L.A.M.A. (Local Area Monitor Assistant): Making data tangible for a meaningful dialogue

Abstract

Data has become an essential asset which grows and makes possible opportunities tangible to find and make an accurate forecast for future developments and vision more certain. The role of data is evolving and expanding, resulting in being utilized in open public databases. The main objective for making data accessible is to improve and further enhance the collaboration between the citizens and the municipality. This collaboration is an essential element in creating and optimizing a smart city. However, for all those that are not data literate nor see a meaningful use of data – these data remain a mystery, and further strengthening/improving collaboration by open data seems lost. This thesis aims to determine how data could support active citizens of Rotterdam to provide them with stimuli for direct collaboration with the municipality of Rotterdam.

In the first phase, Discover, the content of what is currently out there is explored. The city streets withhold a lot of data, information, knowledge, and history. This is one of the reasons, why open data needs to become more appealing and accessible to the public. Besides, a merger of big data (quantitative) (telling what is happening) and thick data (qualitative) (telling why it is happening) is necessary as the essence of the context is needed to make data understandable, clear and interpretable in the right way. To understand the data, the answers to how, what, where, who, when, what (1H5W) must be clear and known. Therefore, thoughts in mind, which are implicit, must become explicit to provide support for why something is communicated. Furthermore, visualising data makes it tangible to be understood by all citizens and reduces misinterpretations of what is communicated. Staying critical, discussing with others and evaluating can stimulate to translate knowledge into wisdom and create a correct perception. The understanding of what is communicated allows creating a common sense judgment. Making a diversity of people (citizens, organisations and, municipality) collect data can give a better perspective of the phenomena. Therefore, data must be stimulated to be used not only for the public but also for the employees of the Municipality of Rotterdam. As multiple study cases have shown, focus on a digital tool, like an application, is needed to make the data accessible to everyone.

All insights are gathered and a definition of the problem formulated. The main research question for the project is ‘How can active citizens be supported by data to begin collaborating and share their initiatives with the municipality?’ During the Discover and Analyse phase, it was revealed that the problem was a lot broader than initially expected. This is the reason that an additional focus is made as the first step in making area networkers familiar with data before achieving the main goal. The process continues with deeper research on the area networkers and future trends. After this research, a design brief is created, and a value proposition is formulated: “Make data as tangible as ‘Wikipedia’ with the possibility for the area networker to find and add information to provide more comfort and control of data usage to optimize thereby the connection, understanding and easier delivering of support for their neighbourhood.”

After an ideation and conceptualization phase, the final concept is created: L.A.M.A. which stands for Local Area Monitor Assistant. L.A.M.A. is an application which provides support to gain knowledge on observations in the neighbourhood for the area networker. The L.A.M.A. serves the area networker as an external hard drive. Not only does the increase of knowledge result in a better understanding of the neighbourhood, it also supports in getting a stronger connection with citizens. It furthermore allows optimization of the neighbourhood in a controlled and more comfortable way if it is supported with data.

L.A.M.A. makes collecting data approachable/assessable by taking a photo of the captured data, since a picture says more than a thousand words. But to avoid any misunderstandings a label and additional notes can be added. By doing this, the phenomena becomes very visible and understandable for everyone. Besides having the ease of collecting the data, the user will learn to see the benefits of dashboards in giving knowledge and stimulate to make the next step.

An interactive prototype was developed to evaluate the application. Evaluation gave insights into the experience and usability of the application and resulted in optimising and improving some screens. Other results are taken in for the future development of a vision for 2036 translated into a roadmap.

A solid foundation is created, but further development and research are needed to realise the concept and to strengthen the collaboration between the citizens and municipality envisioned by using data.