The International conference Knowledge & Smart Cities successfully completed. It was held on 26.11.2018 in John Atanasoff Hall in the Sofia Tech Park. It was the second conference on this topic that Cluster Sofia Knowledge City has held over the past two years. Unlike the conference a year ago, this one was focused on the practical aspects of creating a market for smart cities and communities, integrated planning and regulatory policies. This was made possible by organizing the discussion forum in four work groups in the afternoon session. The forum was led by the Action cluster Integrated Planning, Policy and Regulation at EIP-SCC.

The conference was attended by more than 180 participants - business representatives, public authorities, consultants and non-governmental organizations. A welcome speech was given to the participants by Mr. Bas Eickhout - member of the European parament, and Mayor of Sofia, Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova, lectured at the afternoon session on the current state of the activities and projects in the areas of the city's Innovative smart specialization and the digital transformation, in which the city participates actively.

The videos and presentations from the event are uploaded here.

Cluster Sofia Knowledge City took part in the Smart City Expo World Congress of in Barcelona 13-15 November 2018. The event produced the following interesting and important six NEWS:

1. Singapore has been chosen by International jury as the Smart City of 2018.  Singapore was praised for its wide array of government-developed solutions, from dynamic public bus routing algorithms to real-time parent-teacher portals and predictive analytics for water pipe leaks.

2. Amsterdam, Barcelona and New York City launched the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights. The joint initiative will promote and track progress in protecting residents’ and visitors’ digital rights. The cities will develop policies, tools and resources in line with the Charter for Human Rights and Principles for the Internet, established by the UN’s Internet Governance Forum around five core shared principles: 1) Universal and equal access to the Internet and digital literacy; 2) Privacy, data protection and security; 3) Transparency, accountability and non-discrimination of data, content and algorithm;3) Participatory democracy, diversity and inclusion; 4) Open and ethical digital service standards

3. A Statement of Compliance was signed in Barcelona. 42 global cities, including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Madrid, Montreal, New York, Paris, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Stockholm and Vienna, agreed to 10 platform economy principles, and to collaborate further around the opportunities and threats for cities in this area. The cities will co-operate in implementing models and online platforms that create new services for city and city to make more effective use of resources, taking into account issues such as data ownership and transparency, labour rights and social responsibility. By signing this declaration, the cities announced their common understanding of the shared (platform) economy and, in practice, formalized the already shared views and in previous forums.

4. The National Agency for Innovation (NIA) of the Ministry of Science and Technology in Thailand, in cooperation with True Digital Park, has announced the creation of an innovation area located in the Punnawithi region in the capital Bangkok. The new Bangkok CyberTech area aims at providing a broad-based ecosystem of start-ups, both local and international, thus actively positioning Thailand as a global digital innovation centre. The National Agency intends to set up Such areas in other provinces of the country.

5. Barcelona and New York signed a Declaration of local authorities on the right to housing and city law and launched the BCN - NYC Affordable Housing Challenge. The basis for the declaration is cooperation for accelerating the provision of affordable housing in the both cities. The policies of both cities are to provide access to innovation-based housing to improve social inclusion, equity, health and well-being, as well as sustainability. The motto is "faster, cheaper, cleaner" construction to double the number of homes in the coming years and eradicate social segregation. Specific technologies that can help achieve these goals include: alternative building materials, information modelling, virtual and augmented reality, autonomous drones, resource accounting and material flow analysis, 3D printing, smart devices and mobile solutions.

6. Huawei presented its Smart Cities Digital Platform. The Platform offers solutions based on Artificial Intelligence (IA), Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and Clouds. It includes municipal governance, public safety, environmental protection, smart transport, smart management, smart education and smart agriculture. According to Huawei, the platform represents a transition from traditional information systems and puts a solid foundation for the smart development of the city. The company announced that in the future, the digital platform will form the intelligent basis of more and more cities, fostering sustainable urban development on a global scale.