058 #digitaltag

The  Swiss Digital Day took place for the third time on 3 September. Companies and institutions from all over the country were concerned with the goal of bringing the population closer to digitalisation. And, with support of the Digital Impact Network, we had the privilege to take cividi right in the action packed middle, rubbing shoulders with the best of them! In the inner courtyard of the Berner GenerationenHaus, surrounded by urban gardens just a few steps from the main railway station in Bern, we presented the topic of digital tools for analogue spaces.

Around us, fellow exhibitors included Smart City Bern, Digital Impact Network, Insel Gruppe, Swisscom, BFH, BEKB, We Are Cube,  who were showing off what is already possible, what's up next in the pipeline of transformative (dare we still say, disruptive?)  technologies, what the intelligent public should be aware of when it  comes to intelligent machines.

At our stand we showed the versatile possibilities of digital planning and data exchange, with live demos of the SmartUse.ch portal that we built initially for the metropolitan region of Zürich (a  significant part of the work on it took place in Bern), which we hope  will serve as inspiration and more for Haupstadtregion and others! We received many enthusiastic responses, particularly from  people who liked maps and interactive things. Several visitors, some  with domain knowledge, asked tough questions, shared pointed advice,  expressed interest in supporting our initiative.

Tangible data

A highlight of our booth was HappyLil'PrintrPi, first deployed at Criterion and a trusty companion to our team at public events since. At the push  of a button, randomly-generated missions were assigned, always within a 5  minute walking radius, in the form of receipts as pictured below. We  used the same services and data sources, as explained in our earlier post. The responses were collected on A6 cards or through an online form.

In order to give everyone the opportunity to experience the topic on  site in the centre of Berne, these self-guided data walks encouraged spatial orientation awareness,  and through them we got lots of great ideas from people who took the  missions and filled out our #CivicUrbanism cards with their discoveries  and demands.

Field Urbanism

On top of that, we designed the custom map (shown above) of the area around the GenerationenHaus which was distributed at the infodesk and at our booth. It highlighted urban features like car-free roads, rail and  tram tracks, co-working spaces, and encouraged map users to submit  corrections and discoveries with an online service and QR code inspired  by Field Papers.

Last but not least, our self designed poster pictured in the tweet takes a twisted look at the lay of the land. Here, from a bird's eye view, we see the city. What do you see? Stay tuned as we build on these first trials combining the digital and analogue in creative, critical ways.

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If you didn't make it to Bern on Digital Day: no problem! The event organizers Digital Switzerland have a YouTube channel on which live contributions of #SwissDigitalDay were streamed. Further information on the entire program can be found on the official website and across social and more old fashioned media. Thank you to Impact Hub Bern, especially Pablo, Jessica and  team, and to everyone present and behind the scenes of Digitaltag for  the support.