Data4City – A Hyperlocal Citizen App

Abstract

Exploring upon the phenomena of smart cities, this paper elaborates the potential of crowdsourced data collection in small scale urban quarters. The development of the Data4City (D4C) hyperlocal app – PinCity – is based on the idea of increasing the density of real-time information in urban areas (urban neighborhoods) in order to optimize or create innovative urban services (such as public transportation, garbage collection) or urban planning, thus improving the quality of life of quarter inhabitants as a long-term goal. The main principle of the app is the small-scale implementation, as opposed to top-down smart city approaches worldwide, preferably in a city quarter, or a community, which can be subsequently scaled and interlaced to other parts of the city.