This presentation was meant for the #OpenGovernance session in Ghent on 11 June 2018 CRTL-ALT-DEL to ALT-GOV as part of the Eurocities #Cities4Europe campaign. All copyright belongs to Joan Batlle Monserrat

1. Commissioner of Technology and Digital Innovation Office
Technology is (Part of) the Answer.
The Question is Open Governance,
Break Out of Centralized Systems:
How Technology Makes an Alternative
Possible
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CTRL-ALT-DEL to ALT-GOV
A contribution from Barcelona City Council

2. Barcelona as Smart City
• Solid tech base, with a noteworthy open data portal, a good air quality
sensor network, and widespread public Wi-Fi.
• Application rollout has been strong in mobility but slower in areas such as
security.
• Residents may not be fully on board yet. People are largely aware of the
applications deployed, but usage is low (although users satisfaction is
good).
Barcelona recently felt a course correction was needed so the city released a
revised strategic technology plan with a focus on :
• Creating an open-source sensor network. The city will retain control of the
platform but will use this shift to break down data silos that had formed.
• Making privacy, data sovereignty and data security core elements of its
approach to address some of their concerns.
• Creating a digital platform that offers residents a way to weigh in on
decision making. Decidim.Barcelona, a digital platform for civic
participation.
• Increasing transparency by inviting citizens to flag any improprieties in
municipal contracts posted online. 2(Source McKinsey. Smart Cities: digital solutions for a more livable future. June 2018)

3. BARCELONA DIGITAL CITY
Building the networked city from the ground up
Vision That Barcelona becomes an open, equitable,
circular and democratic city, and a leader in technology
policy for a clear citizen leadership of city adminis-
tration.
Mission To solve the challenges of the city and the
people through a more democratic use of technology. To
promote technological and digital innovation for a more
open government, to develop a plural economy, foster
social environmental transformation, and boost citizen
empowerment.
Beyond Smart City:
To an open, equitable, circular and democratic city

4. Digital Plan Main Objectives
Digital
Transfomation
Digital
Empowerment
• Technologies to transform
government and city
• Open Source Agile
transformation of the City
Hall, improving urban
services
• Develop a city data
infrastructure to drive
innovation
• Fostering the city’s digital
innovation ecosystem
• Make in BCN: diversifying
the tech economy towards
a circular city
• Urban i-Lab: facilitate
SMEs/startups access to
procurement, and promote
good quality jobs.
• Empowering citizens
• Grow digital education
and digital inclusion
programs
• Facilitate large scale
digital democracy and
data sovereignty for
citizens
Digital
Innovation

5. Tech to Transform The City
Focus on citizens challenges to improve city services
• Affordable housing, health care, sustainable mobility, energy transition, citizen
particiation, green spaces, reduction of CO2 emissions...
DESIGUALTAT
S SOCIALS
QUALITAT
DE VIDA
CANVI
CLIMÀTIC

6. Digital sovereignity
Accelerate the city transition to technological and data sovereignty
Barcelona wants to increase its technological sovereignty to:
• decide on how our city is developed by acting on the priorities in the use of technology
• recover the knowledge of the management of the city with technological tools
• leave knowledge as a legacy for the city itself
The plan proposes to:
• Reduce dependencies with suppliers of specific proprietary solutions (vendor lock-in )
• Adopt open standards and develop digital services in open source
• Recover data control with new public procurement contracts
• Share knowledge and code among different cities thus saving public money
The plan also foster the digital sovereignty of Barcelona citizens, increasing its
technological awareness, and defending its rights and digital freedoms.
6

7. Local Council roles
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Local Government
• Local councils like schools of
citizenship, or proximity spaces
between governments and
citizens and instruments to
favour the dispersion of political
power above the territory
(Stuart Mill).
• Connects citizens demands and
politics agenda
• Close the divide between
deliberation process and taking
decisions
• Participatory Democracy
• eParticipation
• Citizens empowerment
Locla Pulbic Administration
• Local councils as functional
organizations resulting of
the administrative
decentralization of the
state to improve the
efficiency of public actions
(Jeremy Bentham)
• Efficiency of public services
• Representative Democracy
• eAdministration
• Services to citizens

