The transparent smart city: How city councils and city administrations can apply smart technology for increased transparency—with case evidence from Norway

Abstract

Transparency is seen as one important property of open government. The growing importance of government transparency is shown through legislation being passed by most democratic countries during the last few decades. Transparency is based on legislation, regulations and other policy documents. Information and communication technology can help improving the transparency of political decision-making. In smart cities, technology can support transparency in a number of ways, ranging from making documents available online to transparency in the decision-making process. The purpose of this chapter is to provide government officials and other interested parties with an overview of the technologies that are available for transparency in smart cities, and to present lessons learned from cases the authors have been involved in. These lessons can be valuable for decision-makers working towards smart city developments.