presentation on the i-City project given to the Stedenlink organisation from The Netherlands

2. i-City, testing ground for a
wireless society

3. testing ground for a wireless society

4. i-City is the largest research lab for mobile
applications in the world
Together with users, different companies are building mobile
applications for the future. IT-companies as well as others.
i-City is the largest testing ground for mobile applications in the
world. i-City turns Hasselt and Leuven into one big lab.
By doing this, i-City can already develop the applications of
tomorrow on a large scale, and test them in lifelike situations.

5. aim mobile internet platform
 Maintain broadband leading position
 Test platform for mobile applications
 Allow non-PC users to consume internet based services
 Service roaming: operator independent availability of
service
 Incubator function for new companies
 Attract competence centres to Flanders

6. examples from a mobile future
 VoIP. i-City’s telephony platform provides a unique mobile
VoIP service. Your PDA is allocated a telephone number and
can be reached from throughout the world.
 Parking application. Look for vacant parking places via your
handheld. Once you’ve found a place, you can reserve it too .
 Heart monitoring. Medical equipment, linked to a handheld
or PDA, ensures that heart patients are monitored constantly
while at the same time remaining mobile. If a heart patient
becomes ill, the PDA automatically warns the hospital.
 Crèche. Using these applications parents can take a peek at
their baby or toddler in the day nursery. Their loved ones
appear on the PDA’s screen via the webcam.

7. the i-City components

9. components of the living lab
Infrastructure: hotspots
Software platform
Testusers and mobile devices

10. infrastructure: hotspots
 Area: Hasselt and Leuven
 Aim: Complete city covered by public wireless
high-speed Internet
 Timing:
2006: 300 Access Points per City aiming to reach
80% of its inhabitants/visitors
2008: a full 100% wireless coverage
 Rollout
Hasselt 2005-2006
Leuven 2006

11. software platform
End-User services
Access to
users
com asl, cha
Us
site , forums
Pe
 The user decides what
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nt
rso
ck
Pr ehav
me
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na
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s
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lb
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t.
ild
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ce
bu
profile
ons
io
t
s
Ø retrieve user location
Ø add / delete user profile
 i-City is a trusted party
Ø manage subscriptions
Ø accept payments
even
Ø storage service for
info
making a secure walled
Cult tion
application data
“nete
Ø preferences of user
rma
t cal
ural
ve
garden in an insecure
nts.b
enda
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internet
r
Location retrieval
Permission based
 i-City guarantees the
users’ privacy
Rest
aur
serv ant
ice
“r esto
.be”
Presentation Layer
Uniform Look & Feel User defined portal layout

12. CSP platform: built in services
Online TV IM Mobile Blogging LBS Photo Album
Mail Local News Forums Info VoIP

13. test users
 Various usergroups are defined
– 4.000 citizens with wireless
PDA/XDA/smartphone to be allocated
– 4.200 students with wireless laptops active
 -, - and - userprograms
– -users: 120 actively collaborating tech-savvy users
– -users: 4.000 users with sponsored device
– -users: enthusiastic users with own device

14. mobile devices
 Pocket PC = your office in your pocket
 Consumers don’t need an office,
they don’t want to sync with a PC
 PDA needs to become a connected
device like a mobile: turn it on, it
works
 Naked PDA is too difficult to turn
into a fun and useful tool
 i-City bridges the gap with an own
Runtime Environment (Mercator)

16. founding members

17. member structure
The strength of i-City lies in its members:
 Cross-fertilisation
 Knowledge access
 Members of i-City can
 Realise ideas for mobile applications
 Test ideas for mobile applications
 Step in at different levels and membership categories
 Be part of the different i-City advisory bodies
 Take part in a wide range of ‘wireless’-oriented activities

18. advisory board
 6 (co-)founding members + all Board
Members + 4 diamond partners
Research
Reports
Research
Reports
Research
Reports
Research
Reports
Research
Reports
Research
Reports
Research
Reports
Research
Reports
+ 8 platinum partners + honorary members
Food & Leisure &
Education Mobility Healthcare e-Gov
Finance Network
Retail Tourism & Legal & Security
 High level:
 Nominative representation
 Expert backbone
Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup
Advisory Board
 Tasks
 Formally ratify decisions and ideas of workgroups
 Advice on government policies
 Touchstone on mobile data communication
 4 plenary advisory boardmeetings / year
 Start 2006

19. work groups
Research Research Research Research Research Research Research Research
Reports Reports Reports Reports Reports Reports Reports Reports
 8 workgroups with different angle
Food &
Food &
Retail
Retail
Leisure &
Leisure &
Tourism
Tourism
Education
Education Mobility Healthcare e-Gov
Finance
& Legal
Network
& Security
 In touch with the needs for wireless applications
 Companies, organisations, alphas, academics and other
Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup Workgroup
organisations take partAdvisory Board
 Participate in inventing and optimising mobile
applications, ideas and services
 Bottom-up information from a user point-of-view, that
can lead to concrete applications

20. Process
Bridge
between in-
and output
Facilitate
Input execution Output
of ideas
Part 1: Part 2:
obtain ideas product development
Non-Members & Members: Members
Outer sectors
i-City + academics
+
specialists

22. alpha profile
People
 with ideas about wireless applications
 who see the advantage of a wireless city
 who do not only dream ideas, but realise them
 with an ICT background who see the wireless future…
 … or people who don’t know much about software, but from
their background have ideas for wireless city projects
Strong selection process
 Campaign to stimulate innovation
 1.500 candidates, out of which >100 selected
 Inactive members regularly removed

23. alpha organisation

24. alpha process

25. Alfa Workgroups

27. knowledge
Research, knowledge and know-how are
vital for i-City:
 Knowledge needs to be shared (cluster)
 Knowledge needs to be accumulated (research)
 Knowledge needs to be made concrete (spin offs)
 Knowledge needs to be put across (education)

28. academic world
Embedding of knowledge through
 the development of a Master after Master at the
university
 a strategic collaboration with the innovationcentre of
the GOM (IWT) and the ICT-fund LRM
 involving universities (KUL, VUB, UG, UH) and colleges
(PHL, Xios, …), also through joint projects, and research
institutes (IBBT, IWT, IMEC, FMV, EDM, …)
 Brokerage in March 2006 together with IBBT

29. the i-City organisation

30. i-City history
2001 2002 2003 2004
09/01: laptopproject Provinciale Hogeschool Limburg (PHL)
10/01: Sinfilo makes PHL wireless
02/02: Sinfilo gets help from Siemens
03/02: Hasselt interested in wireless
05/02: Grote Markt Hasselt wireless
09/02: Voka introduces Hasselt on Microsoft conf. Rome
Telenet takes over Sinfilo: 10/03
Start Consortium: + Fujitsu Siemens + Concentra: 12/03
IBBT gets to know i-City: 01-02/04
Felmish Goverment approves support: 06/04
Founding non profit ass. i-City: 07/04
Start development: 10/04