​The picture is worth a thousand words - Fred R. Barnard.
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The map of digital and smart disruptions provides an easy for understanding and learning overview and analysis of how digital and disruptive technologies (innovations) do shape the smart city concept. The map includes the results generated by the focus group and corrected later by the partners with the results from the research on the technologies advances, level of change and impact, performance, purpose, and fit.

The map is a two-dimensional cross factorial analysis matrix made with different instruments in diverse forms (Fig.1). 

Fig.1. Mapping the disruptive smart city technologies (the filled areas are only exemplary)
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The process is placed in a focus group that is facilitated by the leader of the mapping process. A mapping process in a such group involves five steps that can take place in a period of time, planned for the output and depending on the project development situation.
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1. The first step is preparation of the focus group. There are three things to be done here. The leader of the mapping process identifies who the participants will be in the focus group. It is a relatively small group of participants from the stakeholders involved (8-10 persons). Then, the leader works with the participants to develop the focus for the project. In this case, the group is focused on defining what the smart city disruption technologies are and on choosing what challenges (problems) areas to map (prognosis) in all of the outcomes (impacts) they might expect to be seen as a result.
   
   
2. In the second step (generation step) the participants in the focus group develop a large set of statements that address this focus. They generate statements that describe the advanced technologies that are currently used in smart city areas and mark what is their level of penetration. They also generate statements describing specific outcomes that might occur as a result of the implementation of these technologies. A wide variety of methods can be used to accomplish this including traditional brainstorming, and so on.
   
   The group will generate finally many and diverse statements for possible current and future applications of smart disruptive technologies in smart cities, answering the following questions:
   - What of the city’s challenges (problems) do you know as already resolved based on the defined in the first stage smart city disruptive technologies?
   - What other challenges (problems) could be resolved with the smart city disruptive technologies in the cities of future?
   
   
3. In the third, the structuring step, the participants select and sort the statements into groups (clusters) of similar ones, and every participant rate each of the statements on some scale for their relative importance and level of penetration of the technologies in the respective areas, from the 1-to-5 scale. In this stage, the group can use the results from facts finding and studies that are already in place done by the project partners. The participants in the group can receive, use, and interpret the gathered reports, analyses, and the open access papers on emerging & smart disruptive technologies and their use before the final evaluation (scoring).
   
   
4. The fourth, the representation stage is where the analysis is done - this is the process of taking the sort and rating input and “representing” it in a matrix form. Every group of similar statements and received scoring on the level of penetration will be located in a proper and logically defined field of the matrix. So, every area in the result will be filled or empty. The empty fields will have to be analysed in-depth and the marked field will have a group of statements that well describe the current and future situation of the smart city disruptive technologies and their possible impact.
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5. Finally, the utilization and interpretation step involves the use of the map to help address the original focus. On the programme side, the maps can be used as a visual framework to prove the results of the analyses and the reports that the partners have generated or for their possible improvements. The map can be used for developing measures and displaying results and for further analyses and planning when a scenario approach is needed. The interpretation is easy. The empty or low-level evaluated areas, if they are not resulting in a lack of competences and information, will generate opportunities for the business to proactive product/services development, investing in R&D and for upskilling new talents.

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The Article was first published on the Smart by Design website, blog content.

This article is animated by the interim results of an ongoing Erasmus+ project named Smart technologies by design (Smart by Design).
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The project is being carried out by the following partners:

• KISMC - an innovation management organization that is focused on developing competences in innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship
• GAIA - a cluster & BSO that unites companies from the knowledge and applied technologies industries and supports policy and deployment of ICT, Engineering and Electronics in Basque Country;
• DEUSTO - leading university in Spain specialized in educating & training in the innovation and entrepreneurship, design thinking and IoT& Smart city solutions through its Business School and the Faculty of Engineering;
• United Academics - a Foundation in the Netherlands that promotes, supports and maintains open-access library and publishing that results in faster scientific communication, wider influences of scientific knowledge on the industry, government, and education,
• ARIES - industrial cluster and BSO that contributes in designing & implementing the smart city strategy of Cluj in Romania, supports digital transformation and creates digital innovation hubs;
• ULSIT - Bulgarian state university of bibliography and information technology.    

