Open Innovation in York (my contributions to www.geniusyork.com)

Challenge #1 - Hidden Gems

• Is there anyway it could make money? could a group take it on for 12 months, run an enterprise club and see what happens? could they be given a council contract to get them started - like to set up a new cleaning firm co-owned, or a river taxi scheme or a .......... could york businesses mentor them? I'm sure they'd be interested people to help (including me).

• Could you put a broadband connection in, get a few ex-council laptops and use it as a skills-share place (like learn direct). make it really informal, make sure it wasn't set on fire, but take some risks and make it an interesting working space?

• Could you start with a list of things that you currently see as problems and put them together with whatever they need. Its currently costing you £............ would you be prepared to use the money in a different way. you could get a grant for a skatepark, or photography workshop so long as the council was prepared to help out.

my 2p..
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On community groups - some of this work has been going on, but a real link between community & technology sectors would help it along.. 

1. So YorkCVS has open communication methods - anything of genuine use to community groups can go out in their newsletter, just email their newsletterhttp://www.yorkcvs.org.uk/voluntary-voice.
2. There's a google map of voluntary orgs in York http://g.co/maps/4wa58. 
3. They also has the most followed charity support org in the UK on twitter- and there have been been social media surgeries in the city since 2009.
4. There are charity forums on all sorts of topics that run, so if you have something for them get it on the agenda.. http://www.yorkcvs.org.uk/ycvs-groups
5. There's also a map (connected york) that is supposed to show the relationship between the statutory and third sectors http://www.connectedyork.org.uk/style/networkMap.png but will need changing when the LSP changes..

Maybe some of the stuff you're suggesting Anthony (sounds great) could be done through the York digital divide strategy..? (and btw - I used to work at yorkcvs..!)

In terms of the asset map, TIDAL leeds have done a very low-fi mapping zone of people who can contribute anything -  to create geographically close people who are willing to lend a hand to get something started.

Twitter does a similar thing of course.. ;-) 
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My work has got a staff volunteering day on the 29th feb with some brilliant people, but to make the most of these existing opportunities I think we need to get much better at mapping the demand side of underused assets (physical or otherwise). Obviously councils opening up data is a great start, but we need more people-led-possibility. This is something Our Society is leading on nationally and I'd like to do something like Community Lovers Guide for York, to maximise existing good things (hint - if anyone wants to do one let me know!)

Also controversially I'm not sure councils are the best people to lead these things. Somewhere like headingley development trust (which is a model which would replicate really well in york) are only able to mobilise with volunteer and community support - something a local authority in probably unable to amass in the same scale..

Or this.. http://www.somewhereto.com 

Challenge #2 - Aiding vulnerable people

The Good Gym is an example of meeting two seemingly opposing needs: people's need for exercise with others need for company.. http://www.thegoodgym.org
(don't have much to say on this)

Challenge #3 - Improving relationships with business 

Money for social value already exists - normally through small grant funders, but doesn't fulfil the whole need. Using procurement to start new things, strengthen ideas or give backing to things that are going to take some time is a great idea. Start by releasing info on £5,000 contracts (this is ridiculously difficult right now) and let the info seep out. Give it some public transparency without making it into the full blown participatory budgeting process. keep it simple, keep it quick and you'll get some different ideas coming through..

For my 2p, I'd recommend this article on pro-social procurement..https://socialenterprise.guardian.co.uk/social-enterprise-network/2... 

Or http://bristolpound.org

Challenge #4 - Utilising footfall & transport

Some interesting ideas from the States - and some potential stats on the economic benefits of doing transport differently..? http://t4america.org/blog/2011/02/04/new-report-shows-the-job-creat...

Here's some case studies from other cities who have revalmped transport systems all over the world (complete with glossy brochures and pretty people laughing!): http://inhabitat.com/our-cities-ourselves-ten-global-cities-redesig...

And i remember going to Bilbao a couple of years ago and being reall impressed with the joined up BilboBus branding, co-ordination (and high public subsidies).. http://www.bilbao.net

Sheffield Transport hack days..? http://opendata.thegisthub.net/2011/03/transport-hack-day-datasets 

One last thing - with a population of 6 million people on the York to Liverpool route (give or take) it has always seemed ridiculous to me that we let the Pennines stand in the way of decent transport infrastructure - but that might be too much..!

The Portas 'Town Team' Pilot Scheme

Parts of the Portas reviwe was about how we use our spaces to live, not just as a place for financial transactions. So i think the interesting question for me is "how can we let anyone do what they want in our city or How can we bring poosibility back into public spaces..?"

1. Playful Leeds are looking at the cultural offer (again breaking this idea of us solely as consumers but more of pro-sumers)
2. We are your emporium is a social enterprise looking at getting more people a stake in retail by offering spaces for rent in a Mickelgate shop.
3. Bishopthorpe is well worth looking at simply because it has its own home-grown identity - something that might fit with the micklegate quarter etc..

