Good practice:

DokkX

According to the Danish Law, all municipalities must provide information to the citizens. In the municipality of Aarhus, the Council decided to solve this by establishing DokkX as an efficient and innovative way of providing information and counselling. Citizens can obtain more knowledge and information about assisted living technology. At DokkX it is possible to see, touch and try the different products, and the staff provides help and guidance. DokkX also hosts seminars and meetings about news and trends and offers this to the health care professionals in Aarhus.

DokkX is located on DOKK1 (a community with library, municipality services etc) at the harbour in the centre of Aarhus with easy access.

The X stands for the unknown, for experiments and it is also a letter that looks like an active human being. DokkX is intended as a crucible in which business, educational institutions, civil society and the municipality unite and together create something beautiful. The goal is for people to be able to fend for themselves and develop themselves - using technology.

At DokkX, citizens can get advice and guidance so that they can acquire the right technologies and tools that support an independent and active life.

The target group is the citizens of Aarhus. According to statistics of DokkX 50% of the visitors are citizens of all ages, 20% are students, 20% are professionals (health sector), 5% are tourists and 5% are companies.

The Council grants 2 mill DKK (270.000 €) every year to run the DokkX.
External visitors (other municipalities, guests from abroad) are charged a fee
when they visit DokkX.

This practice is considered as good because it fulfils the vision emanating from the legal text. Every citizen can visit the center and get advice and guidance on how to find the right device or technology that can make them more self-reliant. DokkX has user friendly opening hours, it is located close to the citizens.

As mentioned before the social impact and health impact is especially the improved self-reliance of the citizens.

In Denmark DokkX or the vision can be transferred to other municipalities – perhaps partly or on a smaller scale. The same will apply to other countries (and perhaps even larger scale).

It is crucial to choose the right location; it must be easy access for the citizens and other visitors. The success for DokkX is built on professionalism and a wide range of professionals. The employees are engineers, designer, anthropologist, occupational therapist, physiotherapist. The staff on DokkX manages to build a bridge between all the actors in the world of assisted living technology.

In Norway something similar to DokkX has been established in Bærum.

DokkX is now a running operation and implemented part of the communication, information and dissemination in Aarhus.