The term platform has been so far mainly used in the ICT domain, it has been recently also adopted in the business domain, in order to define recently invented business models that thrive on a circular, reinforcing feedback loop, where producers and consumers mix up to become “prosumers” in an iterative, interactive, interdependent system, where all participants contribute to increase the value of each transaction and of the entire platform. Nowadays, business platforms come in a variety of shapes and sizes, although as a consequence of digital transformation, the opportunity to include more players in the game has turned into a quasi-monopoly in many industries. As regulators, mainly in Europe, are trying to keep the game open and inclusive, many advocates and experiment with the mission to turn the pyramid upside down, and give back to society to the notion of an inclusive, a level playing field.
As the debate and the experimentation moves forward, some have started to associate the term platform to cities, again mainly referring to the possibility to go beyond the notion of a smart city by bringing to citizens the benefits of an open platform that interconnects and exchange flows of open data that inform and engage the community in the attempt to turn a territory into an asset whose value is shared by everybody living in it.
During OIS 2019, the organisers would like to push the notion of the city as a platform to encompass its capacity, as a self-organising living system, to extract and share the value related to a wide range of assets, beyond data, that a city is made of. This range includes human capital, land, physical buildings, infrastructures, communities, cultural heritage, stocks and flows of goods and capital, and of course more intangible assets such as history, identity, brand, competences, and creativity.
In this view, a city is able to increase and share the value of its assets if it is capable of creating connections that turn into transactions both within its borders and with the outside world. This capacity is enabled by digital networks but fuelled by a sense of purpose.
Therefore, this evolution, and the realisation of a just, inclusive and thriving society in the era of digital transformation, requires responsible leadership at all levels, participatory governance and community renewal: this is social innovation 2.0.
In the spirit of OIS mutual learning, leaders from governments, cities, corporates and civil society organisations will explore the key enabling factors of cities’ capacity to innovate, prosper and
share the benefits of growth with all, exchanging successful practices, challenges, models, ideas and building new fruitful partnerships.
Turin will host the Summit, as a European middle-size city that has proven able to develop and implement a post-industrial strategy in order to remain competitive on the international stage. Today the city displays an evolving local ecosystem for innovation that encompasses many of the assets that can facilitate the systematic emergence of innovation and venture creation, and that has a clear intention to share with the whole community the benefits that can come from that.
In the process of building a more robust local ecosystem, the City of Turin welcomes the opportunity to exchange, at the international level, ideas and practices with other Cities and actors that can nurture a better understanding of the system conditions for economic development, in conjunction with the capacity to cater for the needs of those who are currently left behind.