment solution to both government and civic life. This group works on varying sectors, such as housing, education, mobility, civic engagement etc, that are context specific to local area of Boston. Through this platform, many experiments, projects and prototypes have been implemented that serve the local citizen and make city life easier, safer and better. New Urban Mechanics is one success story of smart city that facilitates public involvement and technology adaptation to improve citizens’ quality of life and has been replicated in City of Philadelphia and the State of Utah.   

Reference:

World Economic Forum. (2020). Smart at Scale: Cities to Watch 25 Case Studies Community Paper.

City of Boston. (2021). New Urban Mechanics.