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 We are really pleased to be able to announce the publication of the TRAIL Living Labs toolkit. The toolkit, called “Better Together – The TRAIL User Participation Toolkit for Living Labs“, is now available for immediate purchase on Lulu. Click here to view it on Lulu.
The toolkit is a full-colour book with over 100 pages including a foreword by Professor Àlvaro Oliveira, President of the ENoLL Association and Chair of the Council of the European Network of Living Labs. Topics include an introduction to user-participation and to living labs, as well as the steps necessary to be taken to engage with people before, during and after participation exercises. The book also includes several relevant profiles, a full case study as well as a separate chapter on governance and ethical issues in participation.
We wanted to develop a toolkit to help empower other living labs and communities generally to develop their own evidence base to help in decision marking and development of solutions to their local problems. In October 2011, we published the results of the first survey of living labs from across Europe and beyond. The results of this survey clearly indicated that a majority of living labs found it difficult to engage with people in a constructive way, and to translate engagement with users into new services, solutions and products. A majority also said that they would benefit from access to practical advice and assistance on engaging with users.
We developed this toolkit to help anyone currently operating living labs or wishing to carry out research and innovation activities with users to make it easier to translate from user needs to products, services and solutions. We hope that you find it of practical use and do please let us know how it can be improved by emailing us at trail@ulster.ac.uk.
The European Commission is today undertaking a final review of the BRAIN project which was funded within 7th Framework Research Programme. The focus of the project was to develop a brain computer interface (BCI) that could be used at home by people who had acquired brain injury. The Cedar Foundation were partners leading on user participation and evaluation of both software and hardware developments. TRAIL Living lab has been involved in both the user aspects of the project and technological advancement.
 (L-R) Frank Tipping (Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre), Jim Russell, (Department for Employment and Learning) Michael McAvoy (Belfast Regeneration Office ) Barbara McGread (Belfast Regeneration Office) and Murdo Murray ( North Belfast Partnership) North Belfast Partnership and Belfast Regeneration came together Friday 18th of November 2011 to focus on the realities of worklessness within the five partnership zones of North Belfast. The workshop started with presentations to ‘set the scene’ from Belfast Regeneration Office, Department for Employment and Learning and Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre and was chaired by North Belfast Partnership. Following this the main body of the event included facilitated discussions on topics relevant to workslessness that emerged from a key paper produced by Joseph Rowntree earlier this year. The event was closed by Michael Mc Avoy , Deputy Director – Belfast Regeneration Office, who reflected on the conversations he had been part of that day and also the value of work personally and the stark reality of worklessness in the lives of people. John Mc Corry from North Belfast Partnership thanked the University of Ulster and specifically the TRAIL lab for facilitating this workshop. For these organisations the effort towards decreasing both worklessness and its impact on the people of North Belfast will continue long beyond Friday’s event which helped inform thinking about a way forward.
 The Parterre EU funded research project provided the ideal mechanism of the Electronic Town Meeting (ETM) to enable the TRAIL living lab – University of Ulster and the Queens University Belfast to partner in a workshop on Business Innovation – Engaging for Growth.
Supported by InterTrade Ireland this event attracted participants from all sectors interested in promoting a stronger economy within the region of Northern Ireland. Professor Mulvenna from the University of Ulster said “the event provided a forum for people to really engage in useful discussion on both the mechanisms, structures and factors that currently influence innovation and also make recommendations to support innovation within the sme sector.”
Professor Maurice Mulvenna from TRAIL and Dr Nola Hewitt-Dundas from Queen’s University Belfast collaborated on delivering a highly successful event which produced an instant report of key recommendations.
The TRAIL Living Lab 2011 Survey is now publicly available for download after registering at this page.
TRAIL members are attending a consortium meeting for the EU funded PARTERRE project 20th October 2011. TRAIL are presenting the Northern Ireland Pilots and developing a plan for year 2 of the project. PARTERRE is exploring the use of electronic town hall meetings within Northern Ireland to enable eParticipation and civic engagement.
