Welcome to the 1st week of our Smart Cities MOOC.

I'm sure you have asked yourself whether Smart Cities is a hype

or a reality, or both.

and that is what this first week is all about, that is understanding

what Smart Cities really are.

Now you can expect the following outcomes from this 1st week.

First we will talk about thinking Smart Cities, how to think Smart Cities.

then we will offer a conceptualization of Smart Cities

and thirdly, we will detail exactly the impact that digitization has

on cities, making them Smart Cities.

and finally, we will look at the implications of all of this for

management and governance of cities or Smart Cities.

Now from our previous MOOC, we take this basic distinction between

infrastructures or an infrastructure layer and services or a services layer.

It is on the basis of infrastructures like water pipes

that water services, infrastructure services are being provided

to customers and citizens.

What is new is really this digital layer that comes in between

infrastructures and services and this changes everything.

Now the 1st week is structured into 6 different sessions.

In the 1st session, we will present our conceptualization of cities as

socio-technical systems.

This is necessary because only on the basis of this conceptualization,

can we really understand the concept of Smart Cities.

In the 2nd session, we will look at digitization.

What is it exactly?

In the 3rd session, we will look at the general implications that

such digitization has on society, on industries.

In the 4th session, we will look, in particular, at the implications

of digitization on the cities.

and then we will show that there are actually 2 different perspectives

one can have on Smart Cities.

Finally we will hear from one of the leading cities in the world

that has pioneered the transition to Smart Cities.

So, let us move to the 1st session now talking about

socio-technical systems