Enabling collaboration and innovation in Denver’s smart city through a living lab: a social capital perspective

Recent information technology (IT) developments have enabled cities to collect and disseminate large amounts of data to improve their public services delivery. “Smart cities” allow the public sector to leverage IT infrastructure and smart devices to increase the value of services delivered to the community. Our exploratory qualitative study involved the examination of secondary data and interviews with public administration personnel at the City and County of Denver. We used the social capital perspective and literature on knowledge transfer to interpret the empirical material and derive abstractions. We found that the Living Lab methodology adopted within the Smart City initiative facilitated a number of outcomes, including improved collaboration and innovation. Specifically, the “fail-fast” mentality was a characteristic of the Denver Living Lab that improved innovation.