 On the 6th October 2011, from 0900hrs to 1700hrs, the Conference of the MaPEeR SME project was held at the offices of the Committee of the Regions, in the framework of European SME Week 2011.
The Opening ceremony counted with distinguished participants: Mr Gianluca Spinaci (Member of the cabinet of president of Committee of the Regions), Mrs. Lieve Van Woensel (DDG Research, European Commission), Mrs Cristina Gutiérrez-Cortinés (Member of the European Parliament) and Dr. Julián Seseña, chair of the European Experts Panel on Research by SMEs and Coordinator of the MAPEER SME FP7 project, funded by the European Commission.
Mrs Gutiérrez-Cortinés asked for better focus of the use of the Structural Funds and their applicability to the innovation and research investments. Mr Spinaci offered the debates within the Committee of the Regions to further debate on the push of Innovation and SMEs. Mrs Lieve Van Woensel reminded the efforts of the European Commission supporting SMEs, being MAPEER SME, together with other two projects (Rapport and Gprix), examples of the actions conducted to identify best practices for connecting SMEs and Research. Dr. Seseña thanked the participation of distinguished representatives from the Committee of the Regions, the European Commission and the European Parliament in this importance Conference.
During the Conference the main findings and conclusions of studies on more than 200 national and regional RTDI programmes from across Europe and the related views of over 800 SMEs were presented. An opportunity was provided for European SME programme managers, policy-makers, representatives and other SME stakeholders to discuss how to improve the participation of SMEs in the RTDI arena and how to enhance the regional, national and European RTDI programmes which specifically target SMEs in order to make those programmes more attractive to potential participants.
The audience was encouraged to participate in the debate and, during the three sessions, the speakers gave their opinions about the state of the art of current RTDI programmes. Session I, presented the lessons learned as a result of the MaPEeR SME studies as well as challenges for the future participation of SMEs in RTDI programmes and projects. The presentation of good practiceS, by programme managers from Germany, Italy, Sweden and Hungary, enabled the participants to understand the value of the Europe-wide research and analysis carried out on the RTDI programmes. Session II introduced the innovation and research experience of SMEs in the Open Living Labs initiative. This was followed by a presentation of the results of two other EU-funded projects on SMEs in traditional industries and of the knowledge needed for business innovation in SMEs.
In the afternoon a round table discussion was held on The Way Ahead with the participation by the major European networks active in the RTDI arena. The discussion was opened by Ms. Lieve Van Woensel, European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, with the presentation of Horizon 2020, the new EU Framework Programme for research and innovation. Various points of view and different experiences related to SMEs’ requests and needs related to the EU’s current 7th Framework Programme and the upcoming Horizon 2020 were shared. The latest measures to assist SMEs, contained in the new Common Strategic Framework Programme, were discussed and analysed by the different representative of the most important networks in Brussels: EEN, ACC1Ó, NESSI, EUREKA, EBN, ARTEMIS, VUB and Scottish Enterprise.
The overall debate contributed to a final set of recommendations about measures to enhance the suitability and relevance of European, national and regional research and technology development programmes in order to enhance the participation of SMEs therein.
For further information visit: www.mapeer-sme.eu, or contact Mauro Bianchi, mbianchi@teseo.be, TESEO Sprl, 32Avenue de Tervuren B-1040 Brussels
 FixTheWeb is a national programme allowing any disabled person encountering accessibility problems online to inform a group of volunteers – now morethan 600-strong – who will pursue the issue with the website owner on their behalf. Volunteers can be contacted using email, Twitter, a web form or a special browser toolbar, allowing anyone to report any web accessibility issue quickly and easily. The project is led by the digital inclusion charity Citizens Online with funding from Nominet Trust.
So far about 700 websites have been reported through the service, Gail Bradbrook, the project’s manager, told the second
annual Web Accessibility London Unconference at City University last week.
