1. www.nominettrust.org.uk
Webchat: Open Innovation
February, 2012
Dan Sutch dan.sutch@nominettrust.org.uk
@dansutch @nominettrust
2. Our mission
To seek out, galvanise and
support new, effective and
widely adopted solutions that
transform how we address big
social challenges through the
use of digital technology.
• Social investments and grants of c£5m per year
• Aim to demonstrate how digital technology can be used to redesign the way we address
persistent social challenges
•Aim to support (in addition to funding) to scale the social and economic impact
•Foundation charity of Nominet – the .UK domain registry (10m+ .uk websites)
•Direct relationship with Nominet’s public purpose & strength of their membership
6. Many examples of significant
tech-driven/tech-enabled
changes – where for social-tech?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Transistor_Count_and_Moore%27s_Law_-_2011.svg
7. It’s not just a lack of space suits...
The use of digital technology provides remarkable
opportunities to redesign how we address persistent social
challenges
This requires:
• Creativity and imagination for how else we might address
these issues
• Risk taking and testing of these new approaches
• Entrepreneurship and willingness
• Aspiration, persistence and tenacity
• (openness, collaboration...)
8. That’s the need Open Innovation is looking to address
Put simply, this funding programme has been
developed to help demonstrate the potential of a
new approach that uses digital technology to
address a persistent social challenge. The fund aims
to help develop and test these early-stage ideas
9. Social Innovation
The successful application of new ideas generated at the
intersection of insight and invention, which leads to the
creation of social or economic value
Insight understanding the context, histories and work of others
Invention finding and developing the best ideas
Application putting ideas into practice
Value capturing outcomes, impact and learning
10. What you need
• Tested team with an idea, or an idea that has already (in
some way) been tested
• Previous seed funding; tested prototype
• An aspiration to address a social challenge through the use of
digital technology beyond this funding
• Commitment to testing and developing your approach
• An understanding of how this approach is different from
existing ways of addressing the social challenge
• A way of developing the product/activity within a year
11. What we’re offering
• Up to £50k investment – budget based on need
• Support to develop, test and demonstrate your work
• Personal/professional development links through our
Funder+ activities
• Links to our network of social-tech innovators
• Potential further support and development if the approach
tests well (further investment, links etc)
• An opportunity to build experience and a case for your idea
that can be presented for further development
12. Useful links
More descriptions of our Open Innovation programme, links to ‘how to apply’ and some further background info.
Open Innovation description
http://www.nominettrust.org.uk/how-to-apply/areas-investment/open-
innovation
How to apply
http://www.nominettrust.org.uk/how-to-apply/areas-investment/open-
innovation
Application deadlines
http://www.nominettrust.org.uk/how-to-apply/application-deadlines
FAQs
http://www.nominettrust.org.uk/faq/how-apply
Part of this is commissioning relevant research, documents and publications that can inform us, partners, future applicants and others working toward similar aimsWorking in partnershipDeveloping programmes of funding/investment
Starting point for this is that there are already lots of examples of how digi tech have changed the way we communicate, buy and sell etcPotential of digi tech –if we were to design how you access information now, knowing how much comp power you have in your pocket; design learning interactions; ways of reducing social isolation etc etc, perhaps we would do it differently.Moore’s law – tech to get into space! – with this growth – how would wWhe begin to design what social care, education, addressing poverty, environmental action could look like in 5 years time? What sort of action would you like to see in 5 years time – let’s start testing and developing it now.We can expect Moore’s law to continue – so EXPLORE if you have a super computer in your pocket, sensor devices in your hand and environment how would you address social challenges? OR, another way of looking at this (William Gibson, future’s already here its just not evenly distributed) – if we imagine more people have current smartphones, internet access, tablets etc – how would we design approaches?£500 tablet will cost under £100 in 4 years
.. . But this isn’t easy.
Open – not tied to a particular social challengeInnovation - complicated but brings together these things
