collaborative innovation in which final users and communities collaborate through digital platforms to produce solutions for a wide range of social needs that have failed to be met by existing solutions and at a
scale that was unimaginable before the rise of Internet-enabled collective platforms The study explores the potential in using digital technologies to enable better and more social innovation
the â€oenetwork effect†caused by the spread of the Internet and the Web throughout society
2. Mobilise a big variety of stakeholders and Support a community of civic innovators and users.
particular grassroots communities of civic innovators, web entrepreneurs, hackers, geeks, SMES open source and DIY makers,
and the open data movement 3. Broad communication with the general public and citizens, reach out
and analyse social needs and integrate feedback coming from end-users 4. Conduct experiments and prototyping in a new and emerging field to improve the suitability of
project website: www. socialinnovator. info Dr Michael Harris, NESTA Published March 2010 CONTENTS 1 CONTENTS
launched an accompanying website, www. socialinnovator. info, to gather comments, case studies and new methods We†re also very conscious of what†s not in here.
and social networking tools The other comes from culture and values: the growing emphasis on the human
Much of this economy is formed around distributed systems, rather than centralised structures. It handles complexity not by standardisation and
involving users at every stage as well as experts, bureaucrats and professionals; designing platforms which make it easy to assemble project
For example, bringing together diagnostic computer programmes, call centres and nurses to provide new kinds of healthcare;
combining ethnography, visualisation techniques from product design, user -involvement ideas from social movements, and commissioning methods
mobilising networks of users that were developed by the third sector in the 1960s and 1970s.
or users and communities †but equally, some innovation developed by these sectors does not qualify as social innovation
strength (for example, linking users to professionals) and conflicts are resolved (including battles with entrenched interests.
social movements, business models, laws and regulations, data and infrastructures, and entirely new ways of thinking
research, mapping and data collection are used to uncover problems, as a first step to identifying solutions
competitions for the crowdsourcing of innovations say that it is the stage of framing a good question which is the key to the competition†s success. 1
Examples include computers in classrooms, the use of assistive devices for the elderly, or implants to cut
work best (such as the discovery that giving computers to two children to share is more effective for education than giving them one each.
Artificial intelligence, for example 1 16 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION has been used in family law in Australia and to help with divorce
including software, gaming and music. Other landmark projects that gave people a licence to be creative in other fields include:
Many innovations are triggered by new data and research. In recent years there has been a rise in the use of mapping techniques to reveal hidden needs
much more interested in disaggregating data. There are also a range of tools for combining and mining data to reveal new needs and patterns
1 18 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION These sites show how to run competitions for †mash up†ideas from
citizens using government data, such as Sunlight Labs and Show Us a Better Way 9) Mapping physical assets.
Within the social economy, especially amongst artists, entrepreneurs and community groups, there is a long tradition of taking advantage of empty, abandoned or derelict buildings
UK, the website Report Empty Homes, sponsored by the Empty Homes Agency, allows citizens to report empty properties around the UK
But other examples include user-led and peer research, based on the premise that people are placed best to
User -led research has developed especially amongst long term users of health and social care services. Service users are responsible for all stages
of the research process †from design, recruitment, ethics and data collection to data analysis, writing up, and dissemination.
