Smart Government

Data is the gold of the 21st century. And cities have an immeasurable wealth of it. Dresden makes some 800 data sets available to citizens, business, science and other administrations free of charge in a standardised, automatically retrievable format on its open-data platform, while the theme map also provides information from 157 areas, including on free parking spots (obtained via parking-bay sensors), free charging stations for e-vehicles, and environmental data.

It is expressly hoped that these data sets will be used, as data analysis facilitates new findings for scientists. Linking and further processing of data enables new business models to be advanced and economic potential to be unlocked. The data also gives citizens new opportunities for involvement and greater transparency.

Annual hackathons see young teams tinker away at creative and useful solutions to set topics, such as Dresden geodata or transport solutions for Dynamo football stadium, on behalf of the city.

The administration itself is aware that this plethora of future-oriented concepts for mobility, communications and energy also places completely new demands on its activities, which is why Dresden is building a new administrative centre. A strategic organisational development plan has defined considerations for citizen-focused, business-focused and digital administration. The aim is to establish a cross-organisational co-operation based on an electronic file by 2025 to complete the administrative centre.

Digital identities for citizens, tradespeople and businesses will be pre-requisites for authorities to work paperlessly. As part of a consortium involving other municipalities, industrial partners, technological businesses and ID services, Dresden is participating in the ‘Digital Identities Showcase’ innovation competition run by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Industry (BMWi), which seeks to make digital identities safer and easier to use in business and administration. Applying the resulting solution broadly to a city’s various usage scenarios, extending well beyond mere administrative work, will play a particularly key role here.