During these days Paterna council receives the representatives of the cities involved in the European Project ‘Smart Urban Spaces’. Delegates from about ten councils and engineers from the technological companies that participate in the project meet in different workshops to define the approach to the project. Paterna Mayor together with the city Councilor, Miguel Sánchez, responsible of the Social Guarantee Area, did welcome and wished them a good stay at the council. Agustí presented Paterna as a council ‘opened to technology and with no fear to innovation, specially when it lets start up projects that improve the citizen quality of life and increase the possibilities of communication and access to the information’.
Paterna is a member of the project together with other councils from France (Burdeaux, Nice and Caen), Finland (Helsinki and Oulu) and Greece (Melissa), but there are also other Spanish councils participating such as Valencia, San Sebastián, Gijón or Seville. According to the explanation from the national coordinator, Francisco Gómez, the objective is ‘to take advantage of the normal use of mobile phones, more frequently equipped for Internet connection , to ease the citizens their daily activities’. One of the priorities is to foster public transport, which would be possible by letting the user know the exact moment in which the next bus will pass or making the mobile phone send a notice indicating the stop where you have to get out of the bus or even paying the ticket using the cellular. Some possible applications are paying in any shop just using the mobile phone instead of a credit card or receiving specific and limited offers from a premise located in an area close to the actual situation of the citizen. ‘The idea is turning the mobile phone into a permanent link to the world around us’ said Gómez.
However the project does not forget the need of using this mean to help people with difficulties to take different steps, this is the case of elderly or impaired people. Getting the mobile phone to make a call just by approaching it to the picture of the person you want to talk with is another possible application in which they are working. ‘The project tries to favor that elderly or impaired people can see the benefits of the use of these services to increase their confidence when using them’, as some project managers indicate. Another aspect to insist in to spread the use of these systems is the startup of a completely secure software for users.
The participant Councils are responsible for assigning priorities to the applications that must be developed by the technological partners. ‘We are not going to create applications without thinking first about their utility. In fact, we expect the councils to tell us their needs and then we will generate the appropriate environment to give them solutions’, said Francisco Gómez, the national project coordinator.
This project has a three-years duration and it is now at its initial phase. The councils have been involved in the first phase of the project which will last six months. Through different workshops as the ones celebrated in Paterna during these days, each council will show the basic needs of the corresponding city. The second phase will mean the development of the necessary software and the basic environment to introduce and adopt mobile services. Finally there will be a third phase in which the applications will be corrected and adjusted to the different participant cities.
The councils involved don’t have to make any fund contribution, they contribute with work and the organization of different events. Funding is met by European companies interested in the project such as Visual Tools, Avanzis, CBT, Palma Tools, ESI, Telvent or Moviquity, and also by a public contribution included in the ‘Plan Avanza’ program created by the Industry Ministery.
This is one of the articles published in local press about Paterna SUS Meeting. You can find the original article in
http://www.paternaahora.com/paternaahora/?p=829
Some other news in
http://www.eltorrenti.com/editoriales-06/006505.htm
http://www.paterna.biz/Noticias/Articulos/2010/201003/20100301-003.htm