This document summarizes a conversation on social innovation in building a network society. It discusses the need for new social structures like maverick networks to foster innovation. It also addresses the importance of more effective communication through public consultation and agile policymaking. Failure is seen as necessary for learning and social progress. Small startups like experience platforms and charities can drive social innovation. New forms of storytelling and collaboration hubs are needed to share new ideas and opportunities. The big ideas are new networks, new consultation processes, and new platforms to collaboratively build a network society.

1. Social Innovation 2011
A Curated Conversation on
Building Network Society
@FredGarnett London Knowledge Lab
& OpenRSA…

2. Social Innovation
Building the Network Society;
Nick Jankel, Oliver Ashton, David Roberts
Tessy Briton, Catherine Howe, Tom Phillips
Roxanne Commutiny, Malcolm Forbes, Ed Anderton
Philippa Young, Lucy Innovation, Nicola Millson
David Wilcox, Alice 00, Generative Innovations
3 Big Ideas on Social Innovation
Links to Resources

3. An Internet of People
Moving from Hierarchies to Networks
Ben Hammersley in his British Council
Lecture 2011 said our national problem
is the inability to build Network Society
with hierarchical thinkers
Can Social Innovation in the UK solve
this problem? Here are some thoughts

4. Issue 1
Do we have the right Social Structures?
What Social Structures
might help in creating
innovation processes for a
Network Society?

5. Nick Jankel-Wonder
Build a Maverick Network
RSA fellows in the 18th Century had “the
temporal and emotional freedom to think,
meet, talk and co-create The
Enlightenment.” However it now seems
now you need to be an institutional
‘maverick’ to become innovation. He calls
for a network of ‘Mavericks Anonymous’
like the one in Silicon Valley, which can be
responsive to disruptive change.

6. Ollie Ashton - ThundrBump
In an “Innovation Society”…
an innovation society begins with
education to seed diversity and cross
pollinate curricula, changing industrial
management structure into an innovation
landscape for a post-industrial era'.
We can learn from government-funded
Bletchley Park & think about how the
Victorians became an innovation society

7. David Roberts - Salford
By creating “societal innovations”…
Societal Innovation is about asking and
finding ways forward to the challenges of
work, worklessness, and how we are to
make meaning from our work.
It asks 'how can the future look for young
people and those currently not engaged in
meaningful work.' It investigates ways in
which work and working practices can
accommodate all in society.

8. Issue 2
Do we have the right communication processes?
How might we talk more
effectively to each other in a
Network Society?

9. Tessy Britton – Thriving Too
As good decisions come from pooled knowledge
Citizens don’t know everything and nor do local
authorities but good decisions come out of
blending those two together. There are
necessary levels of activism & unnecessary
levels of activism, and those normally come
about through bad decisions.
I think that we need to start to think much more
about pulling on the imagination of citizens and
local authorities alike through consultations

10. Catherine Howe – public-i
& making policy formation agile..
Agile approaches focus on the plan & not the
objective, working in iterative evidence based
cycles. Agile assumes complexity some of the
affordances of network society; real time
information, transparency & collaboration to
deliver outcomes within each iteration.
We work in an open, networked and highly
agile environment. Would more agile policy
making deliver more innovative policy?

11. Tom Phillips - #Gov20
But delivery targets block agile policy
Local authorities are pressured to turn pilot
innovations into mainstream practice often well
ahead of evaluation. Fear of failure & the
unknown coupled with "good process" rather
than "good outcomes" & “what we are doing”
gets more airtime than “why we need to do it”.
So we perpetuate services that are just good
enough, remaining slow and excessively
cautious in their reaction to innovation

12. Issue 3
Can failure help us redefine what we do?
Is Failure the necessary
precursor to social
innovation?

13. Roxanne - Commutiny
Failure is ‘the dark heart of success’
A symbiotic relationship which can be positively
directed towards learning; reflectively gathering
experience-based wisdom to inform future
decisions and behaviour.
Learning from failure builds trust, resilience &
social capital. It supports collaboration,
mutuality & cognitive surplus. In people, facing
failure stimulates creativity. In organisations it
supports innovation and improvement. In
society it leads to social progress.

14. Malcolm Forbes - Regenesys
& Redefine institutions as social enterprises
Ring fence a Robin Hood tax as a social
innovation and enterprise fund with key
objectives to support the development of
local community networks, action,
volunteers etc.
Each local bank branch would be given
responsibilities to ensure the social resilience
of their local area and running an open
process to provide the funding to assist this.

15. Ed Anderton - Nominet
& bringing empathy to new connections
Can empathy can be generated and sustained
between the individuals whose involvement is
required for social innovation to consistently
flourish: community members, authorities local
and national, investors/funders, businesses,
media (social or otherwise).
Individuals adopt roles which tend to create
distance rather than encourage connection in a
culture of abstract analysis and emotional
distancing

16. Issue 4
Change comes from the margins
Where can we start small
and so grow the next
generation?

17. Philippa Young - Fishtank
Build experience platforms like…
Fishtank brings together a filmmaker,
social issue, and a team of people with no
(or little) prior experience of filmmaking.
Together they will produce a film.
Using guerrilla filmmaking strategies they
will collaborate, travel with purpose,
connect to an issue, learn new skills and
participate in the creative process to create
something that others can learn from.

18. Lucy - Innovation
…and charities as social innovators
Innovation has become a buzzword that
has lost its meaning.
How can charities get better at driving
innovation, overcoming the barriers of
lack of resource, lack of long term vision
and fear of taking risks in new product
and idea development in case they are
accused of ‘wasting’ donors money.

19. Nicola Millson – Carbon
& address key green innovation issues
Can the current level of green innovation shift
us towards a more sustainable world? Are new
products, services, behaviours or business
models – truly making a difference?
A systemic change framework that evaluates
innovation programmes against characteristics
required for systemic change could help. These
characteristics are: aligned, balanced, learning,
engaged and impactful.

20. Issue 5
We need new forms of social reporting
How can we tell new stories
about the new?

21. David Wilcox – Social Reporter
New ways of telling new stories…
Social innovation reporters connect
conversation and people from different
fields using a mix of media, surfacing
stories as they go.
They spot new opportunities, help make
sense of possibilities, and build networks
to make them happen

22. Alice – 00:/
Build the future today in collaboration hubs…
Hub Westminster is extraordinary. A
great space for creative collaborations, in
the heart of London.
Full of people aspiring to change their
bit of the world holding events bringing
new ideas together collaboratively

23. Fred Garnett - LKL
& creating ‘generative innovations’
Innovation is a heutagogic process enabling
us to move out of our comfort zone & play
with how we do things as part of an
ongoing collaborative process
We need to develop ‘open platforms’ for
innovation; new hubs & new communities
which develop ‘generative innovations’

24. Social Innovation
So we have three big ideas on social innovation
New Networks for sharing ideas
New forms of public consultation and
agile conversations with emerging ideas
New platforms of practical opportunities
to build network society collaboratively

25. Education Innovation
More information on Educational Innovation
BIS Public Sector Innovation Blog
TEL Research Communities
TEL Projects
ALT-TEL Review for BIS