This is a CTP of initiative: Living Labs - Sfax Smart Living Lab (Tunisia)
The affiliation of Sfax City as a Smart City occurred in January 2016 by IEEE (CTP6), the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. The IEEE leads this program to affiliate cities at the international level as Smart Cities, this not only gives the cities an enhanced image among other cities worldwide, but also provides them with the support of IEEE in terms of access to the IEEE professionals’ network and experience, and other benefits such as study opportunities, research, exchange, trainings, etc.
The application process had started in 2014, and was not successful in the first attempt in 2015, but succeeded in the following year 2016. Adel Alimi mentions that both applications in 2015 and 2016 were exactly the same and the reasons for the non-acceptance in the first time were not mentioned by IEEE. He presumes it could be related to the political instability in Tunisia at that time when the parliament and presidential elections were taking place in October and November 2014.
Adel Alimi and his team applied for the affiliation of the city mainly through the projects and products of their living lab, in addition to other projects from other labs in Sfax providing smart solutions, products events, and conferences for Sfax. As Adel mentions “In the application we didn’t focus on the living lab but rather on the projects, which are mainly under our living lab, such as products we developed promoting the interface between users, for instance (smart phone) applications for detection of learning, for e-commerce and e-learning, and for the handicapped controlling their wheelchair.
The affiliation and application process for the Smart City label constitute a very important CTP for SSCLL. For the first time the living lab earned a trademark and identity as a “Smart City” living lab; the name SSCLL – Sfax Smart City Living Lab was only established after this CTP and it has been the first living lab in Sfax to specialize in Smart Cities.
Moreover, the CTP’s impact extends to Sfax city as a whole. The affiliation of Sfax as a ‘Smart City’ proves that Sfax has numerous Smart City initiatives and projects, and has a potential for becoming a Smart City in the future. Further on, the international label gave Sfax an edge to attract more international funding and projects, as well as more tourists, according to Adel Alimi.
This CTP was co-produced by several actors, including Adel Alimi, Habib Kammoun, the SSCLL members, other living labs in Tunisia, as well as national and international IEEE members.
Adel and Habib played a crucial role in the application process. They initiated the process for their city after they were introduced to the IEEE Smart Cities Program in a conference in Amsterdam during the summer of 2014. More information about the Smart Cities Program is available at: http://smartcities.ieee.org/affiliated-cities.html
They both believe in the significance of the IEEE organization in the field of technology and open innovation and have strong ties to the IEEE organization; Adel Alimi is the first IEEE member in Tunisia and he founded the IEEE there in June 21, 2008, and Habib Kammoun is the current chair of IEEE Tunisia. All members of living lab are also IEEE members. Adel Alimi mentions that they have always set it as a condition to be an IEEE member before joining the living lab and the ReGIM Lab. Both saw a potential for Sfax city to become affiliated as a Smart City and a large benefit of this affiliation for the city and their living lab. Adel, Habib and all other living lab members, who are also IEEE members were responsible for preparing the application process for the Smart City affiliation. Habib mentions that the application requirements weren’t hard to meet; they mainly had to present their diverse projects that aim for a ‘Smarter’ Sfax. During the preparation process, Adel and Habib held meetings with the IEEE committee at the national level and met virtually with the IEEE international committee of the program to get some guidance for how to prepare the application. The living lab members’ experience in application preparations also helped them fulfil the requirements and prepare a successful application.
In addition, the contribution of other living labs in Sfax with their ‘smart-solution’ projects enriched the application and was essential for its acceptance. Projects from external living labs particularly included projects that are not part of the SSCLL’s specialty i.e. outside the smart transport field.
During and after the application process the living lab members tried to spread awareness about the Smart City concept on the local government level. They aimed that it will be integrated in future decision-making about the urban development direction of Sfax city through the implementation of smart city transportation for instance. They started an application for smart phones, which was further developed during the past six months that helps solve transport problems by facilitating to the Tunisians to locate public busses by using Google maps. Moreover, they developed an application that promotes security for citizens particularly women. It enables users to instantaneously record harassment incidents happening in public transportation, so that the police can intervene as quickly as possible, by entering the vehicle in the following stop and taking necessary actions. All these efforts supported the affiliation process and were further boosted by it.
This CTP is related to several events that evoked it or were induced by it. First, the Amsterdam conference that Adel Alimi and Habib Kammoun attended in the summer of 2014, was the initial inducer of the application process to acquire IEEE Smart City label. During this conference Adel and Habib were introduced for the first time to the Smart City program by IEEE and liked its idea since then. After they went back to Tunisia they started studying the program and Sfax potential to acquire the affiliation and that is how the application process started. The fact that another city in Tunisia, namely Casablanca, was conducting in parallel its application process to get IEEE Smart City affiliated further encouraged the Sfax application process. In fact, both cities were collaborating and helping each other to acquire the label and they finally both succeeded.