One example is the independent, user-controlled network, Shaping Our Lives, which started as a research and development project and now works with a
wide range of service users across the UK 1 PROMPTS, INSPIRATIONS AND DIAGNOSES 19 13) Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) involves a range of techniques
such as interviews, mapping, focus groups and events to understand community views on particular issues. The aim is to engage local people
in both the identification of problems and the design and implementation of solutions. This approach has been used by the World bank, Action Aid
the Aga khan Foundation, the Ford Foundation and others. PRA uses a range of visualisation techniques †such as mapping as a tool for learning
toward prescriptions emerging out of the data which can be employed for the improvement of future action
of users and better tailor services accordingly. In industry and commerce the capacity to collect
and analyse large quantities of data has been the basis for remarkable changes †for example: in flexible manufacturing, and
In Japanese factories data is collected by front 1 PROMPTS, INSPIRATIONS AND DIAGNOSES 21 line workers, and then discussed in quality circles that include technicians
17) Feedback systems from front line staff and users to senior managers and staff. Feedback loops are a necessary precondition for learning
User feedback on service quality, including web-based models such as Patient Opinion and I Want Great care that hold service
called iburgh allows residents to snap iphone photos of local problems like potholes, graffiti and abandoned cars,
311 complaint system, embedded with GPS data pinpointing the exact location of the problem. These complaints will then get forwarded to the
18) Integrated user-centred data such as Electronic Patient Records in the UK, which, when linked through grid and cloud computing models
provide the capacity to spot emerging patterns. A contrasting integrated system for monitoring renal patients has led to dramatic improvements
19) Citizen-controlled data, such as the health records operated by Group Health in Seattle, and the ideas being developed by Mydex that adapt
vendor relationship-management software tools to put citizens in control of the personal data held by big firms and public agencies.
This allows them to monitor their conditions and chart their own behaviour and actions 20) Holistic services include phone based services such as New York†s 311
service which provide a database that can be analysed for patterns of recurring problems and requests
32) User and public pressure can force change. Politics remains the most powerful channel for pressure but feedback can also be organised
through many routes, from surveys and websites to user representation on management boards and committees
The gathering and presentation of data requires a process of interpretation. This should ideally include those
In analysing an issue or a set of data, it is useful to have the
Ideas come from many sources, e g. citizens, service users, communities, front line staff, other sectors,
and engaging citizens, users and others in the design and development of solutions As we have mentioned elsewhere,
of interests †the users and beneficiaries of the innovation as well as the producers and suppliers.
37) User-led design. Users are placed often best to identify their own needs and come up with ideas about how best to meet them.
In practice much of what is called †user-led design†would be described better as †user engagement in designâ€, with designers and professionals still
playing key roles as orchestrators and facilitators 38) Redesigning services with users and producers such as the work
undertaken by design consultancies like IDEO, thinkpublic, Participle and Live/Work or the Hope Institute†s citizen teams formed around
public service improvements. One recent example is IDEO€ s work with the SPARC centre at the Mayo Clinic (see-plan-act-refine-communicate
39) Engagement of ex-users. The Arizona Department of Corrections has involved recent prisoners in designing programmes to help others
40) Web-based tools for co-design, such as the Australian site for people with disabilities and their carers, web2care
PROPOSALS AND IDEAS 31 2 32 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION 41) Creative thinking methods such as Edward De Bono†s †Six Thinking
the power of television to lead to sustainable social change Thinking differently New solutions come from many sources †e g. adapting an idea from one field
47) Starting with the user through user research and participant observation, including ethnographic approaches such as user/citizen
diaries, or living with communities and individuals to understand their lived worlds. SILK at Kent County Council, for example, used
and ideas for providing services to mainstream users. For example redesigning buildings and objects to be used more easily by people with
the internet, which has enabled large numbers of people to interact and participate at a relatively low cost. 6 Over the last few decades,
helped by the ability of the internet to draw in a far wider range of people and
online repository of ideas and experiences †that has a database of 4, 000 ideas online, receives a quarter of a million visitors a year, and, of those
spawn a number of similar websites, including the Norwegian Ideas Bank (which focuses mainly on issues of environmental sustainability
Innovation, a website which enables people to make suggestions for improving their healthcare systems. These websites include a vast range
of ideas †everything from the brilliant to the downright absurd. But even when ideas are evidently excellent,
Youtube can be used as a virtual video booth 58) Suggestion boxes within organizations are the most basic method for
website, based on the principles as laid out in President Obama†s Memorandum on collaborative, participatory and transparent
The website enables citizens to take part in a discussion about the best way to effect the President†s Memorandum in three
One example in the UK is the Prime Minister†s e-Petitions website which has had nearly 10 million petitioners.
