Urban eyes
Unique online and mobile platform for creating and visualizing the city performance
Malika Solieva, Otabek Nigmatov, Talgat Dzhumashev, , Tatiana Efremenko
Malika Solieva, Otabek Nigmatov, Talgat Dzhumashev, , Tatiana Efremenko
The interesting fact is that our research center was initially created around the idea of Bishkek Civic City Dashboard, which later became the UrbanEyes. In 2019, Shamil Ibragimov invited the future SILK co-founders for a coffee to discuss the idea of creating an online platform for the visualization of city performance, better governance and citizens' engagement. It is at this meeting, the concept of SILK was born as a research center that would help implement this idea and engage in other urban research projects. Shamil Ibragimov was and remains the main visionary and driver behind the project. He supported the project as a director of Soros Foundation Kyrgyzstan and later established the group called U-Innovations to help create the online platform and mobile application.
New technologies open up a completely new set of approaches and solutions for democratic governance. One of the fundamental tasks, that new technologies can help us to solve, is an increase in government accountability to its citizens. With the concept of Smart City, especially in the developing world, the two fundamental questions to the concept rise – Smart for whom? The city for whom? The overall idea of technology use for better governance should be based on the principle of co-creation, with the active participation of all stakeholders in the city. But the first challenge one faces is how to develop a holistic understanding of the city pattern, how to assess the decisions made by the city managers, and how to build a constructive dialogue of the city residents, business, and government of the city. In this project, we are exploring the possibilities of implementing city governance projects in Bishkek city.
New technologies open up a completely new set of approaches and solutions for democratic governance. One of the fundamental tasks, that new technologies can help us to solve, is an increase in government accountability to its citizens. With the concept of Smart City, especially in the developing world, the two fundamental questions to the concept rise – Smart for whom? The city for whom? The overall idea of technology use for better governance should be based on the principle of co-creation, with the active participation of all stakeholders in the city. But the first challenge one faces is how to develop a holistic understanding of the city pattern, how to assess the decisions made by the city managers, and how to build a constructive dialogue of the city residents, business, and government of the city. In this project, we are exploring the possibilities of implementing city governance projects in Bishkek city.
Our center was involved both in the administration, fund-raising and data generation for this project. Below are the links to UrbanEyes data collection projects conducted by SILK researchers.
