Ideas for Europe — Europe of Cities

The future of smart communities belongs to their citizens, and today we take a look at the Top 5 European cities putting people at the heart of their city centres.

This week, we take a look at the Top 5 Smart City Trends for 2023. Smart Cities are built on a number of layers that interconnect and determine how a city functions overall. Mixing tech applications, data and public use, we’ve created an ecosystem that keeps transforming and adapting not only to citizens’ needs, but also to emerging innovations that have the potential to simplify urban planning and enhance quality of life for all.

Elon Musk buying Twitter, or as he calls it, the “facto public town square”, has been one of the biggest news stories of the last week. After forking out around $44bn, he has promised to make online speech freer, which is no small thing.

Now, while media stories are focusing on other topics that derive from this piece of news, such as how much Musk will change the status quo of social media with his acquisition, there’s another point of view I’d like to put into the spotlight: how this promise of regulation of online free speech and Twitter use can impact the life of big cities.