Under the title "Designing the Internet of Things Yourself", two workshops were organized in March and April 2023 for all Bonn residents at Maker-Space Bonn. The aim of both workshops was for beginners and advanced students to develop prototype solutions for everyday problems via the Internet of Things in direct contact with the "things" and the technology. The aim was to make the Internet of Things, as an important aspect of the digital transformation in cities, more understandable and tangible. Furthermore, possibilities should be shown how the LoRaWan network, which is freely available in Bonn, can be used. In addition, building new personal networks and revitalizing digital volunteering were goals of the workshops.

The activated sensors of the Urban Gardening group are now being reused in the Haus der Natur. They monitor raised beds there and continue to send their data via the city's LoRaWan network.

In June 2023, the "Digital City" team in the Office for Economic Development worked with the Citizen Participation Unit and twenty children and young people from Bonn's Nordstadt district to build fine dust sensors.

The aim of the workshop was to generate enthusiasm for digitization and technology, to apply it practically, and to use the data to get a feel for the issue of particulate matter. The workshop took place as part of the "Bönnsche Viertel" project. The goal here: clean air and a healthy life for the people of Bonn.

In the beginning of the workshop the topic of fine dust was discussed: What is particulate matter? Which emitters are there? Is particulate matter harmful? How is particulate matter related to the "Bönnsche Viertel"? Afterwards, all participants built their own sensor and learned how to measure fine dust themselves. Of course, the gray housings of the sensors were embellished at the end according to individual preferences. The measurement data can be viewed anonymously on the following map:  www.sensor.community/en (opens in a new tab)

This year, for the first time, the Digital City team of the Economic Development Department is a project partner in the bachelor's degree program "sustainable engineering" at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. In the practical course "Design Thinking", the team presented two so-called "Design Challenges" to the students. The task is to optimize the complex Open Bike Sensor (a sensor that measures the passing distances of bicycles to other road users).

In addition, a good marketing strategy for the sensor is to be developed. Other interest groups such as the Open Bike Sensor association, the ADFC Bonn and the Radentscheid Bonn were included in the process. Under the motto "think out of the breadbox", the students presented their results in mid-June, which yielded many new insights. Further formats on the Open Bike Sensor are planned.

The city app bundles various services for citizens and is intended as a supplement to the city's websites. The Economic Development Department collects feedback on the app and develops it further together with the entire administration in order to develop additional added value for users. Feel free to give us feedback directly in the app!

The app is free to download from the  Google Play Store (opens in a new tab) and the  Apple App Store (opens in a new tab).

On the initiative of the Council and under the leadership of the Economic Development Department, the city of Bonn has joined the international network "Cities Coaliton for digital Rights". The alliance currently comprises around 54 cities worldwide and is committed to the protection, promotion and observance of digital civil rights. Within the network, the city of Bonn benefits from the exchange and experience of other alliance cities such as New York, Amsterdam and Brussels.

Since 2013, experts from the cyber security scene have been discussing current issues and challenges at the Bonn Dialog for Cyber Security. The goal of the event format, which takes place twice a year, is - in addition to the exchange on specialist topics - to make Bonn better known as a location for IT security. The dialog is supported by the partners Bundesstadt Bonn, Deutsche Telekom, Fraunhofer FKIE, Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Bonn/Rhein-Sieg, Alliance for Cybersecurity, University of Bonn, Hi Solutions AG and the Cyber Security Cluster Bonn association. 

In November 2022, the 19th Bonn Dialog for Cybersecurity took place on the topic of "NRW cybersecurity strategy - How secure is NRW in the future?" and was dominated by the increasing number of cyberattacks on companies.

In close connection with this, the 20th Bonn Dialog for Cybersecurity in June 2023, in its tenth edition, placed the thematic focus on the new European directive NIS-2 and the associated requirements and challenges for companies and the public sector.

The federal city of Bonn is a modern UN city where it is easy to work and live. As a densely populated city, it benefits from a very well-developed copper and TV network. On this basis, optimizations of the transmission signals (vectoring) and the logging (DocSIS for the TV network) are being carried out so that bandwidths of 250 megabits per second (99 percent of connections) up to 1,000 megabits per second (83 percent of connections) are possible at many address points. Due to the very good copper network, fiber coverage in 2020 was still at seven percent.

The first program, the so-called "white-spot program," will enable around 51 elementary and special schools and two commercial areas to be connected by the end of 2023 according to the current status. In the second program, the "Special Call for Commercial Areas, Industrial Parks, Schools and Hospitals," the focus is primarily on all of Bonn's remaining commercial areas and a further 22 institutions. It is currently assumed that all address points will be developed in 2025.

In the third "gray areas" program, the administration applied for total funding of EUR 36.4 million in May 2022, half of which has already been approved by the federal government. In a subsequent market survey, market players were asked what speeds they can currently offer and whether they intend to roll out their own services. If speeds of more than 100 megabits per second are available or if the market participants have their own expansion plans, expansion may not be funded. In further talks at the end of 2022 and in 2023, the administration was able to persuade two companies to carry out nationwide roll-out for their own account. This means that the amount of funding already applied for can be significantly reduced, which is of particular interest to the budget of the Federal City, as the municipal share of the funding amount is also significantly reduced. With the findings from the last crisis years, fiber optics is becoming increasingly important as an infrastructure issue and as a location factor for the business and science location and for the UN city of Bonn.