Operational environment is changing faster and faster, and the challenges cities and companies face has become more complicated. Thus it is important to actively seek new ways to operate and resolve the challenges together. With more efficient, up-to-date solutions the citizens can be served even better, operational efficiency and cost savings can be reached and the vitality and competitivity of the area can be enhanced.
At the same time, the change where the City’s role becomes more diverse is supported. The City can act not only as a purchaser, but also as a partner and enabler. Be curious and try new things together with companies. Failing is allowed because the aim is to recognize which concepts should be further developed and which should not. The best solutions will be refined into globally scalable smart city products and services. All this strengthens the reputation of Tampere as a daring forerunner.
— Fast development of technologies and still continuing trend of urbanisasion create opportunities to build completely new kind of solutions for city guidance. Companies are essential role in testing and developing these solutions together with the City, tells Anni Joela, Project Manager of 6Cities: Smart Guidance project.
One example of the concrete ways to develop experiments and co-creation is a hackathon. When the hackathon is made as a part of public procurement process, also such target audiences that do not usually take part in the City’s procurements can be reached. When the need is described as a challenge, there will be room to brainstorm different ways that the need could be met. This makes it possible to utilize the latest information and knowhow, and create solution models based on them.
Tampere has already utilised hackathons before, but this is our first time in Junction. Junction is the biggest hackathon in Europe, organised by Finnish. This year participants have been reached from 86 countries and eight pre-events have been organised around the world. By taking part in Junction Tampere strengthens its global visibility, which supports the City’s strategic goal to be globally known, international and strongly networked.
At Junction the challenges of Tampere are located at the Future Cities track. Up to 14 percent of all 7.000 applicants were interested in the track, which makes it the second most interesting of all eleven tracks that are offered in Junction.
— Technologies that are in place in the city infrastructure hugely affect all the city residents daily. Because city infrastructure and services have such a huge impact, it is extremely important to continuously strive towards innovation. Open data is taken for granted in modern Nordic communities, but actually it’s exotic in a global perspective. We can’t wait to see what new innovations our participants can create with Tampere, tells Henri Heliö, Head of Partnerships from Junction.
Fortunately the wait is not too long, since the hackathon weekend is already on 23rd – 25th November. Before that, you can for example get a closer look of our challenges: https://2018.hackjunction.com/.
—
Towards the New Generation of Guidance
In this challenge we are asking how to take the city guiding and finding services to the next level by utilising the existing data. We are seeking especially solutions related to guiding for elderly, street parking situation and guiding in exceptional situations.
Smart Traffic – From Predictions to Realtime
In this challenge we concentrate on how to develop mobility by using realtime data and accurate 3D models. We are looking for especially solutions related to city bike system, automatic feeder service, as well as safe and fluent mobility.