Representatives from business, politics, and science discussed the opportunities offered by smart cities for sustainable development on 4 July 2018 at the event “Smart Cities as the driving force for sustainable development in Europe” at the Embassy of the Italian Republic in Berlin.

Nikolay Tcholtchev, research assistant at Fraunhofer FOKUS, was also present. The panel “Opportunities and challenges of connectivity - towards a European framework for action?” discussed standardization and collaboration activities at German and European level in the field of Open Urban Platforms. Furthermore, the importance of established quality assurance processes along open interfaces and standards within the framework of Smart Cities was emphasized. The basis of such processes is the DIN SPEC 91357 Open Urban Platform, which offers a blueprint for the ICT architecture of a Smart City based on open design principles such as open interfaces, open standards or open data. In addition, aspects such as interoperability, interchangeability of components, replication of Smart City solutions and urban-specific adaptations to Smart City services and applications are made possible.