This article is written by Ulrike Huemer, chief information officer in the City of Vienna

Life is increasingly digital. That simple fact has added a number of new items to governments’ to-do lists everywhere. That’s also true for us here in Vienna where we see that digitalisation is a comprehensive challenge for society as a whole.

In Vienna, we’re aware of this challenge and have adopted a new digital agenda to meet it. Adopted by Vienna City Council on 26 September 2019, it is both a strategic paper and an ongoing working document that the City of Vienna uses to guide the transformation process.

Vienna, the capital of Austria, is home to 1.9 million people and the city is growing fast. In the coming few years, Vienna is expected to pass the 2 million mark. This, in particular, poses a big challenge because the city’s resources aren’t growing accordingly. We have to cater to more people with the same resources we do today. If we include commuters, just under 2.2 million people stay in Vienna on weekdays. Only through accelerated digitisation and the use of smart tools will Vienna remain the city with the highest quality of life.

There are more opportunities for citizen participation at the municipal level than there are at the national level

The all-encompassing nature of digital can be seen quite literally everywhere you look. Today, the city's municipal cleaning services, power supply, schools, traffic, health facilities, food supplies and Vienna's general administration all depend on information and communication technologies (ICT) to function. Not only do these digital technologies ensure that the city can function, they also offer a golden opportunity to supply citizens with truly smart and innovative city services, making the city still more immediately tangible to its residents.

Objectives of Vienna's digital agenda

  • Long-term strategic control of the transformation process, culminating in the City of Vienna's establishment as "capital of digitalisation"
  • Making best use of new technologies to achieve the goals of the Smart City Vienna Framework Strategy 2050
  • Strengthening the fast-growing ICT sector while at the same time ensuring social fairness
  • Participation and involvement of the citizens of Vienna in the advancing digitalisation of city services
  • Harnessing the enormous opportunities for digital city administration
  • Building and developing cutting-edge infrastructure while ensuring security, confidence and protection

The priorities and projects of Vienna's digital agenda were mapped out with the involvement of hundreds of interested people. The citizens, the business community, the research institutions of the city, as well as the employees of the city administration were invited to contribute their ideas for a digital agenda for Vienna. Specific questions were asked, e.g. what conditions the city must create to strengthen Vienna as a business location. Or how must the administration position itself in the age of digitalisation in order to offer modern services to the citizens.

For this purpose, an electronic participation tool was developed on which ideas could be posted. There was also the opportunity to write comments, which led to interesting discussions and very valuable suggestions. For example, an app of the City of Vienna was requested in order to send messages of the citizens to the city administration easily and quickly. This idea has already been implemented with the Sag's Wien App.

There are more opportunities for citizen participation at the municipal level than there are at the national level. The small-scale nature and the immediate benefits for citizens offer the municipalities more opportunities for participation. Citizens are more willing to participate if they recognise and feel an immediate, timely benefit. If they see or feel that their involvement has an effect on their lives, citizens are more likely to be motivated to shape life in a city than if it is abstract and intangible.

It is essential that the diversity of society is also reflected in digital projects

As part of this process the platform mein.wien was developed. It is the digital hub to provide the Viennese with the highest comfort and speed in their administrative processes. In addition, the city informs people about news and events in their Grätzl. “Mein.wien" is thus also an up-to-date companion for their living environment.

Vienna's digital agenda is not a hard and fast set of rules. Instead it is a working document or an overview of current projects and future priorities that continues to be developed. Accordingly, this Digital Agenda Vienna includes an assessment of already ongoing projects. Approaching the agenda as an "open working document" makes sense, especially considering that both citizens' demands and technical possibilities keep evolving. Ultimately, Vienna's digital agenda seeks to answer the question of how the City of Vienna should deal with these challenges and opportunities. How can the potentials of the new technologies be put to the service of all the citizens of Vienna? How can the related opportunities be taken advantage of, while at the same time avoiding risks?

As a result of dealing with these questions, Vienna's digital agenda represents a logical addition to existing strategy documents in the context of Vienna's research, technology and location policy. In the end, however, it encompasses far more, because digital technologies are beginning to play a decisive role in ever more areas of city life.

Digital local government

Finally, in my opinion, these are the three most important pieces of advice I can give for anyone else working on digital projects in local government:

1. It is increasingly important to know the interests and opinions of the population, and to use that knowledge to make decisions in the interest of the customers. In line with the motto "Better discuss before than argue afterwards", the population should be increasingly involved in shaping the city. It is important, however, that right at the beginning of the participation process the participants are informed promptly about the extent and manner in which they will be involved. In this way, disappointments can be kept to a minimum in retrospect. It is therefore necessary to inform in advance whether opinions are merely to be obtained or whether this is actually a decision-making process in which the participants can actively participate. It is also important to ask concrete questions.

2. The implementation of Digital Agenda Vienna is carried out by a modern "IT Governance", i.e. through management and organisational structures. In times of increasing digitalisation, digital business alignment, i.e. co-operation between business and IT, is an indispensable part of the urban digital fabric. The ongoing mutual co-ordination of business and digital departments on a strategic level to define the necessary goals, strategies, plans, portfolios and infrastructure is just as much a part of this as the constant exchange of information on the operational level where projects, routine operations and all business processes are managed. Social alignment, i.e. the quality of communication, is important at all levels to ensure mutual trust and the cross-divisional knowledge.

3. In a pluralistic society, it is essential that the diversity of society is also reflected in digital projects. Only then is it possible to respond to the needs of citizens in a holistic and comprehensive manner. The focus must always be on people and not on technology. Technology must be oriented towards people and not vice-versa. Men are over-represented in the tech industry in particular. Here it is particularly important that a balanced team is represented in IT projects. Bringing more women and girls into tech and digital government is a very important contribution to preventing discriminatory algorithms. — Ulrike Huemer

(Picture Credit: Unsplash)

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