196 ITU‐T's Technical Reports And Specifications Finally, through technology transfer programs and partnerships with the private sector, universities, research organizations & specialized bodies can also be a source of innovation for the private sector, and promote new business creation in the form of spin offs. 4.10 Citizens and citizen organizations Citizens are the key to transform a digital city into a smart city.48 Citizens are the ultimate users of SSC services, covering the associated costs via taxes or, in some cases, via fees. Therefore, it is important that they are informed on the features and the benefits of each of those services, so they can value them. Without achieving this, citizens could perceive SSC projects as an unnecessary expenditure, rather than as a proper investment of their taxes. The value of the citizens' role can be viewed from multiple perspectives: as a source of data, the concept of citizen as a sensor of local/real‐time information, as a source of ideas through citizen participation mechanisms, as a receiver of information and as end users of city services. We can find many examples of the citizen's as sources of data, including the use of ICT applications that, with the user permission, gather data from the sensors embedded in smartphones to identify issues such as the state of the road49, or that allow users to report incidents on the street.50 Data mining from social networks allows to predict events, or to learn the opinion of the population on key issues and even automated sensors to collect environmental parameters that anyone can install at home.51 There is a lot of innovation taking place in this field, with new applications and projects appearing every day and allowing citizens to contribute to make their cities more sustainable. Citizen participation is key to enable a citizen‐centred approach in cities. Technology can be of help to carry out mass opinion surveys and participatory processes, but it is important to ensure that everyone can participate. This can be achieved by providing means of participation to sectors of the population that may not have easy access to communication technologies like the elderly or economically constrained sections of the population. Citizen as information receivers and users of services refer to information from the city such as real time traffic state, the public transport timetables and safety alerts, to name a few. It is important to emphasize that the citizen is the final user of the city and the city services, and therefore, it is who will benefit from a shift towards a smarter, more sustainable urban model. 4.11 Urban planners Urban planners develop plans and programs for the use of land in cities. Their plans help create communities, accommodate population growth, and revitalize physical facilities in towns, cities, counties, and metropolitan areas.52 Urban planners are key actors for smart sustainable cities. In some instances, these stakeholders perceive smart city strategies with some degree of reluctance and scepticism due to the dominant role given to technology over other city dimensions. To most planners, the lack of understanding of ____________________ 48 Overview and Role of ICT in Smart Sustainable Cities. Technical Report WG1 FG on SSC. 49 Street Bump http://streetbump.org/about 50 Repara Ciudad http://reparaciudad.com/ 51 Smart Citizen Kit http://smartcitizen.me/pages/sck 52 http://www.bls.gov/ooh/life‐physical‐and‐social‐science/urban‐and‐regional‐planners.htm#tab‐2