Another event, namely, the application of a quality management system in the ReGIM Lab to acquire the ISO - International Organization for Standardization 9001 (ISO-9001) certification (CTP 5) in May 2015 played an important role in provoking CTP 6. It was during CTP 5 that for the first time the ReGIM Lab and the living lab were distinguished clearly from each other as separate entities. Only then the ReGIM Lab and living lab members understood clearly the meaning of a living lab, and the difference between it and the ReGIM Lab. This awareness of the members evoked the necessity to give the living lab a clear and separate identity and vision, which was achieved through its affiliation as a ‘Smart City Living Lab’. This certainly encouraged the application process to the IEEE Smart City program.
This CTP was crucial for several following events, such as the ENoLL – European Network of Living Labs - application and affiliation of SSCLL in April 2016. According to Adel Alimi the IEEE affiliation gave the living lab an international label and recognition that certainly increased its credibility for the ENoLL application committee. It increased the living lab’s competitiveness compared to other applying labs, including another Tunisian living lab whose application was rejected.
Other previous events contributed to the acceptance of the ENoLL application of SSCLL, such as the ISO accreditation of the ReGIM Lab (CTP 5) and the conducting of robotic competitions and participation in the World Robotic Olympiad (WRO) (CTP 4). All these events helped build an impressive profile and application of the living lab, proving its internationally recognized quality and its dedication to open innovation. However, Adel Alimi states that the IEEE ‘Sfax Smart City’ affiliation was the main strong point of the living lab’s application for ENoLL.
This CTP is the first to include clear contestation, as mentioned by Adel Alimi and Habib Kammoun. It is the first one to refer to the city of Sfax and not relate only to the ReGIM Lab or the living lab, which gave the CTP a political dimension. Moreover, it was the first CTP that directly affects the living lab as a separate entity and brings light to it on the international level. This has resulted in new challenges and conflicts that were not experienced by the living lab team in earlier events.
The initial refusal of the application to get the IEEE Smart City affiliation in 2015 was an unexpected and unclear incident for the living lab members; they were not given any explanation by the IEEE committee. To the members it was frustrating to be declined without knowing the reason, after doing substantial effort to prepare the application. Thinking back and after the second exact same application was accepted in the following year, it was realized that the reason for the first decline in 2015 might have been the political instability in Tunisia; in fact, the presidential and parliament elections were taking place at the same time and the political future of Tunisia was quite unpredictable. After the first failure, the team decided to stay persistent and maintain their enthusiasm and confidence, and submitted the same application again in 2016, which was then successfully accepted.
Clearer incidents of contestation occurred during this CTP within the local level of Sfax and due to the first encounter of the living lab members with the industrial private sector as a potential competitor to them and with politically active persons. As Adel explains, “We were previously mainly interacting with academics and rarely acted outside the academic environment. After entering into communication with political figures, as part of discussing the Sfax Smart City vision, we started experiencing obstacles implanted to hinder our projects”. Working in the smart industry field, the living lab focused on smart transportation and developed projects that would help provide solutions to urban problems in Sfax. These projects needed the support of decision-makers in the city in order to be implemented or considered for the city vision and political agenda. Developing such projects Adel, Habib and the other living lab members experienced 2 dimensions of contestation. They encountered difficulty to access decision-makers and get their support to be able to implement their projects. For instance, their smart bus project was ready since February 2016, but they weren’t able to officially open it until end of May 2016, as they governor was not showing any interest to the project. It was only when they managed to meet the Minister of Transport during his visit to Sfax that the ‘wheel started to run’ (Alimi Interview). Suddenly they found interest from the governor, who was previously neglecting their contacts. Moreover, after an Open Data International Agreement was signed in May 2016, the Smart City notion became more familiar to decision makers in Sfax and started to receive more support.
In addition, entering the smart industry market and establishing contacts with the minister and governor of Sfax, the living lab posed a potential threat to other stakeholders’ businesses in the market. An e-health business owner and a related association that has political connections started to lobby against the SSCLL projects and work. They we afraid that the living lab would become active in the e-health industry and compete with them. Adel Alimi explains that they dealt with the situation by communicating in person with the e-health stakeholders and clarified them that SSCLL is only focused on smart transport and that e-health is not part of their interest. This strategy succeeded and resulted in a decreased tension level and a smoother work environment for the SSCLL members.
Applying for the ‘Smart City’ affiliation by IEEE was certainly anticipated as a CTP for SSCLL, however, not all its impacts were expected.
