On February 23 (Tue), 2016, at the 1F Central Court in Aeon Mall Kashiihama, the 2nd Co-Evolutional Social Systems Science Café by Kyushu University: “Urban OS and the Future of Fukuoka” was held, co-sponsored by the Platform Unit (Associate Professor Shigeru Takano) and the Center for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Unit (Professor Akiya Nagata, Associate Professor Toshiya Kobayashi, and Academic Researcher Yoshimasa Nishigama). The Center for Co-Evolutional Social Systems is currently carrying out research development for a new technology, also known as “urban OS based on the existence of ICT.” The purpose of the event was to consider, from the citizens’ point of view, how this new technology may affect our lives.

At this event, citizens with high interest or awareness for social infrastructure participated. The program consisted of an introduction and discussion session with participants. We had 14 participants for the introduction and 4 participants for the discussion.

Associate Professor Kobayashi was the program moderator and overall host. After Professor Nagata finished with the opening remarks and explained the purpose of opening a Science Café to the participants, Associate Professor Takano, the speaker, gave an explanation on urban OS for about 30 minutes.

Associate Professor Takano first answered basic questions regarding urban OS that the participants had, and then formed groups with himself included to discuss other points such as, how urban OS can be utilized, and any concerns that the citizens may have. Professor Nagata was the facilitator, and Academic Researcher Nishigama visualized each comment from the participants using the design thinking method.

To reflect their high degree of interest in urban OS, participants expressed their expectations for ensuring regional safety, as well as concerns for the proper handling of personal information.

This was the first time a university has opened a science café in Aeon Mall Kashiihama. This event created an opportunity for the university and people in our society to have discussions in an open location - a shopping mall used by many citizens. This event had a great significance, since it showed the Center for Co-Evolutional Social Systems’ efforts in trying to better cooperate with citizens in the future and carry out social implementation. Participants commented, “it is important, and also our wish as citizens, that universities and citizens have more opportunities to be involved with each other. We wish that this science café would lead to more spaces like a citizens’ college, or a structure in which the opinions of our citizens can be incorporated into the technology that the university is carrying out research development for”.

As the host, we are planning to design a questionnaire based on the awareness of issues citizens raised during this event, and analyze the challenges associated with social implementation using a large-scale questionnaire investigation data.