Using Technology for Social Innovation can be a force for good!
It was great to attend the Social Innovation Forum this year to see some of the Global Trends within innovation which align closely to the UN targets on How to make Global Impact set in September 2015. The UN outlined 17 Sustainable Development Goals to aim for, all of which can be seen as inarguably noble. There are however questions that need to be asked as many of these Goals are open to interpretation depending on the worldview one holds, makes measurement difficult. I have listed the 17 Goals below:
1: No Poverty
2: Zero Hunger
3: Good Health and Well-being
4: Quality Education
5: Gender Equality
6: Clean Water and Sanitation
7: Affordable and Clean Energy
8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
10: Reduced Inequality
11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
12: Responsible Consumption and Production
13: Climate Action
14: Life Below Water
15: Life on Land
16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
The tone for the event was set with an introduction showing us that more and more Disruptive Technologies are driving transformation in society and that these new technologies are mainly driven through:
Better efficiencies
Rich data - Advanced analytics
Artificial intelligence
As a result of this manufacturing has been completely transformed along with transportation. We now seem to have complex technological environments and are creating new ecosystems with such technologies. The processes employed to create these ecosystems generally follows the below process:
Modelling eco system with Asset
Virtualize asset
Get analytics
Prediction
AI
We are now progressing faster than ever through Collaborative Creation by combing ideas, data and systems. This makes for a very powerful combination. Some examples of how we are collaborating are through:
SMART Energy
Car sharing and sharing other such things
Digitising utilities
EV
Security
The security industry is being completely transformed and although there is lots of data and information out there, to move to a next level, we need to take a different mindset and take a more collaborative approach. This is the kind of mindset that has been taken through the rise in cryptocurrencies with Blockchain, but the power of the community and collaboration increases the power of the tool.
Three areas in which we are moving to enhance such security are
Need to combine (often working in Silo's)
Collating and analysing data (lots of information to work through)
Operational efficiency
Combining all of the above is creating a new value chain using technology and therefore we are now having security video intelligence to a level we have not seen before
Transport
On transport systems, there are now many sensors to check the condition of the trains, busses or cars. These improve delays and passenger /customer experience. Increases in paperless ticketing technology are revolutionising the way we travel and these systems can better society considerably. We need to look at the positives and embrace the new technology, not focusing on the risks.
The world is becoming a more complex and integrated society, which is exciting and gives us an opportunity to help improve all of our lives.
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Disruption Technology is good for us as it challenges status quo and drives innovation and forces us to think creatively. This is what makes for an interesting time to live.
In the UK, we punch above our weight regarding the innovation, but compared to Silicone Valley, we are not so great at the commercialisation of digital technology. Silicon Valley do this well that, but generally speaking, we tend not to upscale so well.
My thoughts are that Silicone Valley tend to create "causes" and can politicise things more, while in the UK, people tend to stay more focussed on the tasks at hand - this could be one of the reasons why Silicone Valley is so embroiled in the political sphere.
A couple of things that became clear in the talks was that in most cases when dealing with complex integration, setting clear KPI's and goals to measure innovation is also important to keep things on track. But skillful leadership is most critical when working with big data and collaborating with numerous projects.