Julia Barth

Informational Urbanism. A Conceptual Framework of Smart Cities

Contemporary and future cities are often labeled as “smart cities,” “digital cities” or “ubiquitous cities,” “knowledge cities,” and “creative cities.” Informational urbanism includes all aspects of information and (tacit as well as explicit) knowledge with regard to urban regions. “Informational city” (or “smart city” in a broader sense) is an umbrella term uniting the divergent trends of informationrelated city research. Informational urbanism is an interdisciplinary endeavor incorporating on the one side computer science and information science as well as on the other side urban studies, city planning, architecture, city economics, and city sociology. In this article, we present both, a conceptual framework for research on smart cities as well as results from our empirical studies on smart cities all over the world. The framework consists of seven building blocks, namely information and knowledge related infrastructures, economy, politics (e-governance) and administration (e-government), spaces (spaces of flows and spaces of places), location factors, the people’s information behavior, and problem areas.

Coverage of academic citation databases compared with coverage of scientific social media: Personal publication lists as calibration parameters

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how the coverage of publications is represented in information services. Academic citation databases (Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar) and scientific social media (Mendeley, CiteULike, BibSonomy) were analyzed by applying a new method: the use of personal publication lists of scientists. Design/methodology/approach – Personal publication lists of scientists of the field of information science were analyzed. All data were taken in collaboration with the scientists in order to guarantee complete publication lists. Findings – The demonstrated calibration parameter shows the coverage of information services in the field of information science. None of the investigated databases reached a coverage of 100 percent. However Google Scholar covers a greater amount of publications than other academic citation databases and scientific social media. Research limitations/implications – Results were limited to the publications of scientists working at an information ...

Students and Graduates

Students and especially graduates make up the workforce of tomorrow. Since Qatar is still in the early stages of its major transition which will go on for some or many more years, the current student body will play a major role in establishing a knowledge society. In Qatar, there are differences between Qatari and expatriate students, female and male students and also between public and private universities.

Diversification of Knowledge-Based Industries and Foreign Investment

The state of Qatar is in the minds of the people a wealth country that is able to rely on its oil and gas reserves. Because the reserves shrink little by little, the country faces the task of disengaging from this dependence in the nearest future. First steps were made by developing the tourism and MICE sector in a quite successful way. However, it is still a long way and a huge challenge for the country. The time will tell if they meet this challenge or if they decide for another option: the investment in foreign projects or companies.

Transition of Graduates into the Labor Market

The labor market situation in Qatar is, as well as in the GCC states, quite different from the situation in European countries. The market is overcrowded by foreign people—workers and talents. Qatar is confronted with this fact and has to decide how to handle it in the future. A good basis is provided by excellent study conditions. But a second key aspect—the motivation of Qataris to find a job in the private sector—leaves much to be desired. They rather rest in the public sector, where the working conditions and the payment are excellent. First approaches to change the situation have made only minor results until now and there is yet no end in sight.

Universities and Other Institutions of Higher Education

The higher education sector of Qatar depends heavily on foreign knowledge. This knowledge is imported by foreign teachers or even by branches of international high-class universities that are unified in a prestigious campus called Education City. These facts set the stage for research and education on a Western level so that the young Qataris’ only need to grab their chance. Apart from the exceedingly good higher education facilities brought by the foreigners into the country, they also bring their culture and lifestyle with them, what is in turn not well received by many Qataris.

Qatar in a Nutshell

Qatar—one of the countries in the Gulf region—has developed a vision to transform its society into a knowledge-based society and is already in the process of implementing its plans. We introduce Qatar and its national vision as well as some peculiarities of the country. Basic aspects like Qatar’s geography, climate, demography, language, culture, religion, politics, economy, public health and education are summarized.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of Qatar’s Way into the Knowledge Society

Qatar is a country with diverse strengths that lead to opportunities when it comes to the construction of a knowledge society. However, the country also has to deal with several weaknesses and threats, which might stand in the way of a positive development. It is on Qatar whether it uses the circumstances by which it is surrounded to strengthen the country and successfully master the transition or not. The SWOT-analysis reveals four possible scenarios about Qatar’s future.

Creativity and the Knowledge Society

Qatar is a country where creativity and innovation has until now not really been a prevalent topic. Only with the plan to become an urban region of the knowledge society did these concepts gain attention. These days, most of the creatives in Qatar are still from overseas. However, taking a look at Qatar’s publications and patents, it is visible that the country is trying to encourage inventions and the exchange of knowledge.

Informational Cities in the GCC States

Many cities in the world define themselves as ‘smart’. Is this term appropriate for cities in the emergent Gulf region? This chapter investigates seven Gulf cities (Kuwait City, Manama, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, and Muscat) that have once grown rich due to large reserves of oil and gas. Now, with the threat of ending resources, governments focus on the development towards a knowledge society. We analyze the cities in terms of their cityness as well as their ‘smartness’ or ‘informativeness’ by a quantitative ServQual-like survey and by in-depth qualitative interviews (N = 34). Especially Doha in Qatar is well on its way towards an informational city, but also Dubai and Sharjah (both in the United Arab Emirates) make good scores.