sers, as shown in the example of Barcelona Laboratori, an IDeALL case study that seeks to make the whole city of Barcelona into a living lab. Serra describes Barcelona Laboratori and the different use cases developed by Citilab of Cornella de Llobregat for the IDeALL as a project “to build a second generation of citizen laboratories involving both the current official innovation system (universities, research centres, large businesses) and new, emerging stakeholder, such as entrepreneurs, urban innovation communities, (arduinos, fablabbers, social innovators), extending this innovation potential to as many citizens as possible … through schools, cultural centres, retirement homes, not-for-profit organizations and more’”. This ethos is exemplified in the IDeALL experiment the iCity project, which seeks to open up cities’ information infrastructure to promote the co-creation of public services in areas such as mobility, environment, security, and health, by developers. This example has used the 3H engagement methodology designed by Citilab, which may be instructive for local governments wishing to introduce smart technology into their area. They can use this approach to ensure that new services are responsive to residents’ needs and that big data is used in a way that benefits citizens.
At the local level, Citilab experiments have been directed towards equipping participants with the skills to adapt to a new digital economy and participate in the Internet of Things. The Nuevos Artesanos (New Artisans) experiment, for example, was developed as a response to people with traditional craft skills finding themselves out of work. Combining programming and electronics workshops with a "do it yourself" ethos, participants were able to put their craft skills to use in the creation of smart items, documenting the process as they went along (Figure 4). Similarly, the Inventa’t la feina (Invent your own job) experiment sought to find a solution to the situation in Mataró, which has some of the highest youth unemployment levels in Europe, by supporting young people to develop and assess their own business ideas.
Figure 4. Nuevos Artesanos at work during Citilab workshop session in 2014
In the Rhône-Alpes area, the Agence Régionale du Développement et de l'Innovation (ARDI; Regional Development and Innovation Agency) oversaw further experiments opening out technological innovation to a wide range of users. In the Webnapperon 2 (Web Doily 2) experiment by ERASME HOST, co-creation workshops (Figure 5) led to the “Web doily”, which works with an RFID-equipped doily linked to a photo frame, allowing online content to be shared. It enables older users in particular to keep in touch with family and friends without needing computer skills. In another ARDI experiment, carried out by the Laboratoire d'InfoRmatique en Image et Systèmes d'information (Computing in Image and Information Systems Laboratory), users participated in workshops where they could take advantage of software and hardware capabilities offered by Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, and 3D printing to co-create a hub of connected smart items, leading to smart home automation that could improve quality of life.
Figure 5. Co-creation workshop during Web Doily 2 development
With an ever-increasing proportion of populations living in cities, coupled with changing conditions in industry and the pressures brought about by increasingly scarce resources, the need to create cities that are vibrant and sustainable, and that promote health and wellbeing is a key policy issue for many European nations. Accordingly, several IDeALL experiments have taken place in the urban sphere. In Saint-Étienne, several experiments used the LUPI methodology, where stakeholders such as local businesses were trained to work with users and the best qualified stakeholder was chosen to produce prototypes, such as the Plot Urbain à Usage Général (Urban Pillar for General Use) to develop street furniture.
An experiment in Slovakia, a country where, according to the Slovak Design Centre, the concept of design for all was n