Pooling and Leveraging Scarce Resources: The Smart eCity Gov Alliance

Abstract

While the term "Smart City" had been used in academia and practice rather casually as a summary label for all types of technology-supported innovation in urban spaces and City governments for quite some time, more recent research rigorously delineated the concept of a Smart City via an eight-category framework, which was developed by several research teams from different parts of the world as a joint initiative. Meanwhile a number of studies have appeared, which used the framework to systematically further explore the phenomenon. This case study on the eCityGov Alliance also employed the Smart City Framework in its design to investigate the Smart City approach that a number of small and mid-size municipalities near Seattle in the Pacific Northwest of the United States have taken. The case is unique and critical since it exemplifies how smaller and less resourceful local governments can pool and leverage their resources in ways that no single participant city could have accomplished on its own when pursuing the objective of creating a smart urban space supported by a smart municipal government. The eCityGov Alliance was found a model for successful intergovernmental collaboration although challenges with regard to long-term sustainability were also identified.

Smart City and Smart Government

“…On the other hand, Harsh and Ichalkaranje [13] present a claim that smart governments utilize the power of "data" in their attempt to improve public services; to enable an integrated, seamless service experience; to engage with citizens; to codevelop policies; and to implement solutions for well-being of the community. They adopt Rubel [14] definition for smart government according which, government smart transformation engages citizen participation, information transparency and service improvement. This definition seems to be followed by Scholl and Al Awadhi [15] and by Gil-Garcia [16], who sees a "whole-of-government" result behind this information integration, while Maheshwari and Janssen [17] recognize the need for public organizations' interconnection too and discuss corresponding interoperability issues.…”

The role of stakeholders in shaping smart solutions in Polish cities

“…(Bakıcı et al, 2013) Townsend (2013 […] define smart cities as places where information technology is combined with infrastructure, architecture, everyday objects, and even our bodies to address social, economic, and environmental problems. (Townsend, 2013) Scholl, AlAwadhi (2015 smart city (definition) is a programmatic term that summarizes the creation, integration, combination, development, and effective leverage of resources and assets towards innovation, attractiveness, competitiveness, sustainability, and livability of an urban space facilitated and accelerated by the ubiquitous use of advanced information and communication technologies with local governments playing key investigating roles in this process.(H.J. Scholl & AlAwadhi, 2015) Lara et al (2016) A community that systematically promotes the overall wellbeing for all of its members, and flexible enough to proactively and sustainably become an increasingly better place to live, work and play.…”

Minimizing the usage of SARS-CoV-2 lab test resources through test pooling enhanced by classification techniques

“…This paper addresses the second front. Pooling is a known strategy for optimizing scarce resources, such as staff for performing a service [4], smart city resources [5], and lab test kits for diagnoses [6] [7].…”