About this project
1001 Smart Cities is a curated atlas of what cities around the world are actually doing with technology — from traffic-taming sensors and lake-water cooling to hydrogen quarters, digital twins and citizen-participation platforms.
Why this project exists
Before the internet became dominated by feeds, headlines and engagement, its most interesting quality was much simpler: one page could lead to another.
Publishing something online did not only mean telling people what to think. It meant showing where the information came from, connecting it to other ideas and giving readers a path to continue exploring for themselves.
1001 Smart Cities is built in that spirit. The atlas is designed to help you find a project quickly, understand its basic idea, discover related cities, technologies and approaches, and ultimately reach the original sources. It is a map into the subject — not a substitute for the material it points to.
That matters here because most "smart city" coverage is either glossy vendor marketing or scattered across hundreds of press releases. Pulling it into one place gets you a fast overview of what's live, what's still a render, what worked — and what quietly failed. Failures get their own space, because they teach the most.
AI makes the atlas possible
The breadth of this project is made possible with generative AI. It helps locate public information, organise it and turn it into concise, accessible summaries.
That process should be visible, not disguised.
1001 Smart Cities is an independent project run by one person. It is not a large newsroom, research institute or association, and it should never pretend to be one. Atlas entries are therefore clearly marked as AI-generated summaries based on the linked sources. They are intended as starting points for further exploration and may contain errors or omissions.
The original sources remain part of the product: you should be able to follow them, examine the evidence and form your own view.
What the source-check does — and what it doesn't
No entry is published straight from a first draft. Each candidate goes through a source-checking pass — itself performed by AI, following a written protocol. Every load-bearing claim — dates, numbers, "first/largest/only" superlatives, impact figures — must be backed by two independent sources, or one clearly authoritative one (the operator or the city itself). Claims that can't be verified are softened or cut; numbers are never guessed. A currency check confirms the project is still what the entry says it is — planning, under construction, live, completed, suspended or cancelled.
Each pass ends with one of three verdicts: published, needs-work (held back until an open question is resolved) or rejected. Only published entries appear on the site, carrying the ◆ Source-checked badge, and each one states how well its impact figures are evidenced — peer-reviewed, independent, official or press.
What this is not: a line-by-line human fact-check. Unless a page says otherwise, no person has individually verified every claim on it. The protocol, the sources on every page and an open corrections channel are the quality mechanism — and where it fails, the correction is made in the open.
Corrections are genuinely welcome. Every page has a 🚩 Report an error link, and the underlying dataset is open (CC BY 4.0) — see the open data page.
Insights work differently
The Insights section follows a different editorial model. An article that carries my name as the author has been personally directed and reviewed by me: I chose the question, decided which evidence matters, shaped the argument, checked the factual claims it depends on, and I take responsibility for the published conclusion. AI may assist with research, structure and language, but it does not replace that editorial responsibility.
Articles without that byline are AI-produced like the rest of the atlas, and say so at the top. I am working through the existing essays one at a time; until an article carries my name, treat it as an AI summary.
Glossary entries sit between the two models. Each shows its own status: an AI-produced explanation based on the linked sources, or one that has had substantive human review.
Who is responsible
Editorially, content is published by 1001 Smart Cities as a project — not under a personal byline, except where an Insight explicitly carries mine. Stefan Eckner operates the site, directs the process and is the legally responsible service provider (see the Imprint). Operating a site is not the same as personally authoring its pages.
Who's behind it
Built by Stefan Eckner, who has spent 18+ years guiding digital projects at the intersection of communication, design and technology. Smart cities have been a thread throughout — from his bachelor's thesis „Die Stadt im Dialog" on how cities can communicate more openly, to Eschomat, a voting-advice tool he built for his hometown's local election. What drives him is simple: digital projects that genuinely make life easier for the people who use them.
He works as the connective layer between subject-matter teams, IT, agencies and decision-makers — structuring projects from idea to launch and turning complex topics into something clear and usable. A self-described tech nerd who talks to developers on eye level but always thinks from the user's perspective.
Independence & funding
1001 Smart Cities is independent and non-commercial. It is run by one person — not a company, agency, city or think tank. There is no advertising, no sponsored entries and no paid placement: a project cannot buy its way into the atlas, and no city, vendor or agency pays for inclusion or influences a verdict.
The site runs on deliberately lean, static infrastructure and is currently funded privately by its author. It uses no cookies and no cross-site tracking (see the Privacy Policy). The free weekly newsletter is the only thing it ever asks of you — and unsubscribing is one click. If the funding model ever changes — reader support, a grant, shared running costs — it will be stated openly right here.
Contribute
Spotted an error, or know a project that belongs here? Use the Report an error link on any page, the Contribute page, or just write to [email protected].
Contact
Questions, corrections or ideas? Reach us at [email protected]. Postal address: see the Imprint.
The goal of 1001 Smart Cities is not to manufacture an endless stream of content. It is to make a broad and fragmented field easier to navigate, shorten the distance between a question and its evidence, and preserve something valuable about the open web: links that lead somewhere worth going.