There's lots of good stuff here on street design from Leith in Edinburgh: basically how we design our streets is how people use them.

Cycle lanes, traffic flow, city planning for idiots. worth a read and watch..http://www.greenerleith.org/greener-leith-news/2012/3/14/still-want

Map of Yorkshire orgs requesting help - on the 'leap day' 29 feb 2012

These places contacted me for help on the 29th Feb 2012 under the Local Leap scheme. 



View Local Leap - 29 Feb 2012 - Yorks Opoortunities in a larger map

Degrees of separation as an outcomes framework for a city..?

I've been musing on the results factory for disrupting poverty in leeds -(very sad i wasn't able to attend) and i've been thinking that we have complete disconnect between leadership & citizen. Probably no worse than ever before in history, but probably for the first time we have the opportunity to do something about it. 

Here's a extract from birmingham's commitment via infrastructure organisation to have no more than 3 steps between leaders and any citizen. Apologies its so long..

• A relatively small group of people – perhaps 500 in total – are directly involved in making strategic decisions about the future of the city and its people.  They include: the Leader of the City Council and their Cabinet, the Council’s chief executive and its chief officers; the Chief Constable, the NHS Primary Care Trusts, owners and chief executives of major businesses leaders of faith groups and large non-profit organisations including, for example, housing associations. The decisions these people take affect the city as a whole.  They are ‘in power’.

• A wider group of people – perhaps a few thousand – have regular links with people in power: they are ‘one step from power’.  They include people with significant executive power of their own: people whose decisions determine how schools and colleges are run or the streets of neighbourhoods are policed etc.  They also include people who have some influence over people in power: elected councillors and MPs, some people in the media, people who serve on boards and committees. More of the people in power are men, very few are under 30 years old and they are disproportionately white.  Their friends and associates may be the same.

• An even larger group of people in Birmingham either know the people in the group above or have some position which brings them into official contact with them regularly.  They include a large number of people employed in public services and business managers, trade union officials, members of political parties and some ‘active citizens’ – people who lead neighbourhood forums or resident groups or who organise community self-help.  Probably between ten and fifty thousand people in Birmingham are ‘two steps from power’. 

• The majority of citizens are ‘three steps from power’.  That is: they are employed in a job that involves some level of responsibility; or are members of a church or other faith group or a social or sports club; they may be members of a community group or a voluntary organisation.  Most vote in local elections and to some extent they keep in touch with what is going on in local society.  They will turn up to a public meeting if the issue directly affects them and might sign a petition or write an email.  If they need to, they have ways of making their voice heard in decisions that they feel affect them.

• There is a large minority – possibly as many as a quarter of a million people in Birmingham – who are excluded: there are more than three degrees of separation between them and the people making the decisions affecting them. 

The birmingham lot go on to talk about their solutions (unsurprisingly about civil society and inparticular the role of infrastructure services), but i like the idea and i think its a good framework for looking at the role of decision makers and citizens..

Any idea how we could use it as an alternative measure of progress of a city..? would we get different decisions if the powerful were closer to the powerless, and is this something to work towards..?

The future of Leeds Enterprise Accelerator (#elsie)

Mike Chitty has just done an extremely thorough SWOT to anyone involved in #elsie. I tried to add my thoughts directly, but i think it might be easier to do it here..

(to clarify - elsie is a volunteer panel who want to help anything entrepreneurial in leeds start - community projects, businesses, ideas of any kind..! )

1. Starting anything is difficult. 
2. Mike needs more support in carrying the project (as well as administration).
3. It might be easier to get project leaders directly, but similarly might undermine the ability of elsie to be a driver for change. 
4. Referrals from the typical voluntary sector have been slow? - particularly without the explicit backing of existing third sector infrastructure. (This is both a problem and an opportunity)
5. It might be easier if all those involved felt part of a group and a paid sessional coach might help this (yet without losing the feeling that its run by volunteers).
6. How can we get existing structures to do some of the groundwork (eg I've just started work for the national trust in yorkshire, and see the use of their 61,000 volunteers, world status as stately homes and countryside owners as a key opportunity to getting this kind of thing off the ground).
7. Anyone who cares about this stuff is busy. 
8. I am going to offer mike some of my time if he'll give me a defined role to support elsie..

The idea is great. Its up and running and has momentum.
So where do we want to take it..?

What will the Government actually do in 2050..?

MAYBE - by 2050:

1. Nation states will only exist to be parts of coalitions on the major global issues: climate change, terrorism, development aid etc.
2. National gov will solely be a mechanism for collecting taxes and passing them to local gov – an administrative task.
3. Local government will be the main interaction point for people (under the huge banner of localism)

This is even before we factor in devolution, the role of the EU and the decline of the western superpowers. 
If I was a politician I'd be looking for another job.

