To what extent can the application of blockchain technologies be employed toward civic empowerment, organizing local civic and circular economies, reinstating trust in civic institutions, or, perhaps, creating entirely new types of institutions?

Ongoing demographic changes are challenging health systems worldwide especially in relation to increasing longevity and the resultant rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). To meet these challenges, a paradigm shift to a more proactive approach to health promotion, and maintenance is needed. This …

Live programming is a style of development characterized by incremental change and immediate feedback. Instead of long edit-compile cycles, developers modify a running program by changing its source code, receiving immediate feedback as it instantly adapts in response. In this paper, we propose an approach …

This essay reports on a research project aiming at validation of a concept for an Al-driven speech interface for smart services in public spaces. The research team created a simple experience prototype that simulated the envisioned functionality and was used to experiment with subjects in dialogues. …

The purpose of this literature study was to obtain an overview of previous civic literacy projects and their characteristics as primarily described in educational science literature. Eighteen academic articles on civic literacy projects in higher education were studied in detail and coded using the qualitative …

Migration for reasons of employment, education, safety and family reunification, a common thing in our present-day world. To counteract potential instability generated by the flow of migrants, host countries strive for integration of migrants into their societies. The Netherlands, considered an example …

In this chapter, the authors elaborate on serious games and playful interactions in modern scientific practices, and on the way they can engender mutual scientific growth. They use a research-through-design approach, in which three possible scenarios and prototypes are studied to envisage the new role …

Part 3 Programming and Activating Cyberparks deals with the variety of ways in which urban public spaces can be reinvigorated through the use of digital media technologies. As is outlined in the introduction to this volume, digital media technologies profoundly shape the use and perception of urban public …

Beyond the potential of new layers of urban infrastructure - sensor-laden networks, big data, artificial intelligence - to optimize cities functionally, lay promising opportunities to also use these technologies for new forms of social interactions. In an ongoing smart city development project, we explore …

Speech interactions are often associated with virtual assistants and smart home devices, designed primarily for private contexts. A less developed domain is speech interfaces in public contexts. In a smart city development project, we explored the potential of distributed conversational speech interfaces …