Transitioning into Smart City

Despite having an ambitious vision of Smart City, there often a big gap in the existing city condition and the goals being set for the city. A study on City of Tallinn in Estonia, provide some insight on how city can better transition into Smart City. From the interview of city officials, Sary and Soe (2021) found that the city has moved slightly different from the initial the initial vision. A double-helix model of collaboration between city government and industry is the most prevalent model that the city use, resulting in a technology-driven changes in the city. Although this transformation has had positive impact in the public service, city officials suggest that a shared vision involving a quadruple-helix model of collaboration, where city government not only works with industry but also university and citizen, is critical to move the city towards Smart City.

Taking the role of policy maker and manager of the city, local officials expressed concern on the barriers of implementing Smart City vision in the city policy and management level, for instance the challenge from lack of financial & human resource, skills, knowledge, political support and commitment. There is also the inadequate coordination between local and national level government that hinders the transformation of the smart city. Fortunately, new strategy is being constructed with collaboration with the citizen. City officials are hopeful that the new strategy that embrace the quadruple-helix model can boost and support the transition to the vision of smart city better, as it has improved the coordination and collaboration model and have same vision shared by all the stakeholders in the city.

Reference:

Sarv, L., & Soe, R. M. (2021). Transition towards Smart City: The Case of Tallinn. Sustainability, 13(8), 4143.

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