supporting innovation spaces internationally:

SUPPORTING INNOVATION SPACES INTERNATIONALLY

Sensemaking of the session September 28th, 2015


WHAT? Our challenge is to collectively explore the beginnings of new collaborative programmes and initiatives that can help strengthen the sustainability of hubs and the role they play in civic engagement.

WHO? You are invited as an expert within a diverse group of practitioners, funders, convenors and infrastructure builders.

WHY? Hubs have extraordinary potential to deliver high impact solutions and civic impact but too often they are working in isolation, unable to learn from or inspire one another. They can also suffer from a disjointed funding model and are at high risk of failing.

HOW? Swarm will facilitate a collaborative working session where we will learn from each other and via case studies to co-design some potential areas for future cooperation

WORKING SESSION FLOW

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Introductions and sense of purpose around HUBs

Playback of what you told us you were looking to collaborate on

Examples of HUBs that are innovating

Participation in a theme to find common ground on solutions

Close with a sense of where overlap and commitments can be made

PARTICIPANTS AND INTENTIONS

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DUNCAN EDWARDS, INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES - Interested in the intersection of technology and hubs and aligning commitments

PAUL MILLER, BETHNAL GREEN VENTURES - Have a number of informal relationships with other hubs and interested in how support can be further developed across the hub community

ROBIN MILLER, DALBERG - As head of their technology practice and as a former hub founder and member, interested in how growing gaps in digital inclusion can be bridged - through Hubs and Hub programmes - to ensure technological innovation creates positive disruption

SAMEER PADANIA, OPEN SOCIETY - An interest in how journalists interact with Hubs and civic spaces

INDERPAUL JOHAR, ARCHITECTURE00 - How Hubs can move from a pseudo real estate model to a movement model that focuses on systems change and is legitimate and adaptable in different geographic and economic contexts

SIMON MARSHALL, BIG LOTTERY FUND - Interested in how you can take tech out in the wider world

BEATRICE PEMBROKE, BRITISH COUNCIL - Interested in financial sustainability as well as how these often quite elite and inward-looking spaces can be opened up to broader communities

LYSNSEY SMITH, BRITISH COUNCIL - Interested in how Hubs can better communicate with one another


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JONATHAN ROBINSON, IMPACT HUB - Looking to create a new, bolder model of support for communities that goes beyond the bricks and mortar hub approach

LOREN TREISMAN, INDIGO TRUST - Interested in how funders can better support Hubs and how they can integrate civic engagement

FRAN PERRIN, INDIGO TRUST - As a funder, interested in how funders can better support these spaces

BEN MOSKOWITZ, MOZILLA - Digital skills are important for individuals and society and Mozilla has an interest in potentially adapting its own skills programmes to hub environments to create sustainability and leadership

MARK CRIDGE, MY SOCIETY - Hubs have been a successful user base for many My Society products but there is still a feeling that they are not maximising potential

GIULIO QUAGGIOTTO, NESTA - Has made many mistakes in setting up Hubs and wants people to learn from that

BRENTON CAFFIN, NESTA - Focus on capacity building and creating tools that help Hubs and their stakeholders do innovation better

KHURAM HUSSAIN, OMIDYAR NETWORK - Have invested in hubs with a certain amount of success and failure. Interested in sustainability, business models, successful collaborations,


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THOMAS FEENY, RESULTS FOR DEVELOPMENT - Interested in working with donors to understand how they can support innovation directly, align their goals and build a sustainable pipeline

HELEN TURVEY, SHUTTLEWORTH FOUNDATION - Interested in the collective intelligence in the room and in highlighting the cultural relevance of what Hub spaces are working on as well as incorporating ideas into new Principe venture

ANNA CHOINICKA, THE FOUNDATION - They help to support start-ups is interested in how they can use partnerships for sustainability

MATTHIAS FROEHLICH-REHFELD , GIZ - Looks at collaborative systems of exchange between digital innovation, maker cultures and startup ecosystems

