Re-imagining urban social contracts for the digital age.

On June 19th, our third Intercity Digital Pop-Up dialogue brought together citizens from Medellín, Geneva, Nairobi, and Houston, who engaged in a conversation about transparency and security.

In this blog post by Fellow Burcu Baykurt, the continued enthusiasm for data-driven governance is examined despite the decline of smart city initiatives. Baykurt explores how gov-tech startups are carving a niche by optimizing existing public datasets to enhance municipal operations.

As part of the Explore Geneva initiative on the 27th of April, we held our second conversation of the Intercity Digital Pop-Up project at the BFM. We were excited to facilitate a dialogue among representatives from the diverse Edgelands cities—Geneva, Medellín, Nairobi, and Houston.

In the framework of the partnership with Hablemos Medellín, 5 young people from the Edgelands community in the city participated in a course on Data and Art at the EAFIT University, where we explored the responses of the conversations that Hablemos Medellín held between June and July 2023.

Findings from the 'Let's Talk about the Digitalization of Security' survey, conducted in partnership with Hablemos Medellín

For the first Edgelands' digital intercity dialogue, participants discussed the uses of AI and facial recognition in the four cities the institute has popped up.

For the fellowship 2022–2023 at the Edgelands Institute, Dario Rodighiero explored the intricate interplay between surveillance, global security, and personal privacy in today's public discourse through data visualization tools like the Weather Map.

In the bustling streets of Medellín, Colombia, an unlikely guardian watches over the city's commuters: the image of Virgen Maria scattered through many of the city's public transport.