Online Activities to Mobilize Smart Cities

Abstract

A smart city is a dynamic living system that contains hard (unchanging) and soft (changing) parts that each involve the implementation of respective technologies. Prior research has focused on infrastructure, technology, and social components when discussing smart city structure. In this paper, we explore key elements within the soft aspects of smart city initiatives enabling the organization of a dynamic structure. To do so, we focus on human behavior, which we illustrate by analyzing online activities in two cases: one is related to a smart city while the other focuses on an online community. Based on the analysis, we identify key elements that reveal how people participate and become engaged in order to provide lessons to be taken into account within smart city initiatives. Within online activities, the key elements we note are related to knowledge generation, information sharing of common interests, and the creation of collective action.