Habib Kammoun mentions that he and the living lab members were very keen to acquire the international recognition of IEEE, he states: “If it wasn’t accepted for the second time we would have applied again the next year”. They were highly aware of the importance of such recognition has for the lab and that it would have a large impact on its development and growth. However, they were sceptical whether the application would be accepted or not, since their first attempt was declined without known reasons. The impacts on the living lab were larger than expected. While the affiliation was for the city of Sfax as a whole, it resulted in positive outcomes for the living lab itself. The living lab gained for the first time a clear identity and vision as a “Smart City living lab”; the name SSCLL – Sfax Smart City Living Lab was only established after this CTP and it has been the first living lab in Sfax to specialize in Smart Cities. Having a clearer vision and identity, the SSCLL members were able to focus on certain projects and advance and become known for working in the specific field of smart cities and smart transport. Habib mentions further on that since their affiliation to the IEEE Smart City program the SSCLL members have been receiving increased number of calls to participate in conferences and monthly newsletters with invitation to events and calls for participation. In addition, preparing the application to acquire the affiliation for Sfax, the SSCLL members collaborated with other labs to collect a stronger projects profile. This led to more positive outcomes for the living lab. It has built stronger relations with other labs and has become open to projects and products of other labs in Tunisia addressing smart solutions and promoting the Smart Cities concept, particularly those, which are not within the SSCLL specialty. The CTP’s impact extends to Sfax city as a whole. The affiliation of Sfax as a ‘Smart City’ has proven that Sfax has numerous Smart City initiatives and projects, and has a potential for becoming a Smart City in the future. Further on, the international label gave Sfax an edge to attract more international funding and projects, as well as more tourists. This was partially foreseen and targeted by Adel Alimi, however, its impact on policy makers internally was not exactly expected. After Sfax became affiliated as a Smart City and more smart projects were developed in the city, the attention of decision-makers on the local as well as national level shifted more towards smart solutions, such as smart transportation. This resulted, for instance, in getting the minister’s support to officially inaugurate SSCLL and the Smart Bus Project and conduct a press conference in June 2016 attended by a representative of the governor (radioexpressfm.com, 2016).
During this CTP the ambitions of SSCLL became clearer, perhaps not in terms of their content but how they can be achieved. The main purpose of SSCLL is to help “increase life standards of society by taking into account the needs of different users and sectors in Sfax city regarding research and technological development.” (smart-sfax.org, 2016). During and after the affiliation of Sfax to become a Smart City, the living lab has focused on projects that fall under the Smart City notion, and collaborated with other labs to bring a variety of Smart projects together so that Sfax becomes affiliated. This has led the labelled Sfax Smart City Living Lab (SSCLL) to have a clear focus on smart city projects, and become even more specialized in specific field, namely Smart Transport. While this was not a change in the direction of development of the initiative, it was a crucial milestone in its development process that accelerated its maturity in a certain direction and specialty.
Several lessons were learnt from this CTP according to Adel and Habib. First, the SSCLL members have realized the importance of being focused in a specific field and having a clearly stated vision and label for their lab. This focus and clarity in their minds made them and their lab as a whole more competitive in the field of Smart Cities and Transport on a national and international level. Previously they conducted projects in the field of robotics more generally, which is too broad and thus found difficulty to excel and stand out. Another aspect the SSCLL members understood more thoroughly after this CTP is the importance of international recognition and affiliation.
First, it provides evidence for the credibility and competence of the living lab in conducting smart projects and research, which helps bring more collaborations with national and international partners and attract international funding and projects. In addition, the international recognition and affiliation helped put pressure on local and national decision-makers so they support Smart City projects and strategies. It was a continuous effort exerted by the SSCLL members to convince the governor to support their projects, but after the affiliation succeeded and an Open Data International Agreement (see: Contestation) was signed the minister and governor started to act supportive and SSCLL and the Smart Bus Project were officially opened.
Finally, Adel mentions, a key lesson he and his team learned is to be persistent in achieving the initiative’s goals and not loose hope and confidence after one failure. The first application attempt refusal was quite frustrating for the team, however, they all decided to keep trying until they acquire the affiliation, and they finally did. If failure occurs and it always does during one’s journey, it should never be an obstacle to stop one from fighting for their goals. On the contrary, it is a natural part of the process that should make one stronger and build one’s confidence to continue.
References
Available at: http://www.radioexpressfm.com/lire/sfax-inaugure-son-1er-bus-intelligent-6808 [Accessed 2016].
Available at: https://smart-sfax.org [Accessed 2016].
Stay informed. Subscribe for project updates by e-mail.
