Looking to 2023: Focus on engagement, technology and events

The past year represents an important chapter for Digital Herzlich in terms of citizen participation and technical project progress in smart city measures. Important milestones were the coordination on the redesign of the area in front of the Pfalztheater with citizen participation and the development of guidelines for citizen participation in a working group specifically established for this purpose. There were also important political decisions regarding the planned data platform, the city’s data policy, new funding and of course many meetings with Lauter residents. We look back at an eventful year.

More engagement offers in Kaiserslautern

The topic of citizen participation has gained particular momentum in 2023. The “Kaiserslautern Mitwerkung” has been the city’s official participation platform since June, and the redesign of the area in front of the Pfalztheater has attracted great interest among citizens. The commitment of people to participate in the design of the plaza was tremendous. “The 1,200 people registered for the Kaiserslautern Metwerkung and numerous personal meetings clearly show that the residents of Lotterer are eager to participate in the city,” sums up Ilona Benz, digital director of the city and general manager of the smart city pilot project. Events. By establishing guidelines for citizen participation, Kaiserslautern is on the right track towards a vibrant culture of participation. I am happy that Herzlich Digital can contribute to this.” Since June 2023, the working group has been working intensively on binding guidelines for informal participation procedures in Kaiserslautern. The first version of the guidelines is expected to be available for comments at www.klmiteffekt.de In the spring of 2024.

Technological advances and data management

Much has also been achieved in the technical field and the first actions have already been successfully completed: from new funding from the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) for the creation of the multimodal mobility platform “KLNavi” to security and transport support. Law enforcement forces through smart city infrastructure such as the “MOGLI” Mobile Fiber Optic Infrastructure and the “Rainbow” Star-Shaped Fiber Optic Network (most recently during the Kirui Festival and the Old City). The smart city application for measurements and planning in public spaces has now become an indispensable tool for city management. The internal administrative survey clearly showed the added value in terms of facilitating work and increasing efficiency. An important political decision was taken in the city council in the summer regarding urban data management. Accordingly, the Southwest Group cooperation was concluded this year, which aims to build a common data platform for all smart cities in Rhineland-Palatinate and the St. Wendel region. Kaiserslautern is in charge of the technical management of this construction. “2023 was an important year for the advancement of our urban data management as a central tool for digitalization. The data strategy that we are currently developing for Kaiserslautern, in conjunction with the Southwest Group Data Platform, forms a sustainable basis for all data-supported operations in the Kaiserslautern City Administration as well as in cooperation with the public and other partners.” In line with our motto “Digitization for People”, we can create space for simpler operations and improved living conditions,” explains Dr. Martin Memmel, as head of the Smart City Living Laboratory at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), and his team ensure knowledge transfer between application-oriented research and city management.

Events and network meetings

The year was also marked by many personal meetings with Lauter residents as well as successful network meetings in the large Smart City family. As part of the Inter-Municipal Digital City Network (IKONE DS), there were several exchange meetings and a well-attended specialist conference on crisis management, which was well received throughout the region. The warm digital team is represented at numerous Lautrer events: whether at the “Lautern blüten auf”, welcoming the first semester at the university, the “MI(N)Tmachwelt-Experimentation Days” at the garden fair, the “Long Night of Culture” or At the Theater Festival – to name a few. Within the framework of the smart city project “Stadt.Raum.Wir”, a successful 3D street drawing was completed for the second time this year, as was the reading requested by the citizens. A completely new format has also been launched for city councilors from leading smart city cities by Herzlich Digital: “Smart City Conversations” aiming to promote digital policy exchange at the local level. At the first virtual meeting of local politicians from Kaiserslautern, Bamberg and the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan area, the focus of the exchange was on the topic of participation and data.
A warm digital city will remain well-connected at the city, state and country levels. Dirk Anders, Head of Digitalization, confirms this as well: “To be successful, only good ideas are not enough; personal meetings and a lively exchange of knowledge are essential. Collaboration and good communication were the key to our success last year. Of course we will take that with us to 2024 as well.”

…And on that note, thank you and Happy New Year

With a successful year in 2023, the digital team looks confidently to the future, supported by the active participation of citizens and the technical project progress in smart city measures. The entire digital team would like to thank all project participants, cooperation partners, colleagues in the city administration and of course all citizens for this eventful year.