68) Citizen†s panels are similar to citizen juries but tend to involve more people †typically between 500 and 3, 000 people.
which was held in Second life Participants attend as a †virtual†version of themselves (an avatar), and
2 engage as these selves in cyberspace 73) Webinars are a fairly simple device for organising seminars over the
web. Examples include the webinars organised by the Cities of Migration network which have linked NGOS, foundations and academics involved
in social action related to diversity around the world 74) Dialogue Cafã uses state of the art video conferencing (Telepresence
to link up citizens from all around the world. A person can go to a Dialogue Cafã in London, for example,
Oneworld. net†s †Virtual Bali†initiative on Second life. Image courtesy of Oneclimate. net/Oneworld. net
The best think tanks can act as catalysts, combining research, policy ideas, and prompts for practical innovation in advance
costs low, tangibility and feedback loops from users and specialists 81) Prototyping refers to the design of a working model of a product or
82) Fast prototyping emerged first in the software field, the idea being that faster implementation would speed up learning.
blind†methods so that the researchers don†t know which users are receiving the treatment and
around the world in conversation through the use of Telepresence screens Images courtesy of Dialogue Cafã
hybrid cars through Google, and C40 city governments. An example of open-testing, Google†s initiative hopes to educate consumers body
Image courtesy of Google, Inc 3 54 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION Finance for emerging ideas
One example is the Internet, which was developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
•A business model that runs parallel to the core idea of the venture and which sets out how it can become sustainable
those around the web that share knowledge and intellectual property 106) Business strategies. The context for a business model is a business
of a key input such as a critical site or personnel (as in sport. Mapping a
of control, the team and relations with users are likely to have greater priority, and may in fact be the substance of a new social technology on
business models adopted by web companies which, like social ventures have an interest in maintaining free access, while at the same time
structures are the site of contending pressures of goals and interests. The organisation may have a social goal of benefitting others,
Felipe Berrã os, who launched the initiative, believed that this was the best arrangement â€
In principle, user and beneficiary representation on management boards can serve as a channel for new ideas from the
There are a number of ways in which core stakeholders can be incorporated in the structure of an organisation and
considerable web-based innovation in this field, with websites providing guidance on organisational forms, and governance.
example is One Click Organisations, an ultra simple web-based tool for creating new organisations, changing constitutions, and engaging
127) User orientation and autonomous work groups. Large commercial organisations have moved away from hierarchical organisations to
by the users/consumers and their requirements, translated through information and operational systems that highlight the degree to which
or download systems (such as web designs and technologies) that are becoming freely available. One model is
built up between a venture and its users and suppliers, and the relationships between a venture and its staff and volunteers.
to users and investors; to suppliers and distributors; and with its own staff, board and volunteers.
136) Systems for user feedback to keep users at the centre. Social ventures tend to rely on their idea to galvanise funders and users
They place their operational focus more on supply than demand. But 4 SUSTAINING 75 to ensure that the venture remains generative rather than static, users
should remain central †a service should know who they are and who is missing,
and accounting system, it requires a system of user relationships and feedback as part of its operational spine
137) Web presence. All social ventures now have to have a website. But their full potential has begun only to be explored.
Many ventures are by their nature information intensive †in respect to the quality and tangibility
blogs. It also needs high quality design to ensure usability and navigability ways of connecting each web site to others (through links and RSS feeds
as well as establishing a presence on other social networking sites like Youtube and Facebook which can act as feeders to the venture†s website
Above all, a venture needs to devote resources to the constant updating and active hosting of their sites.