Why do i want to go work for the National Trust..?

The National Trust was founded in 1895 by 3 volunteers. It is the largest membership organisation in the UK. It owns or protects roughly one fifth of the coast in England.

The potential is enormous to use this platform for anything that people want to do. The architecture is already there, the staff and volunteers keep the doors and floors open.. So there are huge opportunities for people who want to take this further.. So what would people want to do? good question, no idea. But i'm very happy the NT are prepared to look at it.

1. At a time of changing role of membership (clubcard or political parties - take your pick) they have 4 million members, who pay and feel an ownership over what goes on. Huge opportunity to make them more involved and let them use the platform.
2. They are one of the largest UK charities by both income and assets. So while other social investment is plummeting, can add significant support to other voluntary groups through ethical procurement and joint working.
3. They have 61,000 volunteers. some of those will want to continue being room guides, walking guides and other things. But many others will want to do something different - a massive opportunity if we give them what they want. The potential to demonstrate values-led leisure, or social challenges, or genuinely beneficial corporate volunteering from such a platform was too good to pass up..

I'll be talking more in coming months about specific plans - a lot of it will depend on where other people want to go (property managers, volunteers, external agencies etc) but there are many excellent people already on board and i'm really excited about seeing what it going on. Yorkshire & the NE is a massive and brilliant area.
I think the best way to protect our institutions is to make them relevant to the future.

More to come......

Everything we have arround us has evolved, maybe it's time for revolution..?

Look around your home. Everything you see is basically the same as it was in the middle ages. Tables, washing up, clothes. I saw an 8,000 year old boat in Cyrus Even the refrigerator is the same principle just refined..

But right now we're having a fundamental rethink of the basic principles of almost everything, driven of course by technology. Why can't we have a shower that has the right amount of hotish water everytime? why don't appliances do what we want, first time, before asking? why does design all have to be new..? Why can't we have less dogmatic things..?

Everything we have around us has evolved since humans used things - maybe it's time for revolution in everyday things..?

A map of interaction between Tech firms in east london..

Could we were to use this tool to map interactions between community organisations, membership organisations, regional offices, new partnerships etc etc etc..?
#potential

My notes from Armley prison visit..

Armey prison: Gary boothroyd, pippa jones

Discussion of david davis views on reoffending & the riots

Management of a prison

×          Population protection & protecting society

×          Mission statement “protecting the public” doesn’t really fit with reoffending model.

×          Voids & population movement across UK - logistical problem as much as social.

×          12 month revolving door – 75% of prisoners in armley jail reoffend in 12 months.

×          “People feel well looked after in here”. The “prison operates on good will”

×          Average age is 24. 80% have a drug problem

×          They have random drug tests every week, and search everyone coming in & out. but 1,000 people have keys for the prison

×          The Manchester riots changed everything about prison conditions but it was only 12 years ago..

×          Vulnerable prison unit – 20 people at a time, for those who will get hurt.

Social impact bonds –

×          armley is the public sector being road tested.

×          Birmingham got road tested and is now in private hands

×          Peterborough has been outsourced

×          “There is a need to rebrand” Closer working with the third sector

×          “prisoners get to 35 and then decide to stop – the only question is how to speed this up”?

×          Resettlement wing is brand new.

×          Do we need a new compact between prisoners and prisons?

×          You get more drug help in prison than outside

×          CCTV is everywhere

×          Mental health problems are rife – is prison a storing house for system failure in other areas..?

       

Educing reoffending–

×          Prison used to be the ultimate goal of the police. Remove the problem.

×          Whose job is it to change behaviour? Probation, youth offending, police, voluntary sector. Who is responsible in a very expensive system?

×          How will targeting work? We know the most likely to offend. We know the most likely to reoffend. Isn’t this dangerous?

×          How does dispersal work – putting ex-offenders back where they were doesn’t work. There is still limited support for this

×          Three most important factors: Housing, work, drug rehabilitation

        

What is the point in short term sentences

×          Just long enough to become a proper criminal

×          They’ve got a Max Spielman outlet in Liverpool women’s prison

×          Thompsons keycutting placements, teach haircutting, making boxershorts, kitchen work

×          Why can’t prisons employ ex-prisoners?

×          What are the job needs of leeds?

Getting people back into society

×          Police reduce the survalance of new prisoners to give them a chance

×          Spent convictions over 10 years

×          Burlary is a lifestyle? Zero tolerance.

×          How much does the general population care if it’s a problem they don’t have to live with.

×          How much is it good people just in a bad place?

×          Remand is a big problem. Its not worth investing in people who may not end up staying (so no targets)

×          Data functions based on reoffending rates

×          Pay By Results needs innovation and then evaluation

×          Risk transfer model (£1.4m investors input).

A new participatory paradigm for creative collaboration..? (by tessy briton)

Open publication - Free publishing

Disseminating research through social media..

