Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin's Smart City Strategy

Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin (GD:B) is a comprehensive smart city strategy published by the Berlin Senate Chancellery. This strategy was adopted to unify Berlin's separate digitalization and smart city initiatives into a cohesive framework aimed at collaborative urban transformation. The title "Gemeinsam Digital" translates to "Together Digital," reflecting the core belief that urban development should be shaped collectively by residents, the city administration, businesses, academia, and civil society. The development of GD:B featured an extensive participatory process over more than two years. This process included citizen participation events such as workshops and online consultations that gathered input from thousands of Berlin residents. Special efforts were made to engage underrepresented communities, including migrants, elderly residents, and people with disabilities. The strategy also incorporated insights from various stakeholders, including administrative staff from different Berlin districts, academic institutions, and civic tech organizations, ensuring a broad spectrum of perspectives and needs were addressed.

GD:B is built on guiding principles that shape Berlin's approach to smart city development. These include: - Participation and Co-Creation: Digital transformation should involve the residents who live in the city, maintaining open channels for citizen input on digital projects. - Openness and Transparency: The strategy emphasizes open data, open-source software, and transparent governance of digital infrastructure, linking directly with Berlin's Open Source Strategy for Public Administration. - Sustainability: Digital technologies should support Berlin's climate goals, addressing energy consumption, environmental impact, and contributing to sustainable mobility and circular economy practices. - Social Inclusion: The benefits of digitalization must be accessible to all residents, ensuring that services remain available to those who may not engage digitally. - Data Sovereignty and Privacy: The strategy prioritizes resident rights regarding personal data governance, committing to data minimization and transparency.

GD:B organizes its vision into interconnected fields of action, including: - Digital Administration: Modernizing public administration and making all services available online as mandated by the German Online Access Act. - Smart Mobility: Promoting sustainable transport solutions through integrated ticketing and intelligent traffic management. - Energy and Climate: Utilizing digital tools to enhance energy transition efforts with smart grid technologies and data-driven climate adaptation planning. - Urban Development and Housing: Incorporating digital tools into urban planning and enhancing resident engagement in development processes. - Education and Culture: Expanding digital literacy and modernizing school infrastructure to improve access to cultural institutions. - Health and Social Services: Improving healthcare delivery through telemedicine and digital health records while ensuring equity in access.

The implementation of GD:B is coordinated by the Berlin Senate Chancellery with support from CityLAB Berlin, which provides technical expertise and facilitates community engagement. The approach is agile and iterative, allowing for continuous adaptation based on learning from implementation. The strategy also features a network of smart city pilots across Berlin's districts, translating high-level goals into practical initiatives.

For housing cooperatives and community-based organizations, GD:B is particularly relevant as it enhances transparency in urban development, promotes open data access, and provides participatory digital platforms for local planning. Furthermore, smart building technologies supported by the strategy can improve energy efficiency and resident comfort in cooperative housing. The strategy's focus on co-creation aligns with democratic governance principles in the cooperative sector.

The full name of the strategy is Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin, adopted in December 2022. It is designed as an umbrella strategy integrating digital and smart city initiatives and is publicly available on its website. GD:B has been recognized as an exemplary model for participatory governance in smart city development, making it a significant resource for sustainable housing initiatives across Europe.