- Country wide Slovenia initiative
- A Living Lab as a Concept and Work Method
- Reasons for the Initiative
- Initiative Objectives
- Suggested Activities
Country wide Slovenia initiative
Slovenia is a small country (20,273 km²) with a population of two million, geographically positioned in the hart of Central Europe at the cross-roads of the European Transport corridors No. 5 (Lisbon-Kiev), and No. 10 (Hamburg – Istanbul & Thessaloniki). Slovenia has been a member of the European Union since May 1, 2004, and a member of the Euro monetary zone since January 1, 2007. In the first half of 2008, Slovenia will be the first new Member State to hold the Presidency of the EU Council.
It is believed that Slovenia, as a country, is a suitable territory to consider itself a Living Lab for innovative ICT exploitation in order to contribute to the increased competitiveness of organizations and a better life for its citizens. For that reason, a group of business, government, and academic representatives has proposed an »Innovation for Quality of Life – Slovenia Living Lab” county-wide initiative on July 18, 2007. The Slovenia Living Lab concept and action is expected to contribute to the country’s position in the emerging Central European eRegion.
Ideas on the Living Lab concept are not new to Slovenia. Several activities have been organized in the spirit of the eRegion & Living Labs development in recent years:
- A business & Government Executive Meeting on Innovative, Cross-border eRegion, sponsored twice a year (2001-2007).
- The annual Workshop on Living Labs in the Innovative Cross-border eRegion. Sponsored by the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Maribor (2004-2007).
- The involvement of Slovenian Government representatives in the discussions on ICT-powered eRegion and Living Labs development:
- Memorandum of a Safe and Secure eRegion. Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 2005.
- The Information Society as key for regional development. By Ivan Žagar, Minister for the local self-government and Regional Policy of Slovenia. Towards a Knowledge Society - the Nordic Experience. Ministerial Conference, Gothenburg, November 14-15, 2005, Sweden.
- Slovenia in the eRegion: Exploiting eValues for Economic Growth. By Andrej Vizjak, Minister of the Economy, Republic of Slovenia. Opening plenary session, 19th Bled eConference, June 5, 2006.
- The Statement of the Slovenian Presidency. By Primož Pristovšek, Director General, Directorate for Science and Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, the Republic of Slovenia. Co-Creative Research and Innovation to Connect the Lisbon Strategy to the People – The European Network of Living Labs – ENoLL Event. Guimarães, Portugal, May 21, 2007.
- eRegion Central Europe: Exploiting the Opportunities of a Cross-border eMergence. By Matjaž Janša, Director General, Directorate for Electronic Communications, Ministry of Economy, Republic of Slovenia. Opening plenary session, 20th Bled eConference, June 4, 2007.
- The Potential Contributions of the European Parliaments to eMergence. Opening plenary session chaired by Romana Jordan Cizelj, European Parliament Member & Member, Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, 20th Bled eConference, June 4, 2007.
- eSilk & eAmber Roads Reflections. The eSilk & eAmber Roads Innovative Regions Think Tank: Business and Government Executives & Professors’ Commitment to Making a Difference, June 4, 2007. Co-chaired by Žiga Turk, Minister for Development, Republic of Slovenia & Veli-Pekka Niitamo, Director of Research, Business Infrastructures, Nokia, Finland & Chairman, Portfolio Leadership Group, European Network of Living Labs – ENoLL.
As was announced during the Bled 2007 eConference, the “Innovation for Quality of Life - Slovenia Living Lab« initiative is expected to cooperate with a similar Finnish initiative “Finland Open Test Bed”.
A Living Lab as a Concept and Work Method
A Living Lab is an environment in which researchers, developers and users cooperate with the common objective of delivering a tested product, solution or service respecting the users’ requirements and in a shortest time possible. The environment may be a city, a region within a country, an industry, a supply chain or a whole country. Here are some examples:
- City: Helsinki Living Lab - Arabianranta, Finland; Mobile City Bremen, Germany; Mobile City Bregenz, Austria.
