EU Digital Policies : Digital Society index, Digital Service Act and more

EU Digital Policies : Digital Society index, Digital Service Act and more

by | 3 Nov 2020 | Communs & plaidoyer, Editorial, Revue de presse

As every trimester, our EU Tech expert Arnaud Castaignet delivers his analysis on the last EU Tech data and policies. From the Digital part of the State of European Union Speech to the last editions of the European Digital Society Index, including the debates on Digital Service Act in Brussels, here is Arnaud’s sum up of what Social Good organisations must retain of the last EU tech news. 

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, presented on September, 16th to the European Parliament her vision in her first State of the European Union address. Since she got appointed, a strong focus has been made on the EU Green Deal. This speech was the opportunity to highlight the Commission’s other top priority: “Europe’s Digital Decade”. 

Tech and digital will have a great importance in the Next Generation EU fund and will be backed up by 20% investment in digital from it, meaning €150bn of the EU’s €750bn recovery fund will be spent on digital projects. Three focus areas have been identified: industrial data, AI and infrastructure.

Talking about industrial data (as opposed to consumer data) shows that the EC will focus on the development of a data economy, hoping to reap the benefits of the fact the amount of industrial data in the world will quadruple in the next five years. The EC is pushing forward with plans to develop common data spaces hosted on a new cloud platform, GaiaX, in energy and health sectors for instance, and is looking forward to support cooperation between start-ups, companies, SMEs, researchers. When it comes to consumer data, Von der Leyen considers that Europe “has been too slow and is now dependent on others”.

On AI, the President of the European Commission actually pushed new AI governance laws back. When she was elected last November, she promised to introduce AI legislation within the first hundred days of her presidency. During her speech, she mentioned that it would be proposed next year, with “a human-centric approach” to rules and regulation. It is worth noting that she also propose a secure European e-identity, that will allow citizens to use it anywhere in Europe to do anything from paying taxes to renting a bicycle, and will guarantee control over personal data, which may sound similar to principles of Estonia’s e-identity.

Infrastructure investments should also be a strong focus in the road to “Europe’s digital decade”. It is more than needed given that digital divide remains very important in Europe as highlighted in the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), a composite index that summarises relevant indicators on Europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU Member States in digital competitiveness. Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands scored the highest ratings in DESI 2020 and are among the global leaders in digitalisation. These countries are followed by Malta, Ireland and Estonia. Some other countries however still have a long way to go, in terms of infrastructure but also human capital and ability to use Internet services and technologies. Most of them are among the countries with the lowest GDP in the EU (Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, for instance) or strongly affected by Covid19 and its economic consequences (Italy). Therefore, there is a high risk that both digital divide and economic inequalities may deepen. It is worth noting that the biggest countries are not necessarily the most digitally advanced: France is only ranked 15th overall and even 18th when we focus on connectivity, according to DESI index.

The pandemic has exposed the stark reality of Europe’s digital divide. While countries and regions with good internet connections have been able to continue living life with at least a semblance of normality, others have not been so lucky. Of those living in rural areas, 40 per cent still lack access to fast broadband. The investment boost through NextGenerationEU will look to drive expansion to these areas. The investments will be focused on secure connectivity, on the expansion of 5G, 6G and fiber.

This State of the Union speech shows that digital and environmental transitions will be the key priorities of the EU in the coming years and that these transitions are deeply connected. Digitalisation is clearly considered as critical to achieve environmental transition, particularly in urbanism (smart cities), mobility and decarbonisation of the economy and the industry. Again, the main risk is that the same countries might be the winners. Denmark, for instance, is both among the leaders in digitalisation and one of the countries whose smart cities initiatives will help decrease the most carbon emissions. 

