ICiTy – enhancing places through technology

Abstract

It is with immense pleasure that I welcome you all to the two-day International Conference, ICiTy – Enhancing Places Through Technology, being organised within the remit of COST Action TU1306 (CyberParks), and to Valletta, UNESCO World Heritage City and upcoming European Capital of Culture current and relevant concepts, challenges and opportunities dealing with the interfaces between ICT, people and the physical urban space. These three dimensions form the vertices of an important triangle, having far-reaching implications, be it in the development of new technologies, in the understanding of basis and our relationships with one another. It has challenged our conventional outlook towards time and distance and required us to re-evaluate our connection with physical space. It has also made us re-question the value of urban space and the extent to which we may still create meaningful ‘places’ as opposed to anonymous ‘spaces’ – certainly an increasingly challenging concept given the risk of alienation brought about by technology and that constitutes an unfortunate, but very real, prospect. All these issues, and more, augur for an exciting and healthy debate that I am sure will be generated throughout these two days. At the heart of these discussions, and an important keyword within the conference title, lies the term ‘enhancement’, understood in terms of the added value that ICT may bring about, contributing to broader quality of life objectives. The play on words suggested by the name of this conference is not incidental but it tries to portray the ‘blurriness’ between ICT and the city (as a representation of the urban realm) that is being faced today. This, I hope, may enable us to discuss the various thematics at hand holistically, not short-sightedly, and remind us that we should strive to remain constantly focused on the important overlaps, and interfaces, between the three pillars constituting our discussion. This conference would not have been possible without the dedication, hard work and contribution which this project would not be possible and the Cyberparks project chair, Carlos Smaniotto Costa for his constant help and support, backed by a superb administrative team at the CeiED, led by Filipa Lourenço. I am grateful to our conference partners and sponsors – the University of Malta, the Planning Authority, Valletta 2018 Foundation, the Malta Communications Authority and studjurban. I must also thank the internationally renowned keynote speakers who have kindly accepted our invitation to share their expertise and deliver inspirational lectures within the plenary session. On behalf of the Cyberparks project, I would like to wholeheartedly thank Therese Kenna for the coordination of the International for this conference, as well as the Cyberparks members who have kindly accepted to be session University of Malta, notably Angie Aleksovski and Glen Farrugia, Lucienne Bugeja and her logistics and events team, the IT Services at the University of Malta, and Constanta Dohotaru from studjurban who has professionally created the conference logo, poster and this very publication. Last, but certainly not least, my thanks goes out to all the conference participants who have enthusiastically shared their knowledge and research within the submitted papers that they shall present in this conference. I am sure that a lively and stimulating debate will be generated by these highly varied, equally relevant contributions.