This paper explores the dynamics of commercialization as a strategy for civic technology (CivicTech) ventures to gain trust and legitimacy in public administration. CivicTech, rooted in grassroots innovation, often struggles with scalability and sustainability due to limited financial resources. In response, some ventures transition into government technology (GovTech), adopting professional and commercial practices. Through a mixed-methods study, including desk research and expert interviews, an examination is presented on how isomorphism, conoercive, mimetic, and normative, drives this transition. Findings highlight how commercialization fosters innovation diffusion into public sectors, balancing grassroots ideals with institutional expectations to enhance public value in smart citiesand beyond.

As more and more cities worldwide move towards a smart city, the information available to residents grows. Consequently, novel approaches are required to interact with a smart city. In this work, we demonstrate the Interact360 framework, which is the foundation for mobile platforms to interact with a smart city through gestures and Augmented Reality (AR). In our vision, the user of such Apps can easily discover artifacts around the current location, based on context-aware filtering. Artifacts are located around the user, and thus a circular discover-view is proposed to visualize such artifacts. The user can then turn his device in the direction of different artifacts. Once the user turns his device in the direction of an artifact, the user receives haptic and acoustic feedback, using the speaker and the vibration motors of the Smartphone. After selecting an artifact, the user can raise the smartphone as though they are about to capture an image with the camera. Based on the artifact, different information is visualized in Augmented Reality with spatial relation to the artefacts. For example, in the case of a bus stop, the timetable is presented to the user. In addition, the user can perform context-based actions, such as purchasing a ticket. To accomplish this, the user can either swipe and tap on the display or employ basic gestures, such as gently rotating the device. These gestures are detected using the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor of the smartphone in combination with on-device machine learning. To demonstrate feasibility, we used the Interact360 framework to create two applications, specifically targeting Android and iOS. To summarize, the Interact360 framework facilitates the development of innovative human interaction interfaces designed for context-aware and user-friendly applications in Smart city environments.