The DestinE Community's Journey, From User Engagement to Recommendations gathering
Authors: Karachaliou Eleni , Stylianidis Efstratios , Bakousi Aikaterini , Tsifodimou Zoi-Eirini , Bissas Costas , Romeo Antonio , Patruno Jolanda , Carrillo Rob , Smith Zachary 
Published: March 2024

The&#160;DestinE&#160;Use Cases Project,&#160;executed&#160;by a Consortium&#160;led by RHEA Group&#160;with&#160;the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki&#160;and Trust-IT,&#160;regards the&#160;selection&#160;and implementation of a first set of Use Cases meant to&#160;demonstrate&#160;the ability of the&#160;DestinE&#160;infrastructure in general, and the&#160;DestinE&#160;Service Platform (DESP) in particular, to&#160;provide&#160;actionable information and decision support to its&#160;end-users.&#160;The project aims&#160;also&#160;at actively engaging the broad community of&#160;DestinE&#160;stakeholders,&#160;gathering their requirements, and encouraging their direct involvement and guidance in the continuous evolution of the&#160;DestinE&#160;infrastructure towards the future Phases&#160;of the Initiative.The DestinE Community leads the establishment of a network that fosters continuous interactions among users, developers, stakeholders, and partners, with the aim of enhancing DestinE capabilities and catalyzing cross-sectoral collaborations. The community serves as a platform for open and transparent opportunities for ongoing exchange. By incorporating multiple perspectives, opinions, experiences, and expertise, DestinE community members can advance their knowledge, gain value-driven experiences, and contribute to their professional growth.Currently boasting over 1,000 members representing diverse stakeholders, the DestinE community is committed to contributing to the design and development of the initiative and its components through a co-design process. This approach ensures that the system is responsive to real user needs and introduces innovations compared to existing operational environments. Community feedback plays a crucial role in understanding user needs and preferences, determining the importance of features or functions, testing and validating developed features with end users, and fostering collaboration among individuals from varied backgrounds, leading to innovative ideas and approaches in DESP development.To support community building, a range of activities, both online and physical, are underway. These activities aim to actively engage and involve DestinE user communities in co-design, development, co-evolution, and use of DestinE capabilities, applications, and solutions. They also facilitate gathering stakeholders' needs and recommendations, encouraging their direct involvement and guidance in the continuous evolution of DestinE infrastructure and capabilities towards future phases of the initiative. Additionally, these activities serve to demonstrate the DestinE infrastructure's capabilities through a first set of use cases.Meetings and open discussions with key stakeholders of DestinE, especially those related to DESP, have already resulted in early recommendations. These recommendations will be translated into system requirements for the DESP platform as part of the ongoing collaborative efforts within the DestinE Community.