Project characteristics: Futurists

Partners

Geographic Institute, University of Bonn

Jury: City of Friedrichshafen, newspaper Schwäbische Zeitung, radio station Welle20, and consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung

Short description

On June 4, 2009, a jury selected nine Friedrichshafen households out of a total of 548 applications to take part in the T-City Futurist initiative. Backed by the University of Bonn, the T-City project offers selected innovative families, singles, seniors and students the chance to become “futurists” and to learn about, try out, and review innovative new technologies and telecommunications services.

A representative cross-section of the city’s population, futurists live and work for one year with free access to the information and communication technologies of the future from Deutsche Telekom. These include state-of-the-art telephone systems and mobile devices, laptops with the latest in high-speed Internet access, and T-Home Entertain Internet television services accessible through Samsung flat-screen TVs. Futurists are also testing out the latest T-City projects, including Smart Metering of their household appliances and picture frames with wireless connectivity that can receive digital photos via the T-Mobile network.

Project goal

The objective of the T-City Futurist initiative is to expose real consumers to the sorts of projects and technologies that will soon be a part of our everyday lives. In turn, Deutsche Telekom can better ensure the high standards of its own products and services and more closely align them with customers’ needs, based on futurists’ hands-on, unbiased feedback.

Benefits

Through regular surveys carried out by the University of Bonn, Deutsche Telekom is obtaining valuable participant feedback that will enable focused development of future technologies. Researchers at the University of Bonn will scientifically assess survey results and integrate them into existing research on the T-City project.

Project Status

On August 4, the nine winning households were equipped with the latest in modern technology, including high-tech cellular phones, T-Home Entertain IPTV, and digital picture frames. Furthermore, futurists can regularly test innovative new products provided by Samsung prior to their rollout in Germany as part of the company’s partnership with T-City. Further technologies and equipment will be provided based on the requirements of each individual household.