A good example is the site of the co -operative football team Ebbsfleet United (My Football Club),
which has a team of six working on their website to involve the members, a model
that could be adopted by many consumer co-ops among others 138) Marketing and branding. Social ventures, particularly those that
placed its most valuable technical information on the web for open access in order to enable its ideas to be adopted more rapidly.
goal should always be to find ways for the core finance to come from those
intermediary institutions, the web opens up the possibility of making new types of connections and raising finance from potential consumers
and research data to demonstrate effectiveness and value for money (see list of metrics below) as well as adapting models to reduce costs or improve
services should start from the user, and that its diffusion should be approached from the perspective of users, not least because they are in many cases also co
-producers. We also argue that a distinction should be made between services where demand can be expressed in the market (for fair trade or green goods
159) User groups and their campaigns. User/consumer/citizen groups play a critical role as innovators and diffusers.
In health for example, the speed of adoption of new drugs can often be correlated with the strength
User groups create a demand for services, particularly from public authorities by spreading information and lobbying.
They range from mobile phone credits and childcare vouchers to health club admissions and sports tickets
is an approach that was crucial in the emergence of the internet, GSM 5 88 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION
information systems 171) Outcomes based commissioning is where a commissioning body agrees to fund a provider on the basis that they will achieve particular
are tailored to the needs of service users. In the UK, this has prompted a series of developments including Local Area Agreements (LAAS) and
specification, and trains suppliers in the use of the software of the bidding process. The auction takes from two hours to a few days, with
a new information technology system and is paid then from the savings 5 92 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION
183) Personalised budgets involve users being allocated a budget to be used for ongoing care needs.
and spent by the individual user, and personal budgets which councils administer according to the individual†s wishes
local authorities establish systems that give users this type of financial autonomy over their own care.
including television, media and book partnerships that have increased the library holdings for the blind offered audio description in cinemas,
a common core of meaning Transmitters We look at platforms as the nodes of the new economy,
in which users and originators can engage in the evaluation and adaption of innovation 191) Platforms give people the tools
spreading new ideas, for example via a website such as netsquared. org People can take part as collaborators, co-producers, consumers, activists
Prize in conjunction with the United Nation†s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for †their efforts to build up and disseminate
through a network of online communities, web related resources and peer review. Another example is Australian Social Innovation Exchange
197) Diffusion through the web. Viral marketing techniques can be used to tap into existing social networks and spread social ideas.
Swarmtribes an ongoing NESTA project, applies the principles of viral marketing to create a new kind of community engagement platform.
histories, databases, and manuals. One new initiative by Open Business is the creation of a database of open business models
199) Barefoot consultants. There is an important role for consultants and those with specialist knowledge †who can act as knowledge brokers and
multidimensional needs are a key site for potential collaboration Communities of Practice are one important type of collaboration (see
Members of the Network are supported also with branding, web and technical support, policy work, media and PR, and internal/external
provide funders or investors with data on impact; and to provide a tool for organisations to manage their own choices internally;
try to estimate what non-users might value, whether through †altruistic use†(knowing someone else might like it;
time and travel cost expenses that people incur to visit a site as a proxy
for their valuation of that site. Because travel and time costs increase with distance it†s possible to construct a †marginal willingness to payâ€
curve for a particular site 5 SCALING AND DIFFUSION 103 212) Social accounting matrices and satellite accounts are used to
For example, a study of the operational data of public housing repairs found that the time taken to do repairs varied from a few minutes to 85
226) User-oriented and user-generated metrics such as the †sousveys††surveys undertaken by citizens on services provided by the state †used
to gather chronic disease data in Sheffield and metrics geared to self -monitoring such as those used by Active Mobs in Kent
227) User Experience Surveys such as those now being introduced in the NHS which explore users†experience and emotions in relation to the
ftp://ftp. cordis. europa. eu/pub/innovation-policy/studies/full study. pdf. For more information on procurement and commissioning see:
The mobile phone combines microprocessors, transmitters, networks of masts, payment models and so on. The welfare state combines legal rights, service delivery systems
The web has brought also systemic innovation to retailing and news, and has the potential (albeit not yet
support for the user rather than the simple delivery of a standardised package. The idea has led to radical models for reshaping care for the
coaches, increasingly backed up by shared data services and networks Service design in the 1980s and 1990s often focused on disaggregating
Solutions & How-Tos Get the Data Economic Empowerment -A year-round conversation Forums, media spokespeople
•Girls Database/Scorecards •Girls Count Task force Reports •Partners & research initiatives measure girls more broadly
This involves a wide range of issues from the use of the web to the nature of technology and the design of distributed systems which
provide spaces for people to contribute to projects directly, as a form of productive democracy.