- Region in a country: Turku Archipelago LL, Finland; Madeira LivingLab, Portugal; i2Cat Catalonia DigitalLab, Spain.
- Industry: Frascati LivingLab, Italy; Gödöllö Rural LL, Hungary; Knowledge Workers LL, Germany; eLivingLab, Slovenia.
- Supply chain: Györ Automotive LL, Hungary.
- Country: Slovenia Living Lab, Slovenia; Finland Open Test Bed, Finland.
In Living Labs, people exploit opportunities provided by ICT to connect themselves. The cooperation of companies, government organizations, universities and other research institutions in an accelerated implementation of ICT-powered solutions and services may be considered a big, broadly conceptualized laboratory. Since numerous individuals are involved in co-creation (user-driven innovation), such a laboratory is known as a Living Lab.
In the Living Lab, problems are studied in a multidisciplinary way: technology, economics, organization, sociology, legal and others. A laboratory of this type is a working environment new to everyone involved. This is why, in the Living Lab innovative solutions, and services can be achieved that are not possible by any organization or group alone. In that sense, the Living Labs represent an innovative approach and methodology (Aho, E., chair, 2006: Creating an Innovative Europe. Report of the Independent Expert Group on R&D and Innovation, appointed following the Hampton Court Summit. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, January 2006; The Helsinki Manifesto 20.11.2006: We have to move fast, before it is too late). Individuals and organizations can consider possible involvement in the Living Lab as a great opportunity, as something contributing to sustainable development. Working methods in the Living Lab are so different for all involved that years of gradual changes have to be anticipated.
A country-level Living Lab does not replace any existing organizational, or institutional mechanisms, neither does it duplicate them. It does create a new and much needed working environment for everyone involved who is devoted to creating ICT-powered solutions and services for a better life at an accelerated speed. In order to do so, opportunities to experiment at a country-wide level may be beneficial to everyone in the country. That can most probably happen in small countries only, who are open to connectivity and rapidly responsive. Such an approach can stimulate and accelerate achievement of the Lisbon Strategy objectives (Putting knowledge into practice: A broad-based innovation strategy for the EU. Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. COM(2006) 502 final. The Commission of the European Communities, Brussels, 13.9.2006.
Reasons for the Initiative
There are several reasons why the “Innovation for Quality of Life - Slovenia Living Lab« is a reasonable and doable initiative:
- Slovenia's economy is outstandingly devoted to international cooperation – in particular, several manufacturing industries, trade, banking, logistics and tourism;
- the country is ideally situated logistically at the cross-roads of the European Transport corridors No. 5 (Lisbon-Kiev), and No. 10 (Hamburg-Istanbul & Thessaloniki) and connected with the technologically advanced North Adriatic Port of Koper;
- Slovenia is a small country, very dynamic and open to process changes;
- In Slovenia, evaluation of innovative project proposals could be conducted holistically (at the country's level), which may be an advantage in comparison to a bigger country;
- The Slovenian ICT Network is operational in the country, involving over 40 organizations;
- Several technology platforms are organized:
- eMobility, http://www.eMobilnost.si;
- the Networked European Software & Services Initiative - NESSI, http://NESSI-Slovenia.com;
- media and electronic networks - NEM, http://www.nem.si;
- imbedded systems - ARTEMIS, http://www.TP-ARTEMIS.Uni-Mb.si);
- Several ICT Centres of Excellence and eCentres are in place in the country:
- the Centre of Excellence for information and communication technologies and services - CEICT (http://CoICT.Fe.Uni-Lj.si);
- the Centre of Excellence for concurrent information technologies and services, http://cot.uni-mb.si;
- the eCentre, http://eCenter.FOV.Uni-Mb.si/ecomENG/index.htm & eLiving Lab, http://eLivingLab.org;
- SINTESIO – Next Generation Networks (NGN) Test Laboratory in Bled, endorsed by the European Telecommunication Standardization Institute (ETSI), http://www.Sintesio.org;
