In December last year, the TED Prize went for the first time not to an individual but to an idea on which the future of our planet depends: City 2.0. The City 2.0 stands for a city of the future, one where the growing urbanization, where more and more people live in cities, may nevertheless be a happy, healthy and sustainable city. The idea is accompanied by an online platform, designed to allow individuals and organizations to work together in imagining the city of the future.
The tools that City 2.0 offers are usually only accessible by city planners and government officials, but the idea of City 2.0 is to give these tools also into the hands of citizens everywhere so they can create their own City 2.0 with their innovative new ideas. The ideas usually emerge around transportation, energy, public space, housing and law.
The site TheCity2.org inspires and enables citizens, through a range of projects that they can propose and lead, to engage in an upgrade of their own city. People can take the issues that they prioritize and see crucial to their city’s success and create action groups dedicated to tackling these issues.
So the platform brings people together, locally and globally. It combines the reach of the cloud with the power of the crowd. It connects leaders, experts, companies, organizations and citizens. And it lets you share your tools, data, designs, successes and ideas so these could be turned into action.
Take a look at this short film that displays the key phrases that build the foundation of the City 2.0 concept, like, “I want to be inclusive, innovative, healthy, soulful, thriving”.