8. 1st period: 80’s – “Well-being” towns
• Result of a pact between government and citizens where the firsts
committed to offer a growing volume of services, in exchange the seconds
limit their participation to the electoral event
• Local councils as executive arm of the well-being politics for the state of
well-being
• Construction of the principal equipment, infrastructures and municipal
services
• Efficient logic. Administrative processes reengineering and automation
• Barcelona administrative decentralization in 10 districts
• Civil associations went from an activist role to a defusing situation (tamed)
• Civil participation limited and passive
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9. 2nd period: 90’s – Rational towns
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• A wide range of actuators incorporated into the management tasks and
provision of municipal services. Outsourcing
• Development of eAdministration
• Introduction of tools to inform citizens (Right to be informed)
• Understanding citizen participation potentialities to generate social
capital that guarantees the good operation of our society
• Development of codes and rules to introduce citizens participation in
municipal decision processes
• Launch of some services to timidly give voice to citizens as individuals
(Right to be listened)
• Introduction of tools to coordinate participation through civil associations

10. 3rd period – Democracy extension
• Empowered citizens due to wide adoption of digital technologies
• New generation of eAdministration services with citizen feedback
• Digital transformation of public services
• Social networks are the new vehicle of political expression
• New generation of 3rd sector associations and citizens demanding new
areas of participation in city running (Right to be involved)
• Democracy experimentation, collective`participation
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11. Crisis of representative democracy
• Democratic systems have not changed in 200 years
• 15M and the crisis of representative democracy (“They are not representing us!”)
• Strong Demand of public spaces for information, deliberation and resolution
• A claim for participatory democracy to recover (from representatives) the power
of the people, the sovereignty that belongs to the people (Right to be involved)
• Need to re-define the relation between governments and citizens
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Source: “Dies que duraran anys”. Jordi Borras 2018

12. Municipal Action Plan
Participatory Budget
Ethical mailbox
• Promote the participation and co-responsibility of the citizens
in the design, execution and evaluation of municipal policies
through public-common collaboration logics.
• Promote citizen participation bodies as true broad spaces for
coproduction, monitoring and evaluation of public policies.
• Develop public and common digital participation and
collaboration environments and infrastructures:
– Portal of transparency
– Enable an ethical mailbox
– Develop a digital participation platform
– Participate in the municipal budgets
– Create a laboratory for democratic innovation and
citizen collaboration

13. Citizens need a new deal on data
– Ethics & responsible innovation
– Data sovereignty & privacy
– Data Infrastructure at City-Scale
– Beyond Data: Information and City Indicators
– Data quality and analytics
– New ownership regimes for data: CITY DATA
COMMONS
A new city-level data strategy that has transparency, privacy,
security and ethical use of data for innovation at its core

14. Data as a commons
Citizens, Business, Scientists, Communities, Civil servants...
Social intelligence
Insight
Citizen Data
Public Sector Data
Participation processes Data
Sensors Data
Private
Sector Data
Public services
Research
results Business
services
3rd sector services
Public policies

15. New tools to manage data
Mayor’s Office for Data Analytics Decentralized citizens owned
data ecosystem
Mission: Actionable Insight for
Barcelona Government
• Grow and advance Big-Data use to
improve decision-making and
citizens’ engagement
• Support more effective delivery of
public services to Barcelona citizens
for greater equity, safety, and
quality of life
• Promote a genuinely collaborative
and innovative economy

16. decidim.barcelona: the platform
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A digital common’s infrastructure
for participatory democracy

17. Participatory city action plan 2015
Using decidim.barcelona platform
Indicators
39.049 participants
10.860 proposals
1.467 actions plans
15.021 physical participants
500+ meetings
1.700 organizations
165.121 supports
72,2% citizen proposals accepted
24.028 active users
230.000+ online interactions
10.860 proposals +72% acceptance rate 1.467 action plans
~7.000 accountable projects
Proposals source Main actions lines
Data analysis

18. Facts & figures
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15/5/2018
28.487 Participant registered
23 Participatory processes
12.487 Proposals submitted
9.011 Proposals accepted
189.455 support expressed
18.210 Comments
945 Meetings
5.340 Results

19. barcelona.cat/digital
Building the networked city
from the ground up
Gràcies!
Bedankt!
Thank you!
Joan Batlle
jbatlle@bcn.cat