- Educational programs in informatics and ICT are placed in all four Slovene universities;
- Inter-university eCollaboration has been established in the region, for example ALADIN – the ALpe ADria INitiative Universities’ Network;
- The publishing of the thematic annual issue of the Journal Organizacija »eRegion Development« in the years 2003-2007;
- The sponsorship of conferences on ICT exploitation:
- annual Bled eConference, http://BledConference.org;
- Hevreka (http://www.hevreka.si);
- OTS Concurrent technologies and services, http://www.cot.si/ots2007;
- annual »Slovene Informatics Days«, http://DSI2007.si);
- Informatics and Law, (http://www.cepris.si/inpro2007);
- annual Forum on Excellency and Mastership, Otocec;
- annual “Merkur Day, Undergraduate and Graduate Students eConference, http://eCenter.FOV.Uni-Mb.si/MerkurDay;
- Chapters of several international professional organizations have been established:
- the Association for Information Systems – AIS, http://AISnet.org, Slovenia Chapter http://eCenter.FOV.Uni-Mb.si/AIS;
- the information System Audit and Control Association, http://ISACA.org, Slovenia Chapter, http://www.si-revizija.si/isaca.
Initiative Objectives
The initiators are proposing the following initiative objectives to be realized:
- Focusing on a few research & development projects of the highest relevance to Slovenia delivering holistic solutions that can be implemented on a global market (»Slovenia can do it!«).
- Gaining practically useful, high added-value solutions through pilot implementations allowing for additional and new businesses in Slovenia and other countries.
- Providing for the interoperability of the existing technological platforms and the capacity of ICT companies for an effective and efficient technological breakthrough of Slovene industry.
- Improving long-term oriented collaboration with the most developed countries.
- Obtaining political support for the initiative accomplishment, both where and when it is needed. For example, obtaining the »status« of a country-wide Living Lab for the envisioned cooperation within the Slovenia-Finland country-to-country initiatives. Or for the implementation of holistic solutions – for example, cross-border eBusiness, cross-border disaster relief eCollaboration, eHealth, eCourt, radio diffusion, single road toll system, Internet enabled energy meters and similar.
- Helping Slovenia as a whole, and Slovene citizens and organizations, in obtaining an even higher score in global evaluations of the most successful users of ICT solutions and services.
Suggested Activities
The initiators are suggesting the following activities
- The encouragement of an experimental spirit (named a »beta culture« in Finland, learning by experimenting) for innovative eSolutions development in a cross-border eRegion covering the neighbouring countries from the organizations' and individuals' perspective.
- The exploitation of the Single European Electronic Market, in particular in the Single Euro Payments Area - SEPA.
- The exploitation of the Slovenia-Finland collaboration opportunities in the development and implementation of innovative approaches in accelerated ICT usage by interconnecting the »Slovenia Living Lab« and the “Finland Open Test Bed” initiatives.
- The development of an eSolutions and eServices implementation model in the Central European eRegion, contributing to the increased competitiveness and visibility of Slovenia.
- Ecosystems development for small and medium sized enterprises – SMEs – in order to assist them to successfully engage in ICT usage and collaborate in the cross-border service economy environment based on the latest ICT solutions and services.
- The creation of an inter-departmental government committee for evaluating research and development project proposals in the area of the »Innovation for Quality of Life - Slovenia Living Lab” aiming at accelerated eSolutions and eServices usage.
- Providing for the co-financing of the projects in the area of the »Innovation for Quality of Life - Slovenia Living Lab”.
- Engaging in related international project proposals, in particular in the 7th Framework Programme of the European Communities.
- The encouragement of up-to-date ICT architecture implementation.
- Support in connecting the highest possible number of Living Labs in Slovenia with related Living Labs in other countries and within the European Network of Living Labs – ENoLL).
Ljubljana, July 18, 2007