Digital Citizen explored the city as a complex set of layers and behaviours. Digital Citizenship has developed as a framework of ideas and assets led by government ideas of civic models, often driven by desires for efficiency or economic effect. But of course people remain a central force in shaping the places around them and smart technologies expand this yet more.
Digital Citizen was a series of projects across Lewisham in 2013/14, inviting a range of participants to examine what smart behaviours might work alongside smart technologies.

• What does it mean to be a Digital Citizen in the 21st century?
• How can new technologies change the way we navigate the city?
• What impact has social media had on the way we communicate?
• What responsibilities do we have in the way we consume and produce data?

Digital Citizen examined the social impact digital technology has on our lives now. It consisted of three strands:

ASSISTED HISTORY We layer the city with our own experiences and associations – the park where you kissed your first boyfriend; the wasteland where you played football after school; the shop where you always buy your lottery ticket.We build our personal histories as we navigate our neighbourhood. And then there are the other stories, the ones embedded in history, hidden by misfiling or unspoken by your neighbour. How are these stories marked, celebrated and shared? Assisted History re-styles historical ‘blue plaques’ to create interactive digital nodes (‘micro-plaques’) which use the technology we have in our pockets to unlock the hidden histories of Lewisham. Assisted History explored the social and political narratives behind street names. A series of digital plaques were placed around the borough, at sites of particular current and historical interest. Examples of captured historical data include stories from Millwall supporters; eyewitness reports from the 1977 Battle of Lewisham; schematics of Ferranti’s 1887 design for Deptford power station; the marxist writings of Antonio Gramsci; tales from The Venue nightclub in New Cross.
The Assisted History plaques used bluetooth low energy and experimented with the ‘Physical Web‘. 

SMART CITY TALKS Four public talks took place at Deptford Lounge and at Goldsmiths College, looking at some of the concerns of the Digital Citizen:

Smart City – Dr Matthew Fuller, Christian Nold, Ajit Jaokar, Emilie Giles Smart Cities use new technologies and networked infrastructures to improve economic, political, social and cultural development. This talk explored the ‘internet of things’ – the data gathering by objects, and the social impact this will have on our lives.

Social City – Nigel Tyrell, Olivia Solon, Dr Jennifer Gabrys, Graham Harwood
Social City looked at the use of social media in the city space – how social media both mobilises and monitors an individual’s actions. It investigated data as capital (social, economic and cultural); the notion of the internet as a ‘walled garden’; and unintended outcomes of the use of social media.

Secure City – David Barnard-Wills, David Matthews, Dolan Cummings, Kasper de Graaf
Secure City looked at the use of surveillance – how the monitored and ‘listened in’ space is growing daily and how individuals give up their privacy willingly through their use of technology.

Sound City – Cathi Unsworth, Francesca Panetta, Dr John Levack Drever, Peter Cusack
Sound City looked at the locative and cognitive potential of sound, and how sound shapes our experience of the environment.

SMART CITY LAB An intensive week long Lab for London/Lewisham based artists and creative businesses looking at the concept of disruptive innovation and the internet of things. The lab encouraged participants to explore the development of new projects over an intensive period of one week. There was a mixture of peer interaction, taught technical sessions and project development. The lab hybridised designers, artists, developers and start-ups, the objective being to stimulate successful interactions. At the end of the intensive week those participating presented work in progress to invited guests.

In the GPS and coding workshop, Dane Watkins took participants through the possibilities of geo-locative media and Google API. Brigid Howarth, the Creative Industries Officer from Lewisham Borough Council, took us on a walk round Deptford looking at the current regeneration plans. We also had a presentation and discussion from Christian Nold, and a workshop from Jo Reid of Calvium, on their app building software, AppFurnace. David Chatting ran an Arduino workshop. Gareth Jones ran a workshop looking at the recording, processing and dissemination of sound. Participants presented their pilot projects on the last day of the lab to an invited audience.