SARAH DRINKWATER, GOOGLE CAMPUS - Campus has expanded around the world but tech is still too siloed - interested in where there is overlap with civil society and how those bridges can be built

SOPHE LEFERINK, HIVOS - Leaving role as a traditional funder but interested now in sustainability and civic engagement for hubs and how they open to a broader community

JONATHAN WONG, DFID INNOVATION HUB - Interested as a funder in hearing a compelling evidence-based narrative as to why to invest in hubs in preference to other areas of innovation and to hear about sustainability models and the role of donors in catalysing them

NICOLAS FRIEDERICI, OXFORD INTERNET INSTITUTE - Researchs hubs and innovation spaces

HUBS exploration - A summary of factors for success and failure

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SUCCESS FAILURE

Leadership • Driven and ambitious leaders

Execution • Tailored, structured and well considered support • Open and flexible

Community and wider ecosystem • Strong and diverse partnerships - with corporates, funders and

civil society • A strong understanding of local context - skill level,

connectivity, social and cultural context • A well nurtured broader community • Ability to harness diverse talents - from individuals, activists

and creatives, not just NGOs • Global and local connections • Inspire communities • Aligned with the needs and agendas of stakeholders

Sustainability • Sustainability is built in from the start

Impact • Ability to articulate a broader impact beyond the Hub

Mission • Mission undefined

Leadership • Failure to develop wider management team and plan for

succession • Leaders that are unfocused and distracted

Execution • They try to do too much and end up being too generalist • Too much talking, not enough doing

Community and wider ecosystem • Failure to articulate and define value proposition • Elitist and separate from the wider community • Failure to align activities with broader government agendas • Too donor focused • Too much belief in their own hype

Impact • Failure to demonstrate impact

HUBS exploration - Success and failure - the importance of definition

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Participants also pointed out that the sector suffers from a lack of alignment around definitions and expectations. This lack of alignment contributes to the erosion of trust between stakeholders, difficulty in getting initiatives off the ground and a lack of direction for the wider Hub community. In particular:

1. DEFINITIONS OF SUCCESS - Success is variably defined. Narrow measures focus on number of sustainable start-ups created

2. EXPECTATIONS AROUND TIMEFRAMES - Funders often focus on short timeframes for impact but this is to miss the point that many hubs are operating in difficult market conditions that have an influence on innovation cycles

3. EXPECTATIONS AROUND HUB ROLE - Hubs are part of wider systems. While Hubs need to assess the dynamics of these systems accurately and create relationships with other parties in order to generate success, not everything can be achieved through Hubs.

Learnings from THEMES

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Financial Sustainability

• Models are quite varied really; rent vs. consulting vs. return from startups vs. grants vs. crowdfunding

• Renting vs. owning property makes a big difference • Do the founders, stay on as CEO/MD • This is not a big or high margin business • Ability to monetise the intangible assets created • Based on the legitimacy of the group and its purpose • Naming of research & development vs. Innovation

Leadership

Community development

Civic engagement

• Could you back and piece together existing programs to create a suite for the leaders

• Should the vision be 1000 ten person hubs, rather then the other way around

• HUB might just be a spot that has a need that it is serving • Natural emergent from the roots of where the need is • Spokes rather then HUBs maybe

• Stop unfocused hackathons, the solution is rarely a mobile app, do not let donor drive the problem

• Deliberate cross-fertilisation of groups (tech, policy, design, funders)

• No need to continue to ‘romantise' the new, start with what is already there in the community

• Who is framing the problem? civic works better when addressing real need, not always tech answer!