In a number of articles the project partners of Smart by Design present their findings and deliverables generated and developed during the project execution. Our attention is focused on the gap between the citizen's (smart cities') needs, the technological solutions which can cover these needs, and the knowledge and skills of citizens, cities and service providers of using these technologies for a better life.

Disruptive technologies have the potential to transform the way cities currently operate and they are at the core of nearly all upcoming smart city’s solutions. After a decade of experimentation, smart cities are entering a new phase. Although digital solutions are only one of the tools needed to make a city great, they are the most powerful and cost-effective additions seen in many years. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, digital solutions could improve some quality-of-life indicators by as much as 30 per cent. Real-time crime mapping, for instance, utilizes statistical analysis to highlight patterns, while predictive policing goes a step further, anticipating crime to head off incidents before they occur. Another example of these solutions is the Internet of Things sensors on existing infrastructure systems which can help crews fix problems before they turn into breakdowns and delays.

If we examine our history, we realize that we live in constant change. Humans have faced all sorts of changes, economic, political, climatic, technological. In the different industrial revolutions seized, adaptations made by humans can be perceived, along with the 1st industrial revolution, the railway arrived with the steam engines which enabled transportation of goods causing all the farming, demographic and transport revolution.

Afterwards, the 2nd industrial revolution arrived, emerging new energy sources like oil and electricity, which with its utilization, first technological innovations took place. These technological innovations produced an improvement in the quality of life of people, first personal computers and the internet appeared which located us before a 3rd industrial revolution, not only in a technological one but in a scientific and a cultural one.

With this 3rd revolution, fast technological advances force humans to assimilate more concepts in a shorter time, information, productivity and everything reach scales not previously reached and under this context the 4th industrial revolution appeared, where we really perceived and realized that we live in a constant change, as mentioned at the beginning, achieving small or big progress which is changing the world.

The city of the future must meet the needs of its residents. Yet in surveying residents of 25 major cities, McKinsey found out that a fifth of those cities fall short of delivering satisfaction. Respondents cited numerous inadequacies: crime, congestion, fire emergency response, waste management, active mobility options, police security, lack of basic utilities, public transit, as well as poor quality of housing and government services. Given the fierce competition for talent across cities, dissatisfied urbanites are likely to vote with their feet and leave for more attractive environments. (Source: Thriving amid turbulence: Imagining the cities of the future; Capital Projects & Infrastructure, Public Sector October 2018, McKinsey & Company).

In order to not lag behind due to inactivity, the city leaders must know how to use the newest and most advanced technologies, which are progressing faster than expected.

As a result of the study and during the implementation of the project we have realized that the most important and those with enough predictive potential to transform the cities into smart cities are the following technologies (technology areas):

• Artificial Intelligence
• Data analytics
• Cloud Computing
• Internet of Things
• Cyber-physical systems
• Smart sensors
• Collaborative robotics
• Cybersecurity
• Blockchain
• Augmented reality
• Virtual reality

As one of the main technologies which will help to evolve our ways to work and interact with technology, the trend is that the AI will keep growing and becoming more normalized in our society. So, platforms, standards, and applications will keep incrementing. ​

Apparently, the future of the AI resides on a deeper personalization, innovation in voice AI and a better view of the customer. Even if there are plenty of platforms for AI, not many of them are deploying voice interfaces. Some applications for mobile devices have already implemented it in daily life and it will offer opportunities for companies. The tendency will be to add voice control to their AI for a better experience with their customers. Some of the most famous firms (Google, Amazon...) are integrating voice assistants as part of their services.
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The AI will help for a bigger personalization of services. Customers will be able to express preferences to the biggest brands and acquire much more personalized services or products. So, future platforms will shift towards a new type of services. 
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