Coming into the office on the weekend is usually avoided, but sometimes the reason is too worthwhile to pass up. Last weekend Code Club and Raspberry Pi took over Nesta's lab-like first floor to run an experiment of its own: its first ever 24hr hack day.
Business support and professional development are critical to growing the nation's talent and businesses. But with the onslaught of cuts to the public sector, cuts to business support services and the residual effects of the worst recession ever, how can the public and private sector provide these services effectively without breaking the bank?
The following is a guest blog from Anna Birney, Head of System Innovation Lab, Forum for the Future.
Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation once said: "Solutions to many of the world's most difficult social problems don't need to be invented. They need only to be found, funded and scaled." She's right.
Collaborative consumption in public services depends on creating new kinds of relationships with, and between, citizens with a particular emphasis on trust between strangers acting as the glue that holds the system together. Our event earlier this year explored this notion in more detail. It's worth visiting these presentations, as they contain lots of useful ideas and thinking from across public sector and the entrepreneurial community.
The solution to better public services isn't better technology, it's just enough technology to allow better human contact.
London coffee houses of the 17th century were fertile ground for innovation.
Partnership with service users is part of the day job for many frontline staff. Teachers can’t teach if students don’t learn. Doctors can’t heal if patients don’t comply with treatments. And yet public services are rarely designed with these principles in mind. The implicit assumption – in design terms at least – is that service users don’t want to play more of a role, and that it’s only the domain of professionals to take decisions and direct resources.
It is important to remember that the journey from idea to start up to venture backing is just the first part of the adventure. The key issue is then scaling the business and really growing shareholder value. In his guest blog, Chris Winstanley the VP Marketing at Basekit talks about that challenge.
How different would your life be if you didn't trust anyone - who could you share a problem with? Who could you ask for advice or help? For some, this can become part of a wider issue of low resilience - an individual's limited ability to deal with things themselves or being more badly affected by a negative incident.
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