In this Keynote I will take the audience on a journey “From Mars to the Slums”, incorporating the lessons from both these very different environments – one artificially created to isolate and protect us from the external impact of the natural factors that are worsening the status quo, while the other teaching us about how cities grow organically and how we can apply “design by emergence” to make better decisions regarding where to place the infrastructure and invest in better alignment with the needs of citizens.

I will introduce a paradigm shift in how we think about smart city using a multi-dimensional model rolled into one concept called “Smart City Maturity Model” which can help us to decide in which stage in the development we are. This system of thinking is concocted of many layers: the supra-structures (culture, politics) the core-structure (economy/digital economy) the infra-structure (core and heart of a smart city), resources (citizens and nature).

The goal is to create a sustainable city enabled by technology which unleashes the “Social Network Operating System” co-creating smart services in which we engage the citizens as Actors. They are producers, “players,” and “inputs” whose interactions steer complex, interdependent systems linking hybrid sectors of the economy and society. We are looking for the principles of management and engineering of these emerging complex networked systems that will infuse them with the ability to discover a variety of potential solutions in their repertoire, when confronted with a problem-rich environment. The recent example of my work with the CIO of Kyiv City to increase the resilience through 4IR technologies will give insights into the design thinking involved.