March 24, 2022
The DKSR.square web portal will soon be available to all municipalities that want to use urban data to make urban development smart and sustainable for the common good. What’s behind the portal? We take you on a short excursion to the upcoming release of our Square!
We all know the success story of the iPhone, but only very few people know that the first iPhone was not a real success. Of course it was a success from a technical point of view – but its commercial triumph only began with the iPhone 3. Firstly, the iPhone 3 enabled faster access to the Internet. But much more important for its success was the App Store: a place where users could download applications and much more and customize their smartphone functionalities as they wished. However, these applications did not come from Apple itself – Apple only provided the application basis in the form of hardware and operating system to open up the system to external companies. They took advantage of this to offer their specially developed apps there. Today, the variety of apps ranges from WhatsApp to Komoot and Spotify. The iPhone was a huge success not only for Apple – but also for the companies behind its applications. Some of them have developed into multi-million dollar corporations. In the meantime, Apple’s openness has been surpassed by Google with its open source system Android – and has clearly overtaken it in terms of market share. One study puts the number of apps in the Google Playstore at just under 3.5 million in the first quarter of 2021. All of these applications have only been created with interoperable operating systems – and they include everything from banking apps to navigation programs and health applications.
But DKSR is about urban development for the common good. Why are we telling this story at all?
The success story of Apple and Google shows how promising it is in the age of platform economies to open up your own systems to third parties. Exceptionally vertical business models are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. Thanks to their standards, clear rules and high level of interoperability, the platforms mentioned provide the best basis for creating new applications: Open source and open standards can thus also be described as the basis for functioning digital ecosystems. However, there is still no iOS or Android on the smart city market. There is no “operating system” – software that everyone can agree on. But we are not starting from scratch either. Some platforms have already been developed by European initiatives and companies; in Europe, there is also an attempt to standardize data through FIWARE, which has established itself as a fundamental part of the open infrastructure for many providers. With Din SPEC 91357 for Open Urban Data Platforms, there is also a first recognized standard that was co-developed by the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. Its aim is to be “compliant with technical components from different manufacturers”: “This not only enables efficient exchange, but also uncomplicated use of urban data across different infrastructures.” However, none of the developments to date have become established and widespread – although numerous studies consider urban platforms to be fundamental to the design of smart cities. More is needed for solutions that can be scaled and transferred anywhere…
…and this is where DKSR comes into play!
DKSR launched its Open Urban Data Platform in 2021. In discussions with local authorities and municipal companies, we have found that the current smart city market is similar to the mobile provider market at the time of the first iPhone: The well-known Open Urban Platforms are high-performance and ready to use – but none of them supply an app store. As DKSR, we are already structured technically and organizationally in such a way that applications for our platform do not have to and should not come from us, but from a diverse ecosystem of solution providers and partners. But there is not yet a place to simply present these partner solutions to municipal customers. This is why we developed DKSR.square. Because just as nobody today buys a smartphone just to navigate, another just to play games and another just to make phone calls, municipal institutions will not want to buy individual vertical solutions in the future, but specific applications that can be built on a uniform, horizontal infrastructure.
DKSR.square? What is this?
Of course, DKSR.square is not quite comparable with the classic app store. This is mainly due to the fact that we are not operating in the end customer market, but in the much more complex market between the public and private sectors. In addition, this market and its advertised applications are still relatively new in the context of urban data: a broad and intensive exchange must first develop – a “buy” button is not enough here. This is why DKSR.square has three major features.
- The implementation area – find & apply solutions. In addition to municipal challenges and solutions prepared by DKSR, real products for implementing solutions can be found in the implementation area. Companies can register free of charge, list and explain their corresponding applications; we link them to the challenges and solutions for which they are needed. Every solution provider is obliged to provide extensive information about their offer – and before solutions appear on the platform, they are subject to an initial assessment by DKSR as a third party based on defined criteria. In this way, we want to offer municipalities and municipal utilities the best basis for finding the right solution applications for their problems, just like in the Play Store.
- The interaction area – exchange ideas & explore the market. Especially in areas that are being newly developed, the exchange of experience is worth its weight in gold when it comes to making sustainable decisions. At DKSR.square, we facilitate this exchange. Both openly between the public sector and the private sector as a market exploration, as well as closed and protected for the public sector among themselves. In this way, tips and tricks can be revealed, experiences exchanged and plans and partnerships forged.
- The knowledge area – develop & apply know-how. Our knowledge area is a constantly growing library of know-how that supports cities on their way to becoming smart cities. Checklists on data ethics, data governance frameworks and, in future, webinars on new legislation, for example, can be found here.
Additional areas and features are available on the Square for paying members of the Urban Data Community. We are convinced that with DKSR.square we are closing a major gap in order to finally scale smart city applications effectively in Germany and throughout Europe. We also know that we are only taking the first step with our square. The initial aim is to make the implementation of the products presented there as simple as possible. To this end, we will continue to develop DKSR.square in close cooperation with cities, municipal bodies and private companies. We want to enable cities to save resources through the right choice of applications, to sustainably improve the living space and conditions of their citizens by using the right applications and to make their contribution to the fight against climate change.
So DKSR “only” offers another smart city marketplace?
No! As DKSR, we provide both the marketplace and the technology for smart cities with our interoperable Open Urban Data Platform. In order to make all products listed on our portal usable for our customers and other municipalities with compatible platforms, we reserve the right to only admit companies whose products are compatible with DIN SPEC 91357 platforms to DKSR.square. We have deliberately decided not to develop and distribute any applications ourselves; DKSR takes on the role of intermediary. DKSR.square is designed to provide cities with the most direct route to implementing digital solutions. We prepare current challenges, identify solutions and design possible applications with real products. Once a project has been implemented, we make the results available as a user manual for other cities in our community.
Highly networked and sustainably smart with DKSR.square.
DKSR.square is a product that is primarily aimed at cities and municipal companies to make sustainable smart urban design easier for them. The square was developed in close consultation with our customers, which enabled us to take into account and directly incorporate the wishes and comments of municipalities.
We plan to continue developing DKSR.square in close cooperation with our local stakeholders – and are excited to see what the future holds! We have no shortage of ideas.
If you have any questions about DKSR.square, please contact Tim Cleffmann at any time. The contact person for members of the Urban Data Community is Eva Schmitz.