• Recognise role of existing hub in the existing ecosytem • Skills exchange are needed

• Building and upskilling in the community • Let the building happen more organically, coming from

the community and not push too much from donors • Networks & groups can facility this building with

introductions as groups exist • DIY toolkit and other online tools exist • Need to be matched by the on-ground person knowledge

and then supplemented with on-line community

SUMMARY of the session

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Indy: in just 10 years there are now 700 of them, that is quite something. regardless of full evidence of impact, something is happening

Indigo: 1/10 of the time we need on this topic

Lots and lots of summits and conferences coming up very soon…seems like an opportunity to gather again at the right opportunity; SOCAP is a place where a gathering of social accelerators always meetup together

More research is really needed on the impact, the space//skills//value that has been gained

Civic program looking at 12 places to doing testing and understanding against

Traditional donors might need training or coaching as they get involved in this space

Could we more clearly figure out the failures and get them better documented

[email protected] @channelswarm www.swarm.gd

SWARM IS A CREATIVE COLLABORATION COMPANY

http://www.swarm.gd

Appendix

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The British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London, SW1A 2BN

Thursday 24 September, 2015

10:30 - 13:00 with Lunch to follow

Have you worked with and/or through hubs?

CURRENT AND PLANNED WORK

Are you currently developing and/or delivering programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Yes -10

No -1

Yes -12

No -1

Multinational programmes

Would you be interested in working with other attendees?

COLLABORATIVE INTENTION

Would you be able to provide resources and/or funds to a programme that interested you?

Yes - 9

Yes, in the future - 2

Yes -14

No answer - 2

Potentially - 1

No answer - 3

The results from the questionnaire point to great experience and a great desire to collaborate on new projects

PROGRAMME THEMES TO EXPLORE

Financial Sustainability

Business models

Products and services

Learning communities

Digital skills

Leadership skills and

development

Products and services for civil

society

Digital journalism

Policy engagement

Increasing diversity

Youth employmentCreative

economy

Digital skills and access

Financial product

developmentLeadership

Community development

Civic engagement

The group coming have pointed at these specific areas, that group into themes that they are exploring around Hubs

HUBS exploration; factors of success and failure group #1

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•Local context, eg. tech skills, connectivity, society’s understanding

•Strong partnerships with corporates, funders, civil society

•Tailored and structured support to startups and social organisations

•Community strength behind the HUB

SUCCESS FAILURE

•Champion distraction, leader dependent •Hard to clearly define what will happen need

stronger value proposition •Hard to demonstrate impact •Local communities do not understand it •Can be elitist •Could they have more relationship to government

and align with agenda •Too generalist and try to do too much •Over pulled in direction of donors focus


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•Density and willing •Open •Of the community •Flexible •Connections, globally and locally

SUCCESS FAILURE

•Lack of knowledge of local needs •Unclear mission •Inflexible •Lack of clarity •Ability to demonstrate impact •How does one define success?


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•Bring in diversity •Critical mass & density of community &

connections •Good local drivers, eg. regulations, skills,

infrastructure •Good reputation/well known •Use opens to share/scale •Build strong community first and focus on their

needs •Tailored, structured support for members,

startups, social orgs •Strong, diverse partnerships, breakout of silo,

corporate, civil society, funders •Harness the talent of individuals, activists,

creatives to tackle social challenges — not just traditional NGOs

•Focus on need/challenges of local communities, map the interests of wider community

•Narrative around contribution to change, impact beyond the hub

SUCCESS FAILURE

•Exclusive/elitist •Talk shop and lack action •Champion/leader distracted •Hard to define value prop clearly •Hard to demonstrate impact •Wider community do not understand role •Too generalist •Over pulled in directions of donors •Struggle to bring in diverse player too capital city

focussed, english speaking, wealthy, just techies, etc


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•Inspiration •People who lead Hubs, board, operations •Sustainability built-in from the start •What is success? Sustainability? number of

startups? donors can just ask for numbers •Build ecosystem from the start •Action based research, aligned with international

community •Hub collaboration more broadly with wider

system actions more broadly

SUCCESS FAILURE

•Not given a chance to prove themselves •Evidence point •Mismatch between donor and community

expectations •Disconnect with policy and government structure

and systemic change •Innovation takes a long time •Cultural dimension is important •Only look at things from their own perspective

and believe the hype

supporting innovation spaces internationally:

Technology