bePart is a mobile application which facilitates citizens’ participation in urban development.

Who would benefit from it and how?

bePart lowers the threshold for political involvement, especially for young citizens. Our mobile app lets them access development plans of local and regional urban projects. Also, it provides a list of public hearing dates, further encouraging participation in those events. Since all relevant data is widely scattered across the Internet, personal participation currently requires a lot of effort. Moreover, most citizens are not aware of their opportunity to participate in development planning. bePart aggregates all relevant data, such as project outlines, schedules, and visualizations, informing the user about how and when they can take action. A “Concerning Me” feature highlights regional development projects that are of possible relevance to the user.

What data do you think you need in order to build it?

bePart aggregates open infrastructure data and maps. This includes development plans, project blueprints, plan approval histories, prospective hearing dates, and so on. As an example, data for Berlin can be found using the “FIS-broker”. This source provides detailed geo-sensitive information about urban development, though it does not offer an open API yet. The development plans and meeting times need to be exposed in an open form in order for bePart to channel the data. All European cities providing such data in an open and standardized way allow bePart to actively involve citizens in urban development.

If you have any supporting material (video clips, pictures, or other resources), please list details and links below.

Images showing the proposed application, an exemplary scenario and the concept paper (in German) can be found here