Cretan and South Aegean Living Lab
Cretan and South Aegean Living Lab
University of Crete together with other academia (Technical University of Crete, University of the Mountains, Technological Educational Institute of Crete), Region of South Aegean, Ikaros network of municipalities in Crete and South Aegean area, and SME’s has developed a network of e-services and applications that allows citizens to interact with the community and local government. The collaboration developed between all the parties and the exchange of experience and knowledge led to the creation of the Cretan and South Aegean Living Lab (CSALL) which is being active in Crete and in the greater South Aegean region. CSALL fields of interest are e-government, Smart cities and ICT regional policy.
Description
There are powerful reasons indicating that CSALL can be a pole of innovation in South Aegean and the Mediterranean. CSALL’s partners consist of the best from both the academic and business communities and also the local actors and great number of users.
The collaboration of academia with SME’s leads to innovative products that reach end users. Local authorities support the LL by providing great number of people end- users that will benefit from the new products.
On the other hand, our LL provides all the partners with a specific operational framework and proper organization. Gives the opportunity for all members to get together and interact, to exchange materials and methods and to be able to access to funding for such initiatives. All partners together have contributed in innovation, promotion of entrepreneurship and have added value to the partnership as a whole.
References and Track Record
During the past six years, many user oriented applications have been developed. Fifteen (15) Municipality web portals have been created with informational material, government to citizens and citizens to government applications, forums, polls, and several electronic modules that lead to the improvement of municipality’s functions. Citizens have the ability to remotely complete their transactions with the local government actors, they can express their opinions on public issues and can create their own content on municipalities websites.
Our Living Lab goal is to create services open, easily accessible, able to function in several operating systems and interconnect with diverse applications. Key factor in developing such tools is the ability to improve and enrich modules depending on people’s needs. Alongside with the above, the local authorities and Ikaros network have promoted the establishment of high quality and fast networks and broadening the broadband connection system, providing to an increasingly number of people internet access. Our LL activities foster the use of electronic tools that promote e-democracy and stimulate the participation of people in decision making process.