used on networks like ebay, and more formal legal devices (like public databases). ) With the increasing mixing of voluntary and professional
roles (for example around care for the elderly, or education), tools of this kind are becoming ever more important
mobile phone infrastructures may be the precondition for organising new models of low-cost banking 243) Creating new infrastructure,
244) Data infrastructures. A different, and controversial, infrastructure is the creation of a single database of children deemed †at risk†in the UK
This was seen as crucial to creating a holistic set of services to deal with children†s needs,
245) Platform infrastructures, such as feedback sites on public services or M-PESA€ s platform for phone-based banking
246) Rewiring economies, connecting sectors like the utilities and automotive industries for the development of plug-in hybrid cars, or
Formation of users and producers Users and citizens often need to play a part in the design and implementation
of new systems. They may require new skills and approaches (what the Infrastructure for green transport-plug-in points for hybrid cars in San
249) Mutual help and mentoring by users. The tradition of voluntary coaching (in sports clubs,
†for self-care for chronic disease, that combines rich data feedback with support structures which help patients understand
digital learning environments such as colleges in second life 255) Comprehensive pilots, such as the Bastoey Island prison in Norway
So while familiar data on income, employment, diseases or educational achievement continues to be gathered, there is growing interest in other types
267) Information systems that reinforce systemic change. For example, ways of measuring emissions in real time, or that make costs
public agencies to publish data on their balance sheets, or to show disaggregated spending patterns, or flows of costs, can then contribute
spending data for particular areas or groups of people. Too often, public accounting has been structured around the issues of targets, control
towards customer-driven management information systems that has transformed industrial and service processes in the market sector,
Wikiprogress, bringing together data and analysis on progress. The same year President Sarkozy commissioned Joseph Stiglitz to chair an inquiry
including, for example, Transition Towns, the global network of several hundred towns seeking to move to low carbon living.
http://www. kcl. ac. uk/depsta/law/research/icps/downloads/justice-reinvestment-2007. pdf 4. Ibid
foundations try hard to connect emerging ideas to potential buyers and users But these tend to be small scale and ad hoc.
user-centred innovation A day in the life. In order to promote user-centred innovation, Mindlab undertake ethnographic research,
including video diaries, to understand the everyday needs and ideas of Danish citizens better. Image courtesy of
through conscious and careful curating and programming. These layers form the basis for innovation †the serendipity that happens when you
It was created in 2000 on the site of the old Toronto General Hospital. Image courtesy of Mars Discovery District
brings together web designers and developers with those involved in meeting social needs to design web-based solutions to particular social
challenges. Over one weekend, groups have to design and build a functioning website 136 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION
Innovation networks Networks can serve as alternatives to formal organisational structures within the social economy ††they can leverage the assets that already exist in a
developed a website called Mypolice †a tool for members of the public to give feedback,
Think, for example, of micro-blogging service Twitter, personal publishing platform Wordpress, citizen reporting papers such as Ohmynews
social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut, and Bebo, or collaborative projects such as Wikipedia. It is easy to see the generative potential of
platforms: as more people get involved, the wider the scope and reach, and by extension, the greater the social impact.
