Elements of a Successful Big Data Hackathon in a Smart City Context

A case study of a Smart City initiative that has successfully applied the triple helix model to create an informal collaboration between academia, government and private industry. The study recounts how a group of university students, participating in a big data hackathon, managed to create a smart city solution prototype based on open data in only 48 hours. The solution can make the municipality more cost efficient and improve citizen services, while also contributing to reduced CO2 emissions and thus addressing a difficult societal challenge. A special attention is paid to how the smart city vision based on the triple helix model is used to align interests and enable an informal collaboration between heterogeneous stakeholders, effectively creating a win-win-win situation.