On 28-29 October 2010 Digital Pioneers organized the international conference on social innovation on the Internet in Trouw Amsterdam. From an international perspective we looked at the impact of small-scale civil society media initiatives on society and the media landscape. Together with national and international pioneers, the Digital Pioneers network and anyone who believes in the power of the Internet as a catalyst of social innovation, we identified the challenges and set the agenda for the next decade. During the second day, we looked into the future. What challenges do we see and how can we contribute to solutions? Read our report…

The second day of the Summit, Friday 29 October, promises to be an interesting day. Although some faces show modest forms of an hang-over from last nights party, it does not take a long time until the main stage room of Trouw is full again. In the afternoon the summit’s manifesto (or actually Actifesto) will be constructed during round table discussions and handed over to Marietje Schaake (Euro MP, D66). But first Keynote speakers Anna Maybank on ‘helping making good ideas happen’ and Sameer Padania on innovation in journalism with a related panel discussion.

Creating learning environments for social innovation (Anna Maybank, Social Innovation Camp)

‘Match up software developers and designers with people who have a social problem they want to solve’ is the main mission of Social Innovation Camp in the UK (and elsewhere). Anna Maybank shares her experience and the lessons she learned about bringing together ideas, people and digital tools.

Anna explains that Social Innovation Camp is a 4 month competition aimed at realizing prototypes from interesting ideas. First people with ideas are scouted across the UK. Six ideas are picked to work with. Anna and her team gather eighty people with relevant knowledge or skills to meet and cooperate during one weekend. Their assignment is to come up in less than 48 hours with concrete prototype projects that can solve the problem.

According to Anna there are some essential principles fundamental to working on social innovation along the line of SI camp philosophy. First, it takes a talented person to realize a good idea; a brilliant idea on itself is not enough. So, not only the idea but the talents must be scouted. In doing this one must realize that talented persons might be found on unexpected places. Second, especially in innovation processes building relations is very important since there is no detailed plan. The relation is the basis on which you work. Thirdly, creating connections is of main importance. People must be matched to other people that have the relevant knowledge to help them. And, fourth, the focus lies on venturing and new business models instead of charity. This is the best way to become sustainable and independent.

One of the interesting projects that has been realized the last period is Mypolice. This is an online solution to give positive or critical feedback about the services of the police. Student Sarah came up with the idea after a unsatisfactory experience that made her realize that giving feedback to the police is not an easy thing to do. Currently the project provides her with a part-time job and she works on several pilot programs.

All in all, Social Innovation Camp is the answer to a question that remains relevant these days: If the web is actually helping people solving problems, how do we get more people doing this kind of stuff? Anna’ story has, at least in part, shown how.

Watch the video of Anna Maybank’s keynote

Photo: Anna Maybank.

New journalism (Sameer Padania, Macroscope)

Sameer starts his talk by posing a question: ”Where does authenticity and authority come from in a multi-dimensional, multi-facetted field of information production?”. To find answers regarding the role of new journalism in this rapidly changing field it is essential that the context is reassessed. The field is radically different than a few years ago. Sameer explains how an experience with a group of African journalists during the G8 in Scotland confronted him with the urgent tensions in the field. The established media were in principle interested in the content of the journalists but did not trust their ‘professionalism’ and demanded editing for the English market by English professionals. According to Sameer this illustrates the ‘old’ paradigm of centralized hierarchical media organization. On the other hand he experienced in his own recent endeavors that just publishing raw direct footage is not necessarily the best way to go either. Someone needs to categorize the information and put it to a purpose.

Sameer learned by experience that actors who are active in journalism need to categorize themselves and the other players in the field in a new way. In doing so they will be confronted with issues of business models, legislation, technology and so on. Moreover, it is necessary to understand the interconnectedness of all major players in the field such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, legislators etc. They determine for a big part the way in which journalists are able to do their work.

The opportunity for journalists in the future lies in the fact that there is a desire for a sort of craft how to put information together and determine were it comes from; a chain of custody, of trust.  The long-term issue is how social media and mainstream media can find each other, and to what extent the traditional media can adapt to their new roles.

Sameer concludes with emphasizing that bottom-up initiatives in developing countries are great but still not resilient enough. They are still too fragile since they are often run by individuals, the technology is fragile and there are the political issues. “We should rethink the practice and legislation to extend protection and resilience of these initiatives. We should strive to create more diversity and pluralism and create a better mirror of the world.”

Watch the video of Sameer Padania’s keynote

Photo: Sameer Padania.

Panel discussion on new journalism

To bring the discussion a bit further some other speakers join Sameer at the stage. Juliana Rotich (Ushahidi), Maurits Martijn (Vrij Nederland) and Hermineke van Bockxmeer (Ministery of Education, Culture and Science). Paul Keller (Kennisland) moderates the discussion.

Maurits Martijn, journalist for the weekly magazine Vrij Nederland, recognizes that print media faces quite some challenges. However, he learned that at his organization they were able to engage readers to think about the necessary transition.

Hermineke van Bockxmeer states that there have been several attempts to innovate the media field from the side of the ministery. The Digital Pioneer program is one of the examples. But it is still work in progress and it is not entirely clear were the process is heading.

The redefinition of media is embodied by examples such as spot.us and demotix.com says Juliana Rotich. They show that journalists and media have to engage and cannot provide the news from a position of ‘take it or leave it’. News is created with the audience, consulting the audience. “It is not about scoops anymore. Mainstream media should focus on the back-story and the follow-up. They should curate the information and give sense to what is going on in the world”. Sameer adds that journalists do not necessarily have to present clear-cut pieces. They can also pose questions to the audience about an unfinished story. Moreover, they can operate much more transparent and share their sources or research process with the audience.

Wikileaks is introduced as interesting case. On the one hand Wikileaks positions itself above the mainstream media. But it needs traditional media as well. What are the roles taken here?

It is recognized by the panelists that although Wikileaks is an independent source it needs the attention of mainstream media to present their message to a wider audience. The loads of documents need to be analyzed, the story needs to be explained and presented in an accessible way. Exactly there resides the challenge and necessity of journalistic activity. The added value of Wikileaks is that they function as a broker between people who have relevant (sensitive!) information and journalists. Altogether, initiatives such as Wikileaks illustrate the possibility of a radical philosophical twist: radical transparency.

In the quickly changing field the relations are not yet set. In this field were the possibility of radical transparency increases parallel to an enormous growth of data available, news organizations have to reposition themselves and find out how they can provide added value.

View the video of the panel discussion on journalism

Round tables and State of Social Media Actifesto

This last day of the summit is ended with the presentation of the Actifesto. During the day Digital Pioneers and other visitors sat around seven thematic round tables and spoke about the future of the digital civil society. What is to be done in the coming period? Marietje Schaake, member of the Euro Parliament, is present to receive the Actifesto in person. Also Hermineke van Bockxmeer, representing the ministery of Education, Culture and Science, gives a reaction and reflects briefly on the Digital Pioneers Program.

View the video of the short speech by Hermineke van Bockxmeer

Photo: round tables.

The Actifesto

Read them here. Schaake: “I think the potential of your Actifesto is fantastic and I hope that we can work together to make this potential flourish and to make sure that we build trust that is genuine, more transparency, more openness and more collaboration”.

View the video of the Actifesto and Marietje Schaakes reaction

Photo: Marietje Schaake.

Report written by Kimon Moerbeek (Kennisland), photos by Kennisland.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 15th, 2010 at 21:25 and is filed under General.