DGI’s IoT team attended this year’s Cisco Hackaton in Numa Paris, the leading European hub for innovative projects. Over 150 developers were split into 22 teams and given the challenge to reinvent the future of the city in just 48 hours. After winning last year’s hackathon in Italy for our Pillbox project, our IoT team came up with the idea of Greenr, an app that works as a platform to encourage people to get involved and improve the management of public green spaces. The app allows people to report issues and propose ideas for new additions to the park. For example, if some flowers badly need to be watered, a person can report this on Greenr. Later that day, someone comes along with a watering can, waters the flowers and checks it off on the app.

Users can also propose ideas for the park such as new benches or a playground for kids. Users then vote on what they would like to have appeared in the park. So, if a playground is number one on the list, the local council or a business can fund the project. This means that commercial organizations can in return receive visibility in the app, social media, and in the park. This simple app using Cisco technology would be a benefit to:

Citizens, by getting people involved and having their needs and wants to be heard.
Businesses can fund projects for the park and use this as a form of advertising.
The local council will benefit, as they will have a way to become quickly aware of local issues and possibly save money on the management of the park.