The Rise of the Sharing Communities Creative Commons photo by Lobkovs As the sharing economy picks up momentum, its reach has become global. In cities and towns around the world, people are creating ways to share everything from baby clothes to boats, hardware to vacation homes. There are also groups emerging that consciously identify with the big-picture sharing movement. KNOW-HUB KNOW-HUB bridges the gap of shortage of knowledge, skills and experience of European regions in designing and implementing smart and effective strategies for innovation. The practitioners from 10 EU regions will collaborate in reviewing their policies and practices to identify issues for improvement and good practices to share with others. They will learn together how to apply the knowledge and experience identified in the peer review process, and sharing this knowledge with the aid of modern knowledge management tools. Now, more than ever before, Europe needs to remove the obstacles to the knowledge based economy in Europe, such as little demand for innovation, poor social capital, red tape, institutional barriers, shortage of skills and competencies of human capital or poor connectivity between innovation actors. European regions have a crucial role in helping their economies to develop and gain durable competitive advantages. The objective
Social innovation Social innovations are new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds — from working conditions and education to community development and health — that extend and strengthen civil society. Social innovation includes the social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques and also the innovations which have a social purpose — like microcredit or distance learning. Social entrepreneurship can be innovative and it also overlaps with innovation in public policy and governance. Social innovation can take place within government, the for-profit sector, the nonprofit sector (also known as the third sector), or in the spaces between them. Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger and communities of practice contents: introduction · communities of practice · legitimate peripheral participation and situated learning · learning organizations and learning communities · conclusion · references · links · how to cite this article Many of the ways we have of talking about learning and education are based on the assumption that learning is something that individuals do. Furthermore, we often assume that learning ‘has a beginning and an end; that it is best separated from the rest of our activities; and that it is the result of teaching’ (Wenger 1998: 3). But how would things look if we took a different track? Supposing learning is social and comes largely from of our experience of participating in daily life?
BRE Group: About the BRE Watford Innovation Park BRE Innovation Park Watford is home to some of the world’s most sustainable buildings, landscape designs and hundreds of innovative low carbon materials and technologies. Since opening in 2005, BRE Innovation Park Watford has continued to attract thousands of visitors – 60,000 at the last count – including royalty, prime ministers and TV crews. “The Innovation Park is much more than a collection of clever and sustainable buildings. It is a showcase of our evolving approach to integrated design which includes the use of passive technology and ecosystem services.” Wilder Associates Génération de l'innovation sociale Quatre partenaires – la fondation, ainsi que l’Université de Waterloo, le MaRS Discovery District (Toronto) et le PLAN Institute (Vancouver) – collaborent au programme Génération de l’innovation sociale (SiG) pour développer, encourager et soutenir l’innovation sociale continue. Leur objectif est de découvrir, de tester et de partager de nouvelles façons de s’attaquer aux enjeux sociaux auxquels font face les Canadiens. « Innovation » signifie généralement faire mieux, de manière plus avisée et plus efficace. En affaires, cela va de soi; l’innovation est constamment encouragée par la formation, des investissements et l’intérêt du public. Le secteur sans but lucratif ou bénévole n’obtient pas un tel appui : il existe un grand nombre d’entrepreneurs sociaux mais la plupart des organismes subventionnaires cherchent des projets « sûrs ». Il y a peu de capital risque et encore moins de volonté d’accepter un certain niveau d’« échec » comme prix d’une innovation porteuse.
The dynamics of managing/nurturing networks of practice Image by D'Arcy Norman via Flickr I received a beautiful article (thanks to Julie Ferguson!). Just got a tip through the comments that it's also online. This is the full reference to the article: Agterberg, M., Van den Hooff, B., Huysman, M., & Soekijad, M. (2010). Keeping the Wheels Turning: The Dynamics of Managing Networks of Practice.
Ten minutes with ... Ayesha Mustafa, founder of Fashion ComPassion Tell us about your business I started Fashion ComPassion in 2011 as a sustainable online fashion retailer. We provide a platform for socially responsible brands empowering women artisans from war-torn and developing countries. We currently work with 15 brands, from 20+ women co-operatives in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. We help them with such things as design guidance, product diversification and expansion into new markets. We've also partnered with the United Nations World Food Programme and every time an item is bought on our site, we help feed a schoolgirl in the developing world.
The processes of social innovation This week’s innovation conversation is more closely aligned to the original notion of RSA-style interdisciplinary conversations. We initially framed this discussion around social enterprise, then social design, finally the broader notion of social innovation. Last weeks technology innovation conversation surprisingly concluded that it was creating new relationships that matter in technology adoption and we find some similar themes emerging here; the importance of the social context, how to enable the social processes of innovation, whilst not forgetting practical business examples already being implemented. Maverick Networks; In terms of social context Nick Jankel comments that RSA fellows in the 18th Century had “the temporal and emotional freedom to think, meet, talk and co-create The Enlightenment.” However it now seems that you need to be an institutional ‘maverick’ to become innovation. image: Social & Policy Innovation in the Obama Admin 2o2 by dpict.info
Social innovation Social innovation is one of those phrases that is in danger of becoming nearly meaningless due to its overuse, and use in such a wide variety of applications. Today, most businesses want to have some claim on the idea that they’re doing something good, and most nonprofits want to be able to say that they’re moving beyond old models of charity and bringing something more innovative to their work. But what’s an actual definition of social innovation? Knowledge Networks: Introduction Editors, Paul Hildreth and Chris Kimble Publisher, Idea Group Publishing Hard cover ISBN: 159140200X Soft cover ISBN: 1591402700 The current environment for organizations is one that is characterised by uncertainty and continuous change. This rapid and dynamic pace of change is forcing organizations that were accustomed to structure and routine to become ones that must improvise solutions quickly and correctly. To respond to this changed environment organizations are moving away from the structures of the past that are based on hierarchies, discrete groups and teams and moving towards those based on more fluid and emergent organizational forms such as networks and communities. In addition to the pace of change, globalisation is another pressure that is brought to bear on modern organizations.
CoP: Best Practices by Etienne Wenger [Published in the "Systems Thinker," June 1998] You are a claims processor working for a large insurance company. CoP: Best Practices by Etienne Wenger [Published in the "Systems Thinker," June 1998] You are a claims processor working for a large insurance company. You are good at what you do, but although you know where your paycheck comes from, the corporation mainly remains an abstraction for you. The group you actually work for is a relatively small community of people who share your working conditions.