In March, partners from Brasov in Romania and Paralimni in Cyprus visited Manchester, UK. This study visit was an opportunity for partners to experience first-hand, examples of user driven innovation and see how organisations such as, Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) and Manchester Digital Laboratory(MadLab) have applied this approach to their work.
The visit provided the project partners with an opportunity to see how Manchester City Council engages local innovation hubs and works alongside these grassroots organisations to create sustainable development within a City.
MDDA’s consultative approach to ICT development has allowed Manchester’s senior decision makers to see the immediate benefits of emerging technologies for their citizens. For example MDDA leads a recently establishedLiving Lab, which has been instrumental in the research on domestic energy management solutions. This in turn, has led to a number of City-wide initiatives to incorporate the use of green technology in their existing housing stock and even retro-fit these technologies into older homes.
MadLab provides grassroots insight to innovation and encouraged the project partners to get hands-on with Arduino’s and physical computing tools. MadLab’s learning by doing approach to ICT and digital creativity, has given it the informal title of an ‘innovation hub’ for the City – a space where digital and creative people come together and share their experiences.
The relationship between MDDA and MadLab is just one example of how knowledge is transferred between strategic leaders and digital communities to support the City’s economic development. It is hoped that the lessons learnt from these examples will support other in-country knowledge sharing processes for the visiting partners.
source: http://www.digital-cities.eu