This is long (!), but i just sent it to my brother for an EU research tender and thought it might be useful to share.. 
Caveat! - its written by someone struggling their way through this, not an expert.. Enjoy!

Overall approach:

• Market segmentation – who is your audience? Researchers, practitioners, people in devel countries.
• Who are your delivery partners. I would give away the kudos of it – if people feel like they’re working for you then you’ll have to pay them. Make them feel like they’re working towards a common objective that you both care about and you’ll be amazed.
• Instead of pushing a message, go to where people are. Where are these conversations already happening? What can you bolt it onto or link with..? Could you have guest bloggers who use your platform..? who wants to be associated with you..?
• Can you use an “open innovation” process (it just means crowdsourcing), and prototyping (pilots) is really popular at the moment.

Volunteers – id write a load of role profiles and see who wants to take them on. Things like updating the blog, researching certain ‘chapters’ or organising around a particular date. You can put them out through your networks and see who bites.

Framework:

1. PROMOTION: Promotion, raise awareness and visibility
2. PARTICIPATION: relies on the involvement and participation of regional Stakeholders on the strategic thinking process
3. DISSEMINATION: Dissemination of programme progress, outputs and results following a transparency and accountability spirit
4. EXPLOITATION: Efficient exploitation of the projects outputs and results ensuring their influence on further
5. NETWORKING: follow up discussions, progress ideas collectively

Or use: 1) inspire, 2) educate,3)  reinforce.

Tools:

Crowdsourcing via wiki –  This often has low interaction levels, but is a good way. I’d do a Blog – people will generally read but hardly ever reply unless you make it very personal. I’ve used http://www.wikispaces.com/ or googledocs https://docs.google.com  is a pretty good way of crowdsourcing information (spreadsheets are really good, quick and cheap way of collecting info)

Facebook has voting polls and is a really good way of reaching an audience using ‘events’. Mostly people get driven to blogs.

Twitter is the best way of publicising blogs and updates and building easy communities of practice (have a look at other people’s lists and follow some lists. ).

Newsletter You can do a really easy newsletter using http://paper.li and people can subscribe to it (I’d just do the blog personally.) or use mailchimp

Linked-in has practitioner groups so you can invite people to join a group, and anyone can publish anything that gets emailed to all in the group.

Don’t link twitter, FB or linked in together – they’re separate audiences. But you can automate posts (eg automatically post from a blog to FB.) or time your posts if you have to.

You could try using Google AdSense. It’s been on my list for a while. For charities its free for a bit, but it will target people searching for “development” or whatever and your advert will show up on the right hand side of the search.

Geographic – people like maps, and seeing themselves on maps, so you can make a Google map with pin points of all the relevant places. People click on the links and it takes them to different places. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ct=reset go my “myplaces” and “create map”

Mobile apps – early days for this in academia.  I’d suggest maybe publishing a book/ report summary when you’re done and sell it through mobile apps.? Even 100 copies at £30 a head is a decent return for very little effort (it’s what I’m planning to do next year) http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1541053

QR codes – very good if you have a shop window or location to display them..? Or an advert on a bus – people have to be walking past and want to find out more (but wouldn’t type a url into a phone browser)

Videos are excellent. Use a vimeo account and link them to other topics (using hashtags like twitter). See the one I did for yorkcvs here: http://vimeo.com/30538238

Animations - I don’t know if you’ve seen the RSA animate videos, but they’re excellent and worth replicating rather than a simple headshot..

http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/

Stories – tell them as a journey, and involve people in the journey. No one is really interested in finished products anymore. You can use http://storify.com/ to capture some of this on route (eg summary of thoughts around a particular theme.)

Put PowerPoint slides online – its human communication and people like looking at pictures. (or use prezi to be a bit flash)

Maximise the use of what you have; email, website, e-bulletins, databases, events, meetings, networks.

I’d suggest you spend some money on infographics (see http://visual.ly) as a way of presenting data. I don’t know anyone who reads formal academic papers anymore.. Thats it..!

Useful links:

Social media dissemination: http://worldviewsconference.com/announcements/social-media-is-inherently-a-system-of-peer-evaluation-and-is-changing-the-way-scholars-disseminate-their-research-raising-questions-about-the-way-we-evaluate-academic-authority/

EU programmes on Open Innovation - http://www.euris-programme.eu/en/homepage/open-innovation

Innovation in higher education – by Geoff mulgan http://pearsonblueskies.com/innovation-in-higher-education/

Wikis in the classroom: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/wikis-in-the-classroom-three-ways-to-increase-student-collaboration/

York CVs social media guides.. http://yorkcvs.org.uk/ycvs-publications?page=2 

Imagine what we could do if human being worked in collaboration like this..

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Music video: Crazy World We Live from amplified-a.. (an old project of mine)