 A strategic summit was held at the University of Ulster’s Jordanstown campus, aiming to provide an opportunity for decision makers to address key questions on the future strategy of Open Data and Open Government. The issue of Open Data has gained a high profile recently with both the Obama administration and the UK coalition prioritising government transparency and promoting the release of public sector information via the internet.
The Summit investigates the evolution of open data across a regional, national, European and global context and move the discussion towards specific recommendations and actions and uses a state-of-the-art e-participation tool, the Electronic Town Meeting (eTM), which is being trialed by the University of Ulster, to facilitate the discussion and identify recommendations and actions.
The event is supported by the EU-funded PARTERRE Project and Dr Suzanne Martin from the University of Ulster’s School of Health Sciences is responsible for the Northern Ireland projects. She said: “The use of the eTM will enable a comprehensive report on the outcomes of the round table discussions to be compiled in real time, as the event takes place.
 “The outcome from the summit will be passed to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the UK Cabinet Office, to help inform policy in this crucial area.”
Professor Hugh McKenna University of Ulster Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation) gave the welcome address at the summit.
Both the conference and summit are the fourth in a series of all-island conferences organised under the OpenIsland banner.
 The all-island OpenGov conference will be taking place on 22nd-23rd of September in Belfast. It is the fourth event in a series of conferences organised under the “OpenIsland” banner, which focus on the challenges and opportunities of Open Innovation and Open Technologies. Previous events have had attracted a broad range of international experts on various subjects. This year’s theme is “Open Government”, with a particular focus on the topics of Open Data and eParticipation.
Open Government is a concept which is currently attracting a huge amount of attention in the US, UK, and across Europe. Although Open Government is not about technology per se, the internet brings with it the promise of new and improved models of governance. It requires the public sector to consider how it might use new technologies to act more efficiently and effectively, and enable stronger relationships between government, industry and the public.
At a time of increasing concerns about the risk of a disengaged and disillusioned electorate, Open Government offers the possibility of reconnecting citizens to the democratic process. Current economic problems of growing debt and government deficits are also demanding new thinking about how public services are delivered. Given these challenges, it is increasingly clear that government must be re-envisioned and re-designed for the 21st century. The success of the Open Source movement suggests that the value of openness lies not only having access to information, but also having the ability to participate in a meaningful way. Government must become an interactive, two-way process, designed to be open-by-default.
One of the responses of the European Commission has been to launch their eParticipation initiative. Starting in 2006, the initial “top-down” approach focused on improving transparency in order to promote trust in political institutions. More recently, the emphasis has shifted to a “bottom-up” approach, utilising technologies to directly engage citizens in policy development and decision-making.
Despite the challenges that must inevitably be faced, the potential for Open Government and eParticipation is huge, offering the opportunity for engagement with citizens across the whole of society on a scale that was previously unthinkable.
 The OpenGov event will take place over two days, with a free conference on Thursday 22nd September and an invitation-only workshop on the 23rd September.
Speakers at the one-day conference on the 22nd will include:
- Bill McCluggage, Deputy CIO at the Cabinet Office;
- Deb Bryant, Public Sector Communities Manager at Oregon State University and adviser on open development models in the US public sector;
- Tim Willoughby, Assistant Director in the Local Government Computer Services Board;
- Josh Holmes, Architect Evangelist and Open Data adviser with Microsoft Ireland;
- as well as a wide range of local and international experts.
The second day is an invitation-only summit which will focus on the issue of Open Data public policy. Open Data has gained a high profile in recent years with both the Obama administration and the UK coalition prioritising government transparency, and promoting the release of public sector information via the internet. David Cameron recently published a letter stressing the importance of open data, and the Cabinet Office has just released a public consultation document called “Making Open Data Real”, which will form the main topic of the workshop.
The workshop will be supported by the EU-funded Parterre Project, and will use state-of-the-art technology (the “Electronic Town Meeting” system) to generate a comprehensive report of the day’s proceedings. Recommendations will be passed to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Cabinet Office, to help inform policy in this crucial area.
More information and free online registration for the event can be found at the OpenIsland website: http://openisland.net
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