Assessing digital co-creation in urban transformations: Case of Vilnius

Abstract

Public spaces play a vital role in urban democracy since they enable collective usage and reflection. One of the ways to make open public spaces more attractive and inclusive in modern times full of busyness is through the use of innovative digital technologies. Mobile and Internet-based interventions into public spaces deploy a number of strategies – from gathering data through GIS, syntax mapping to using digital tools to collect ideas and opinions of stakeholders. Digitization may often lead to bottom-up initiatives where the citizens and other stakeholders voluntarily employ their talent and resources to enhance the quality of life and solve problems of urbanized societies. This chapter presents methodological Digital Co-Creation Assessment Framework which considers a variety of aspects in the transformation of open spaces to co-creative systems: socio-cultural contexts, multi-stakeholder perspective, diversity in needs, incentives for participation of different groups and cooperation capabilities. The framework provides a useful approach to explore initiatives of digital co-creation as it allows to identify potential areas of improvement and to compare case studies on common indicators. However, definition of complex socio-technical systems, such as digital co-creation, is unavoidably partial, contextspecific and temporary. To test the applicability of the evaluation tool, the authors have chosen to analyse the transformation of Aukštamiestis district in Vilnius from a private space to a public place by conducting a case study analysis. The transformational nature of selected case study allowed to identify the limitations of proposed model and define the areas of improvement for applicability in varied contexts.