This includes websites which provide user -generated information such as ehow and Netmums. Netmums provides information on a variety of local resources †including child-friendly
cafã s, reliable childminders, and good preschool nurseries. It has over half a million members who use the site on a regular basis †uploading
and contributing information 308) Platforms for connecting. This includes social networking websites Facebook, Orkut, and Bebo,
as well as websites which aim to connect people together in real life for particular causes. One example of this
is Landshare †which connects people who want to grow fruit and vegetables with those who have the land on
which to grow it. They also provide people with the advice and information they need to grow fruit
connect start-ups, designers, programmers, and funders 309) Platforms for aggregating action such as Pledgebank, an online
Lego have created a web platform †Designbyme 3. 0 †which enables users (mainly children) to design their own Lego sets.
The designs are collated together in the Lego gallery and can then be bought by other users.
There are also a number of clothing companies and boutique design agencies which have adopted this †design and orderâ€
Users make their resources (time, disk-storage etc available to other users for free. This includes file sharing services
such as Napster, and open-source software such as the Linux operating system, the Mozilla Firefox browser, and the Apache web server.
These rely on a large and highly distributed community of programmers to develop, maintain, and improve the software.
Peer-to-peer platforms can be characterised by decentralisation, self-selected participation self-allocated tasks, community based moderation, and diversity of
participants. However, none of these are of themselves defining features 140 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION
End notes 1. Sustainability (2008) †The Social Intrapreneur: A Field Guide for Corporate Changemakers. â€
London: Sustainability 2. Ibid 3. Benjamin, A. 2009) Small is Powerful. †The Guardian. †7 january, 2009
4. Matthew Horne outlines the need for intermediaries in his paper,(2008) †Honest Brokers
Gains%20building%20nets%20for%20social%20change. pdf 6. Ibid WAYS OF SUPPORTING SOCIAL INNOVATION 141
extent to which social networks and a gift economy operate in the sphere of consumption has long been remarked on by anthropologists for example (from
public organisations †from the Internet (DARPA) to the world wide web CERN). ) But there are many structural features of government that inhibit
at every level has been the site of almost constant change †particularly in the last 30 years.
319) Circuits of information from users to front line staff and senior managers. The flow of information from the periphery to the centre is
320) User engagement has been helped both by user groups themselves and by professional organisations providing methods for engaging citizens
Users play an important role in providing new insights into user needs sometimes playing direct roles in redesigning services.
website, Budget Allocator, which offers citizens the chance to shape municipal budgets 330) Sequencing in funding.
transparent access to public financial and other data 342) Audit and inspection regimes which overtly assess and support
355) Public smart cards have been in use for over twenty years, and allow services to be reconfigured,
rental value of sites after the public investment has been undertaken The Greater london Enterprise Board financed its operational
extension of the Google model where engineers are encouraged to spend 20 per cent of their time developing their own projects.
and interacting with service users;(iv) process innovations (new internal procedures and organisational forms; and (v) system innovations (including governance structures
Civil society and the grant economy are the most common sites of social innovation †in campaigns, social movements, non-governmental organisations
and are reluctant to provide core funding. Grant -aided organisations are often the first to suffer in state budget cuts and
and the coverage of core costs. 4 403) Direct funding for individuals, including the grants given by Unltd
field, the web offers new ways to cut costs and widen connections. Websites like Kiva,
which connect donors with social entrepreneurs, have already been 2 172 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION
Internet donor sites dramatically reduce the cost of fundraising (estimated at between 15 per cent and 33
We can expect similar websites to develop features like donor forums, star ratings, Good Giving Guides and
engaging beneficiaries and users in decision making processes. Here are a few ways how 422) User and beneficiary representation on management boards
One example is Room 13, which started in Scotland in 1994 when a group of students set up their own visual arts studio.
