UrbanLabs OS – a co-created operating system for the city, based in Citilab-Cornellà

UrbanLabs OS

1 Mission
2 Opportunities
3 Challenges
4 Possible components of UrbanLabs OS
5 Skills needed
6 General process of the project
7 Platforms to use
8 ToDo list

Mission

Conceive, develop, test, implement and distribute components of a new operating system for the city, which improves the processes of communication, participation and consumption under open, efficient and sustainable parameters. It will be necessary to design and/or reutilise different type of interactions and of networks between technologies and people in the urban space, like this like mechanisms of visualization, distribution and improvement of each one of the components of the system. UrbanLabs OS can be composed of different autonomous projects that follow these aims, which at the same time realize the potential of the OS

Opportunities

At the moment thanks to ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) as well new models to citizen organisation it is possible to carry out strategies of compilation and access to data of all typse, to help urban mobility, to interact with the administration, to foment the local and responsible consumption, to save energy and work on many other areas wher distributed, participative and autonomous projects are developed and/or used by groups of active citizens.

Challenges

The economic globalization and climate change and the peak of oil, as well as the progressive political disaffection experienced by a large part of the population in the developed countries, creates a scenario where in the short term it seems necessary to organize to develop or boost mechanisms and concrete processes that result in a significant improvement of the life in the cities, on one hand, and on another an anticipation of possible social, ecological and economic problems.

Possible components of UrbanLabs OS

Here you can find some of the projects or ideas presented so far in UrbanLabs, that can potentially be a component of the operating system of city. In addition to these, there is a listing of new proposals which haven’t been classified yet, and other possibilities:

Recycling of computers and related material
Development of DIY & lowcost systems of renewable energy
Creation of OpenHardware
Systems of urban mobility
Collection and visualization of data: consumption, energy, mobility
Cooperatives of consumption
Geolocalization of urban indicators
Systems to foment local consumption
Systems of collaborative decision taking
Mechanisms of co-creation
Experiences of local collective memory and identity
Systems of exchange and bank of time
Shared urban allotments
Design of sustainable infrastructures
Urban displays of community information/opinion
Systems of reaction in cases of health emergency
Development of applications for mobile devices

Skills needed

Software programming
Interaction design
Coordination and energizing of teams
Dialogue with administrations and companies
Ideas for products and processes
Manufacture of prototypes
Testing and documentation of solutions
Translation of contents
Online distribution of advances
Mediation and resolution of conflicts
Identification of sponsors
Content development

General process of the project

Detection of modules of the system (ideas, projects in course, concrete problems)
Case studies (similar initiatives, technology adopted, state of development)
Online/offline with users (dynamics of design or redesign, new targets)
Application in specific contexts (covering the needs that arise)
In parallel: distribution, discussion, experimentation, fusion…

Source: design of process sketched out in the first meeting of UrbanLabsOS

Platforms to use

Wiki & wlog: http://urbanlabs.net/
Initial distribution list: http://groups.google.es/group/urbanlabs/ (maybe migrate to specific lists in MailMan in the future
Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=272070321989
Spaces of the Citilab according to needs

ToDo list

Share mission, opportunities and areas
UrbanLabs OS presentation/feedback meeting
Draw up general process of the project
Identify possible components between projects from UrbanLabs 08 and 09
Establish categories for the modules
Redo UrbanLabs homepage
Establish work processes and roles of participation (where/who)
Contact with promoters of ideas and projects in 08 and 09
Create badge for websites, blogs etc. “Component of UrbanLabs OS”
Dossier to locate sponsorship
Crowdsourcing of trends, initiatives, studies, indicators
Fix timeline of ides, development or localisation of pilot (when/which)
Prepare for UrbanLabs’10

[From UrbanLabs OS (English) – UrbanLabs]