The SIC project (Social Innovation Community, siceurope.eu), funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, aims to connect and expand existing social innovation communities and networks in a range of themes and across the domains of research, learning and policy. One of its objectives is to identify emerging “hot topics” of research into social innovation. ZSI does this for the research area of “digital social innovation” and the related subjects of internet science, virtual communities and so on.
ZSI has conducted a desk research exercise on the subject. ZSI in general, with its unit “Technology and knowledge” conducts research on the social conditions and results of the practical uses of technology in close relation with the social organisation of technologies’ creation and functioning. Our research suggests that after the originally “digital” social innovations (such as open source, knowledge sharing platforms or social webs) many of the recent digital social innovations and networks multiply their interactions and interfaces with the material world: integrating hardware for example in maker communities, connecting neighbours in cities to share tools and skills, using crowdsourced data in disaster relief or supporting sustainable mobility or low-cost healthcare.
Now, we invite you as expert in the field of digital social innovation to take part in an online breakout session (lasting not longer than 1 ½ hours) to identify one or several emerging “hot topics” for digital social innovation that you consider interesting, important and promising in providing insight into useful and effective ways of digitally addressing societal challenges.
These topics then will be further explored in a face-to-face workshop of the SIC project in 2017. This is an opportunity to help shape a small explorative and creative event with good prospects of feeding into the social innovation research and policy agendas of the EU and national and regional contexts.
Date: 14th of December, from 15h to 16h30 CET
Tool for the breakout session: GoToMeeting (link will be sent out prior to the meeting)
Please register here.
