VIAREGGIO DIGITALE
The Digital Plan/Project
The Viareggio Digitale project was created with the ultimate goal of facilitating access to digital services for citizens, businesses and public administration, so that together we can build a truly future-oriented city. From the promotion of increasingly inclusive digital communication, to a shared path based on the simplification and transparency of public services, Viareggio Digitale aims to involve every protagonist of the “res publica” in order to improve their quality of life and so that, within their capabilities, they may become a driver of development for the entire community of which they are part.
The Plan, developed by the Municipality of Viareggio in consultation with all of the Viareggio Municipality’s Participated Companies, envisages the development of 7 objectives designed to increase citizens’ digital skills. The achievement of these objectives involves the strengthening of a network infrastructure, the creation of new digital services capable of involving crucial aspects of public activity such as mobility and security, and the processing of data indispensable for a Smart City.
The construction of a ‘smart’ city involves the active and balanced involvement of all its players and a preliminary analysis phase aimed at analysing the basic infrastructures (transportation, telecommunications, territory, environment), the way these are perceived by users and the consequent process in which services are delivered.
The 7 objectives identified by Viareggio Digitale are as follows:
– Facilitating access to digital services;
– Implement and develop as many Smart Services as possible;
– Promoting digital skills;
– Strengthening the digitisation of the municipal administration;
– Improving Wi-Fi coverage in public areas;
– Promoting and developing Digital Rights;
– Adopting digital inclusion, development and sustainability policies.
1. Fostering access to digital services.
In order to facilitate access to digital services for citizens, businesses and the public administration, a series of strategies must be adopted that focus on enhancing the digital infrastructure already in place and include training and digital literacy initiatives. The widespread deployment and activation of the Public Digital Identity System (SPID) and the Electronic Identity Card (CIE) for the benefit of those who do not yet have them is one of the key steps to make citizens’ lives simpler and more practical.
Achieving this goal will make it possible not only to create efficient digital services, but also to foster the creation of new services through more targeted planning. We are convinced that the use of digital is a real key to revitalising an area, involving, also and above all, individuals and families who are more disadvantaged in terms of their level of digital culture.
2. Implement and develop as many Smart Services as possible
Delivering services that anticipate and resolve the needs of citizens and businesses in advance: this is the best definition of Smart Services. To do this, it is important to create fast, digital communication channels that can connect citizens with the bodies that deliver the required services. Sensors, IoT and data analysis serve to optimise services and increase citizens’ quality of life, positively influencing every aspect of daily life, from family to work, from health to leisure.
Thanks to the creation of a database, moreover, it will be possible to exchange views with all the actors in the community, gathering their requests and ideas in support of digital implementation projects already scheduled or projects in the making. Also benefiting from a city that has the ambition to be truly Smart will be the digital management of mobility and parking, two neuralgic areas of everyone’s daily life.
3. Promoting digital skills.
In order to be serious about digital transformation, digitised infrastructures and services must be truly inclusive. One of the objectives of Viareggio Digitale will be to provide citizens, businesses and public bodies with the right skills and tools to complete that digital literacy for which everyone, the municipal administration first and foremost, has already been working hard for some time.
Having the right digital skills does not only mean having technical skills, but being able to understand the complexity of the environment in which we work and the constant social changes taking place in the world and, in particular, in our municipality. Digital transformation means making all citizens protagonists of change and aware of being so. It also means thinking outside the box, finding simple solutions to complex problems.
4. Enhancing the digitisation of the municipal administration.
A municipal administration capable of guaranteeing increasingly efficient and accessible services to its citizens is an administration that works. For this reason, through Viareggio Digitale, the Municipality’s objective is to continue the work of modernising its digital infrastructure. Important steps to achieve this objective are: completing the migration of administrative procedures and documents to the cloud, encouraging digital dialogue and interoperability between public bodies, and strengthening cybersecurity defences.
If through the migration to the cloud it will be possible to make territorial data centres more efficient, through the interconnection of administrative databases it will be possible to create a single digital profile for each citizen, which will lead to considerable savings in resources and time. The already started development of a Digital National Data Platform (PDND) is moving in this direction and, with it, the process of accessibility of public services.
5. Improving Wi-Fi coverage in public areas.
Creating a Wi-Fi network that can be accessed free of charge by citizens and tourists in the municipality of Viareggio is one of the objectives of Viareggio Digitale.
By allowing access to broadband services, via laptops, smartphones and tablets, in dedicated areas, without time limits and with credentials sent via SMS, citizens will be able to take advantage of the digital services offered by the municipality. A high-performance Wi-Fi, capable of handling thousands of simultaneous connections and being flexible in implementing and upgrading the services offered, is indispensable for a municipality that has the ambition to be truly Smart.
With this in mind, an access page to the municipal Wi-Fi network constitutes an important channel of communication between all the actors in the area, so that they are always up-to-date on available services, the most important events and all public utility information.
Setting up filters for secure browsing, peer2peer blocking and QoS, would allow browsing to be protected from malware viruses and identity theft, radically improving citizens’ lifestyles.
6. Promote and develop Digital Rights.
The full and satisfactory implementation of the Digital Plan passes, also and above all, through the respect and development of digital rights. These are respected when citizens, businesses and the public administration are able to access online services quickly and securely. In addition, digital rights include the possibility of quickly acquiring reliable information and establishing rapid communication with the PA that has legal value, should one turn to it to benefit from a procedure or service. Benefiting from digital payment methods capable of guaranteeing maximum transparency and security is, like the above, part of the digital rights to be guaranteed.
Access by all citizens, especially the segment of people with disabilities, to information and public utility services, both in the private and public sectors, will be a right guaranteed through ad hoc configurations and assistive technologies.
7. Adopt policies for digital inclusion, development and sustainability.
Facing the challenges of the Digital Transformation in the best possible way means adopting inclusive policies, especially with regard to groups at risk of exclusion and the youngest, i.e. those who experience the contemporary digital revolution directly. There is a need to strengthen skills in digitisation and technological innovation, training of citizens, and the creation of dedicated learning hubs. The ultimate goal of these actions is to avoid gaps between the public administration and the most fragile individuals.
The coexistence of physical and interactive spaces for dialogue and discussion between all the actors of the Digital Plan will allow access to news about the city, interactive exhibitions on civic and public heritage, and incentives for collaborative and inclusive innovation processes.
The gradual involvement of people who struggle to access even the most basic services and those who, despite using technological tools, lack the cultural foundations to use technology in the most appropriate way, requires planning and a vision of the future capable of putting listening and sharing at the centre.