The work we will be discussing here explores how government, industry, the university, and the citizens of a city can arrive through a participatory design approach at an increased and mutual understanding and a shared vision of a desired smart city of the future. Elaborating upon insights from transition management studies and from the quadruple-helix knowledge production model, our work proposes a participatory approach for prototyping future cities that embraces practice-oriented design research activities and thus aims for practical impact. We will report on two cases, GovJam and Hackday Data of the Crowds, in which stakeholders were able to acquire through participatory prototyping an understanding of the possibilities of technology in city services of the future. Results from these sessions show that participating stakeholders indeed gained a new perspective upon issues facing the city, due to an increased awareness and understanding of, and empathy for, the interests of other stakeholders. We also found indications that transfer of knowledge was taking place from the prototyping sessions to the daily practice of participants working in the public sector.

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A city is a public space where people find meaning by living together. Although cities are governed by city councils, it is mainly the citizens that make their own city. The contemporary cityscape is increasingly pervaded with emerging media. Recent invasions of interactive media in the cityscape, however, are to a large extent commercial broadcasting systems that do not encourage interaction and communication among citizens. This is not trivial; the public space is the city's medium for communication with its citizens. The current work derives from the notion that interactive media can be used to enrich people's lives in a meaningful way. In three design cases is illustrated how the symbolic level of interactions is of major importance for designing meaningful interactions in cities.