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Our knowledge society forum supports cities to ensure that all citizens can have access to ICTs and participate in the information and knowledge society and helps public administrations to make the most of the rapid development of new technologies

The rapid development and increasing use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) has transformed our societies and economies, how we do business and communicate with each other, and how we work and learn.

New technologies are also transforming public administration at all levels, as citizens are learning to expect easy access to realtime information and reliable online services. 

2013 priorities: 

• Open data:

Open data is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyrights, patents or other mechanisms of control. Following a similar idea, the digital agenda for Europe and the eGovernment action plan 2010-2015 are promoting a broad reuse of public sector information. Many cities have recently launched open data portals or are currently developing plans to free their data. 

Our working group open data, chaired by Berlin and Ghent, leads on this theme. 

• eInclusion:

eInclusion is the principle that 'no one is left behind' in enjoying the benefits of ICT. eInclusion means both inclusive ICT and the use of ICT to achieve objectives of wider inclusion. This activity therefore focuses on participation of all individuals and communities in all aspects of the information society, aiming at reducing gaps in ICT usage and promoting the use of ICT to overcome exclusion, and improve economic performance, employment opportunities, quality of life, social participation and cohesion. 

• Smart cities:

This theme, coordinated through our working group smart cities, chaired by Barcelona and Manchester, focuses on creating a dialogue space for cities to deal with the conceptualisation and systemic definition of smart city.

It will help define the term 'smart' for city governments and allow for continued recognition of cities as partners and project beneficiaries in key programmes at European level.

Under this priority, our knowledge society forum will also ensure synergies with ongoing projects in the area of future internet, living labs and ICT for sustainable growth. One example is our NiCE (Networking intelligent Cities for Energy Efficiency) project which assists cities in implementing our Green Digital Charter (www.greendigitalcharter.eu).