Abstract:

In the development of smart communities, sustainability has been the nucleus. Structured on advancement of technology, digitalisation enhances functionality of smart communities in information dissemination, communication, logistics, consumption, social networking, healthcare, and many other aspects in improvement of the quality of life (Haque et al. 2022). How the young generation envisage the future of smart communities is worth taking into consideration in design and in shaping the blueprint of the structure. Hence, the research questions for this study include:
(1) How do the young generation envision smart communities with digital sustainability?
(2) How would functionality of digital sustainability make start communities smart? and
(3) Would there be similarities or differences in images of smart communities among the young generations in Western and in Eastern societies?

The objectives of this study are to reveal the images of smart communities with digital sustainability in cross-national comparisons among the young generation in Austria and in Taiwan. Cross-national in-depth interviews were administered for data generation. Preliminary Results indicate that:
(1) universities can be a starting place of a smart community;
(2) digital world moves individuals closer and works together in a sustainable way; and
(3) digital sustainability is fundamentally environmentally friendly and could be the solution to a future smart community.

The challenges of the smart communities are to:
(1) design an innovative and practical solution within the constraints;
(2) work with interdisciplinary and intercultural teams;
(3) combine skill sets we have been trained for in the past into the future. Since information security and infrastructure are of great concern in privacy, Ismagilova et al. (2022) pointed out that vulnerability of infrastructure to data theft, unauthorised data access, system breaches, virus-based attacks, and other threats are challenges to the transition to smart capabilities. In sum, smart communities are not science fantasies in fiction. It can be an environmentally friendly lifestyle in a technology-enriched sustainable community where individuals from different cultural backgrounds living comfortably together with the same vision in mind, which is working together with the technology to ensure a better sustainable future in the community.

References:
[1] Haque, A. K. M. B., Bhushan, B., & Dhiman, G. (2022). Conceptualizing smart city applications: Requirements, architecture, security issues, and emerging trends. Expert Systems, 39(5), e12753.
[2] Ismagilova, E., Hughes, L., Rana, N. P., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2022). Security, privacy and risks within smart cities: Literature review and development of a smart city interaction framework. Information Systems Frontiers, 24, 393-414.

Keywords:

Smart community, Digital sustainability, Cross-national comparisons, Austria, Taiwan.