423) Innovation assessments commissioned to assess the views of users and beneficiaries, and whether the innovation itself and the process
Guidestar†s services and databases in many countries worldwide, and New Philanthropy Capital in the UK
438) Global networks such as Civicus, an international alliance dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world
Worldchanging, a series of books and a website which includes tens of thousands of stories about new tools, models and ideas for building a
/Documents/Venture%20philanthropy%20in%20europe. pdf. For large scale developments in this field, see: Bishop, M. and Green, M. 2008) †Philanthrocapitalism. †London:
business assets, such as Salesforce†s provision of software to nonprofit organisations, or TNT€ s distribution of food to disaster areas
Kenya, using capacity on mobile phones to provide cheap and safe transactions for the unbanked. M-PESA now has half a million users in
London in addition to its users in east Africa 451) Corporate not-for-profit management of social provision such as
Academy Schools in the UK and Charter schools in the US 452) Partnerships between social enterprises and corporations with
M-PESA allows people to transfer money using a mobile phone. The term M-PESA comes from a combination of †M†for mobile and †Pesaâ€
meaning money in Swahili. It is a joint partnership between Safaricom and Vodafone. Kenya was the first country in the world to use this service
Image courtesy of Vodafone 3 SUPPORT IN THE MARKET ECONOMY 185 454) Business engagement in service evaluation, for example the Azim
Premji Foundation (and offshoot of WIPRO) financing large-scale trials of alternative models for running schools in India
translation software on its Meedan website of Arabic blogs, or Dialogue Cafã and the Social Innovation Exchange (SIX) using Telepresence
The website Your Ethical Money provides advice on how to direct personal investment into green, sustainable and ethical products
-lending website which enables individuals to lend small sums of money to entrepreneurs on low incomes
charities and social enterprises in sites in central London (see also method 487 467) R&d mentored funding prior to start-up lending, such as
and the internet. They remain critical to the social economy, both in assessing products and services on the basis of social criteria, and in
Guaranteed Electronic Market (GEM), a web-based market for people to exchange time and loans of products.
pdf 4. For more information on the Slow Food Movement, see: Petrini, C. 2006) †Slow Food
of open-source software, or web-based social networking around specific issues (there are reportedly 18 million cancer related websites, the great
majority generated by those affected by the disease. In these instances the innovations are generated outside the market and outside the state, many of
them explicitly so. They have had to develop their own protocols and codes of conduct The implications of collaboration of this kind for many contemporary social
providing others, selling information on users and so on. 1 In the field of open -source software, they are also creating new terms and conditions for the use
of information and products. For users, one of the main challenges now is to navigate through the wide ocean of information available online.
There are a range of intermediaries who do this on our behalf, directing us to the most
The spread of the internet has made possible a range of new tools to mobilise people and energies quickly and effectively.
together via the internet to achieve savings on their purchases 496) Platforms for the gifting of goods such as Freecycle,
keep discarded items out of landfill sites by gifting them. It now has over five million members in 85 countries
marks to organisations that produce information and moderate websites and forums Propertising not privatising In the social economy, rather than restricting access to knowledge and
Offline, communal or collective forms of innovation can spur innovative and creative uses of assets
-based social innovation that uses web technology to give voice to citizen journalists. Image courtesy of Erik MÃ ller
internet time, and even social housing rent 508) Informal currencies such as Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS
many using smart cards and focusing on the provision of care 510) Informal alternatives to mainstream currencies.
mobile phone using the tool M-Pesa or Me2u, or use prepaid mobile cards for interpersonal transactions or to purchase goods on the market
Public spaces for social innovation The availability of public or communal land increases the household†s capacity
516) Neighbourhood websites and other media can become hubs for exchanges and local news. Local residents can find out about initiatives
Examples include hyper-local website Boscalicious Year 1 pupils from Collaton St mary Primary school dig up organic
provides a useful platform for aggregating ultra local data Prosumption There has been marked a development of users becoming more engaged in
the production of services. In the words of Alvin Toffler, they have become †prosumers††producers as well as users of services.
