The “smart city” is an umbrella for cities that use information technology to improve services and provide better quality of life for its citizens. Citizen participation is often highlighted as an important part of the smart city concept. Participation can be political–influencing political decision making, but also non-political where citizens participate to help the city solve its problems. Most current literature focus on political participation, and the non-political participation is often neglected. This paper makes the argument that both kinds of participation is important.