In addition to the open-source smart city platform, some budget ethnicity, inhabitants can contribute to designing the smart and formulation initiatives have been put into place to encourage sustainable city. Therefore, special attention is paid to social people to participate: groups and communities to ensure that their voice is heard and •Participatory budgets: Through these, public funds are that educational barriers or a lack of financial resources do not allocated collectively, allowing available members to limit their involvement. submit project proposals. Competition would occur where a jury composed of different actors would select the winning Giving the public an active role in how public funds are used company, obtaining the budget to push ahead with its strengthens local democracy and people’s appreciation of the development; need for a more responsible use of scare resources. It ensures •Citizens’ budgets: These budgets allow citizens to allocate social inclusion, designing solutions that benefit everyone. some defined parts of the total by setting priorities for allocation of the available amount. The municipal 6.5 Feedback from citizens administration’s members, focusing mostly on discussions, appraisals, and communication involving all relevant actors, Vienna has a top position within the open-government model moderate the decision-making process. among the European capital cities, with over 350 datasets pertaining to the city available (CVW, 2020). The city identifies Vienna City Council is pushing citizens to participate in and digitalization as a tool for improving residents’ quality of life and contribute to making Vienna a smart city. Online tools and a ensuring that resources are used responsibly. “Digitalization specific budget are in place to facilitate a collaborative approach serves the needs of the people” is the City Council’s policy, and and the design of customized solutions that increase people’s therefore residents’ feedback on local government is essential. quality of life. To facilitate sending feedback to the administration, the city has In addition to budgeting initiatives and online tools, to ensure made over three thousand WLAN hotspots available to around citizens’ inclusion in the smart city programs, the City one hundred thousand students and citizens (CVW, 2020). Council is implementing new urban labs at the district and Since all feedback and other requests to the City Council are neighborhood levels. These are used as open spaces for self- digitalized, access to the Internet is key to increasing people’s organized processes or as platforms aiming to bring together participation. local expertise and talent to build networks and strengthen community engagement. These labs collaborate closely with Besides facilitating access to the Internet and, therefore, to the private and public sectors by launching pilot projects and egovernment services, Vienna City Council has developed a new startups. app called Sag's Wien, which allow citizens to communicate their concerns to the city administration in thirty seconds 6.4.1 Monitoring development (CVW, 2020). The app was developed together with committed Vienna’s smart city programs related to governance focus on Viennese people as part of the Digital Agenda Vienna. With a few monitoring citizens’ participation and activities within the new clicks, messages can be sent to the city administration quickly, egovernance system. In fact, the monitoring results should intuitively, and without mandatory registration. provide policy makers and the city administration with well- founded information as a solid background for decision making, The app reviews new statements and checks whether the city even identifying the need for immediate action. administration has already been informed about the concern. In total, the app has been downloaded more than thirty-one This monitoring process also provides an overview ofthousand times since its release in February 2017. During this the different fields, enabling joint assessment between period, twenty-seven thousand reports were received, of which different actors and leading to sound evaluations of the 97 percent were resolved (CVW, 2020). city’s development by enhancing cooperation across bodies, departments, and agencies. All essential information is always 7. Data management correlated with United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals to ensure its sustainability. Data is at the heart of smart cities. Innovations and solutions implemented throughout Vienna are generating a massive By monitoring citizens’ participation closely, the City Council volume of data that needs to be centralized and analyzed to aims to ensure that, regardless of gender, social status, or track potential improvements and impacts generated in the city. 216 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021