Transforming innovation for decarbonisation? Insights from combining complex systems and social practice perspectives

Posted at 8 May 2020 in Collaborative Innovation, Innovation, Innovation Strategies

The transformation of research and policy approaches to innovation for decarbonisation towards a type of social innovation, is promising to open discussions and interrelate with the present reality. This paper starts by challenging the demand-supply dichotomy. Complex systems and social practice theories represent the compelling frameworks whereby to deal with this transformation.

New Report: Public Space & Public Life during COVID 19

Posted at 6 May 2020 in Cities

What can be said about Covid-19 that hasn’t been said already? Rather than simply talking and writing about the pandemic, Gehl staff wants to share the lived experience of it. With the support of Realdania and the City of Copenhagen, they worked with 60 surveyors in 4 cities in Denmark to observe and understand how streets and public spaces, parks and playgrounds are serving the very unique needs of the communities during this pandemic. The first results are listed in this report, both in terms of snapshots of public life during the “lock-down” as well as highlights of the collected data.

New Book: Collaborative Society

Posted at 5 May 2020 in Collaborative Innovation

This book by Dariusz Jemielniak and Aleksandra Przegalinska examines how networked technology enables the emergence of a new kind of social collaboration in modern societies. It covers the sector of “sharing economy” as well as different models of peer production and collaborative media production and consumption, while also considering hactivism, social movements and citizen science. The authors consider as well existing challenges for the future of collaboration in times of fake news, bots and other challenges.

New paper: Smart systems of innovation for smart places

Posted at 4 May 2020 in Innovation ecosystems

New book: Smart Cities in the Post-algorithmic Era

Posted at 30 April 2020 in Publications on Intelligent Cities / Smart Cities

Examining the changing nature of cities in the face of smart technology, this book studies key new challenges and capabilities defined by the Internet of Things, data science, blockchain and artificial intelligence. It argues that using algorithmic logic alone for automation and optimisation in modern smart cities is not sufficient, and analyses the importance of integrating this with strong participatory governance and digital platforms for community action. The book was edited by Nicos Komninos, Director, URENIO Research and Christina Kakderi, Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Digital research and innovation: why do platforms prevail?

Posted at 26 April 2020 in Innovation, Innovation ecosystems

In recent days we have seen a series of initiatives to combat the pandemic with data, web platforms for research sharing, and models for simulation and forecasting. But how successful can these efforts be? What digital systems can strengthen and accelerate research and innovation in various fields of science and technology?

Rules, collective and human intelligence: Balance in mission-driven research

Posted at 26 April 2020 in Collective Intelligence, Innovation

Unprecedented circumstances with Covid-19 make the need for mission-driven research to be more urgent, mobilizing research labs to discover drugs and vaccines, squeezing the usual timeline for such discoveries and bypassing standard operating rules. But what is the balance between mission rules and human ingenuity?