Call for papers: Intelligent Clusters, Communities and Cities: Enhancing Innovation with Embedded Systems and Virtual Environments

Call for papers: Intelligent Clusters, Communities and Cities: Enhancing Innovation with Embedded Systems and Virtual Environments

A special issue of International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development

Intelligent clusters, communities and cities belong to a new orientation of urban and regional planning targeting on the creation of environments that improve the cognitive and learning skills of the population, and the research and innovation capabilities of the organisations located into a city.

An intelligent city is a territory in which the local system of innovation is enhanced by embedded systems, digital spaces, and IT tools. Digital interactions, devices, and information systems sustain a series of the urban functions related to knowledge creation, transfer, application, and dissemination. The city gains innovation capability, which is then translated into increased competitiveness, better environment, more jobs and wealth.

Out of the meeting of innovation and digital space, the two fundamental dimensions of intelligent clusters and cities are defined:

• On the one hand, the system of innovation (local, regional, sectoral, global) within which a mix of skills and learning institutions takes place, driving the development of new products and technologies in the organisations located into the respective territory (companies, R&D centers, intermediaries, incubators, etc.), and
• On the other hand, the digital reconstruction of the city based on collaborative digital spaces of knowledge management, innovation, and e-governance. These applications facilitate communication, data storage and retrieval, knowledge transfer, cooperative product development, and product promotion, enhancing localised innovation capabilities and opening windows to global markets and transactions.

Intelligent cities evolve along with the trends characterising the two aforementioned dimensions. For instance, global innovation networks and open procedures actually predominate within systems of innovation; and within digital spaces the Web 2.0 and the active participation of users in content development predominate. No doubt, different trends will appear in the near future, influencing respectively the content of intelligent cities.

With respect to these dimensions, two planning paradigms have also appeared in the making of intelligent cities: cybercities vs. intelligent communities. Their major difference is on the weightings they attach to the two aforementioned components of intelligent cities (innovation system/collaborative digital spaces). Cybercities consider that the main challenge for intelligent cities lies in the level of the digital networking, human-machine communication, sensors, intelligent agents, and other technologies for automation in information collection, processing, and dissemination embedded into the city infrastructures. Intelligent communities, on the other hand, consider intelligent cities to be a combination of human innovativeness, collective intelligence, and digital interaction; and the challenges of their making are at the integration of innovation capabilities, institutional cooperation for innovation, and digital spaces facilitating this cooperation.

Within this framework of development and planning trends, this special issue will offer an opportunity for international researchers to present original work on various subjects related to the social, institutional, and technological aspects of ICT assisted innovation systems.

Papers should address research questions in the field, including but not limited to the following topics:

• Review papers on the state-of-the-art in intelligent cities research
• Case studies on communities, clusters and cities having designated as intelligent
• Strategies for intelligent cities creation
• Social and institutional aspects of intelligent territories, including studies and research on intellectual capital and creative cities
• Analysis of territorial systems of innovation functioning on physical, institutional, and virtual spaces
• Analysis of metrics and measurement systems of intelligent cities
• Architectures, components, information systems, and services for intelligent cities
• Collaborative digital spaces linked to urban development, urban functions and life
• Web-based intelligence, innovation, and technology transfer
• Web applications at the local and city levels on e-learning, e-business, and e-government
• Digital platforms and applications facilitating the design and development of intelligent cities

Important Dates
Manuscript due: 30 April 2008
Acceptance notification: 30 June 2008
Final manuscript due: 30 September 2008