They are playing a critical role in areas from health and education to recycling and the energy
One hour†s internet surfing costs 30 minutes pedalling. In 2008, campers converged on Kingsnorth power station for a week of learning, sustainable
517) Users as producers †such as the Expert Patients Programme, which teaches users to manage their own health conditions more effectively
and be more confident in their own care. Teachers on the programme are themselves living with long-term conditions.
Constructed households as sites of innovation The longstanding practice of institutionalising those with special needs or
Older people are seen as both users and providers in the system, for example, visiting their peers for friendship
525) User groups such as rail user groups or park user associations (for example, the Clissold Park User Group) that become champions for new
ways of organizing services Social movements Social movements have been the source of major waves of social innovations
over the past 40 years †notably in food, the environment, healthcare, and in transforming the social relations around gender,
organisation and action, further facilitated by the advent of the internet 526) Grass roots campaigns for social change.
The internet has accelerated the spread of grass roots-led social campaigns †especially those focused on lifestyle innovation and transformation.
Web based platforms for organising grass roots campaigns In the last year alone, Facebook has been used to mobilise protesters
against knife crime, the military Junta in Burma, and FARC. Oscar Morales, founder of the Facebook group One million Voices against FARC
which now has over 400,000 members) used the social networking site to organise a massive protest against the rebel forces in February
2008. Over a million people marched through the streets of Bogotã 208 THE OPEN BOOK OF SOCIAL INNOVATION
Clissold Park User Group 207 Clore Social Leadership Programme 177 College of Health 116 Commons 76;
Data 17-18; 21-2; 101-105; 112; 114; 116 119-120; 204 De Bono, Edward 32
Distributed systems 5; 38; 71; 87; 98 110; 114; 139; 195 Accountability 152-155 Organisation 69;
ebay 114 Echoing Green 176 ehow 138 Elderpower 205 Eliasson, Olafur 23 Emerson, Jed 104
Facebook 75; 138; 207 Fair Trade 119; 180; 184; 186 Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO 94
Google 53; 165 Gore, Al 26; 95; 96 Governance 67-68; 173-175 Grameen 34;
Hackney†s Online Citizen Panel 43 Hammarby Sjã stad 112 Harvard university Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation
Information systems 20-22; 89; 119-120 Infrastructure 114-115 Innocentive 134 Innovation Innovation Challenge Prize 54
Linux 139 Live Work 31 London Climate Change Agency 158 Mapping 17-19 Margolis Wheel 47-48
Mozilla Firefox 139 M-Pesa 115; 183; 184; 202 Mutualism 65 New Mutualism 65 Informal Mutualism 206-207
Open source 154; 139 Open Space 45-46 Open Testing 53 Organisation 6-7; 34; 61-70;
Philanthropic ebays 172 Plane Stupid 27; 28 Planning for Real 43 Platforms 40; 95; 117;
Smart cards 156; 202 Sobrato Family Foundation 169 Social economy 4-6; 63; 82; 84; 136
Users 31,62, 69,74, 85,89-90,92, 105 115,139, 148,173, 204,205 Vancity 188 Vauban, Freiburg 75,76, 108,117
Vodafone 183-4, 219 Voting 41,65, 153-154 Volunteers 54,59, 64,74, 77,166, 201 Vouchers 56,87, 157
Web, The 21,38, 45,79, 97,108, 171 Web2care 31 Wellink 205 Welsh Water 65,183 West Philly Hybrid X-Team 170
Wikipedia 138 Wikiprogress 120 Wiser Earth 178 Wordpress 138-139 Workplace as Museum 75 Work Ventures 183
Youtube 39,75 Yumshare 198 Yunus, Muhammad 34,210 Zero Carbon 22,77, 112 Zero Waste 111 Zopa 189
Plane Stupid, Americaspeaks, Dialogue Cafã, Helsinki Design Lab, Google Inc Un Techo para Chile, Riversimple, Working Rite, Danone Communities, Sekem
School of Government, The Prosperity Initiative, Vodafone, The Brixton Pound SPICE, The Food for Life Partnership, San Patrignano and many others
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
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