The Digital City at the Service of the 21st century citizen
Cities are the arena where we will respond to the different global challenges we face today. This is because more than half of the world's population is concentrated in a small geographical area.
These challenges are complex, with specific characteristics for each territory. In many cases, the prevailing idea is that technology will be the ultimate solution, forgetting the role people will play. In other cases, predictions point to a catastrophic future in the style of some fiction films such as Blade Runner or Neo Tokyo (Akira), or TV series such as Black Mirror.
At Minsait, we are committed to a more optimistic vision in which technology can and should play a very important role in overcoming our challenges and in preserving the human dimension of cities.
The Digital City we envisage is focused on the citizen, who will enjoy comfortable, simple and individualised services. To achieve that, our cities must be an open ecosystem in which both the public and the private complement each other. At the same time, cities must connect with their surrounding territory, whose borders are invisible to the citizen. We also know that, in the same way as challenges vary, the Digital City must adapt to each case, and must not just be exclusive for large cities or towns with big budgets. The Digital City also includes towns and smaller communities.
In order to be able to clearly define and respond to all these challenges, we have prepared the “The Digital City at the Service of the 21st century citizen” report. With it, we want to share our reflections and our vision of the future, without trying to offer a closed proposal.
Our aim is to open a framework for reflection and hold an ongoing debate involving administrations, citizens and organisations, which will allow us all to continue to develop our projects and products. We also aim to contribute to improving the lives of citizens and consolidating the European urban model as the role model for the rest of the world's regions.