Smart lighting solutions as a catalyst for smart cities : practical challenges of ambitious innovation partners

Cities strive to improve quality of life for their citizens and see opportunities in new ICT-based technologies. Public lighting and public lighting infrastructure can play a significant role as a stepping stone to achieve the ambitions of cities to become ‘smart cities’. New technology enables cities to offer a wide range of intelligent and integrated services to benefit both individual citizens and society at large. The main challenge is how to create and implement new technology solutions serving the needs of people. This requires a paradigm shift towards the continuous innovation of services for people. Practical projects indicate four paradigm shifts: (1) from products to service; (2) from technology to people and society; (3) from individual products to adaptive platforms; and (4) from oneoff results to continuous innovation. Ambitious cities and projects encounter practical implementation problems that can only be overcome by radical new approaches and corresponding boundary conditions. Changing roles for all partners — industry, municipalities, knowledge organisations and citizens — can be identified. The technological development should aim to provide a platform in which all partial solutions can be integrated, and that is open to the developmentof applications. The starting point should be the people and other stakeholders who will benefit from the value created. A ‘designerly’ approach facilitates citizens in participating as experts on their own quality of life. The main challenge is in the co-creation process in the ecosystem: all partners will participate in the path of innovation, embracing the uncertainties in the outcome and jointly seeking opportunities that deliver the best value for all partners.