Meanwhile, in Brussels, the Digital Services Act Package is the most important text for the EU digital economy that will shake up discussions between the Commission and the Parliament until the end of the year. It is an ambitious arsenal to tackle both the dominance of the digital giants and their policies on moderation. It is being led by Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market. In a recent interview with the newspaper Le Monde, he explains that the regulation of social networks “is intended to be dealt with at the European level”. Many of the measures are based on the French law on confidence in the digital economy (LCEN), which in France governs the same sector. The Digital Services Act also provides that the platforms can identify and locate Internet users posting under a pseudonym “if necessary”. In case of breach, the sites could be financially sanctioned or “be prohibited from accessing the internal market of the European Union”. For the platforms concerned, the calculations would be made according to a threshold of audience “yet to be determined”. The discourse is quite clear, however, and targets sites with “much larger audiences than traditional media, which gives them responsibilities similar to those of an editorial director or content editor”. Apple, Google and Facebook could be put on a “black list” established by the European Union (EU). As reported in the Financial Times, the EU institutions would be developing stricter rules to regulate the digital services market and impose new rules on the biggest players in the market, both in terms of business practices and data sharing and transparency on data collection. large companies to change their business practices. This would include forcing America’s mastodons to share their data and to be more transparent about how they collect it, according to specific criteria.
Discussed in Parliament in week 43, the own-initiative reports by Alex Agius Saliba (S&D) in the Internal Market Committee (Imco), Tiemo Wolken (S&D) for Legal Affairs (Juri) and Kris Peeters (EPP) for Civil Liberties (Libe) were adopted, almost without amendments.

For More Information

The Digital Economy and Society Index – DESI 2020

DESI 2020: Questions and Answers

Country performance in digital

Data Visualisation Tool

DESI 2020 methodology

Digital technologies – actions in response to coronavirus pandemic

Communication on Shaping Europe’s Digital Future

 

 

L’entreprise va t-elle sauver le monde ?

L’entreprise va t-elle sauver le monde ?

by | 28 Sep 2020 | SOGA dans la presse

L'entreprise va-t-elle sauver le monde ?

Décortiquer les dangers du goodwashing

Le quotidien Le Monde s’est récemment penché sur une question qui traverse aussi bien les entreprises classiques que l’économie sociale et solidaire : peut-on vraiment concilier performance économique et impact positif ?

Dans son article intitulé « L’entreprise va-t-elle sauver le monde ? », le journaliste Nicolas Santolaria décrit la montée en puissance du vocabulaire du « good » — durable, éthique, solidaire — dans les discours marketing et institutionnels. Des marques aux start-ups, toutes semblent aujourd’hui vouloir s’habiller des habits de l’engagement.

Quand le "good" devient un argument de vente

L’article pointe un phénomène préoccupant : l’éthique est parfois réduite à un simple slogan, un outil de communication plus qu’un réel changement de pratiques. Ce que certains appellent désormais le « goodwashing ».

Derrière les campagnes de communication séduisantes, on retrouve souvent des produits ou des services qui n’ont rien d’innovant socialement, mais qui bénéficient d’un habillage moral pour séduire des consommateurs en quête de sens.

Pourquoi ce débat nous concerne

À travers cet article, Le Monde met en lumière une tension centrale :

  • soit l’entreprise joue la carte de l’engagement pour transformer réellement ses pratiques,

  • soit elle se contente d’une éthique cosmétique, qui risque de décrédibiliser l’ensemble des initiatives réellement vertueuses.

Pour le Social Good Accelerator, ce débat est essentiel. Il rappelle pourquoi nous militons pour un numérique ouvert, démocratique et réellement utile, loin des effets d’annonce.

Un article à lire pour mieux comprendre les enjeux

Je consulte l'article du Monde complet
Réconcilier ESS et Tech : un défi clé de la transition numérique

Réconcilier ESS et Tech : un défi clé de la transition numérique

by | 21 Jul 2020 | Editorial, SOGA dans la presse

Réconcilier ESS et Tech : un défi clé de la transition numérique

Réconcilier ESS et Tech : un défi clé de la transition numérique. À l’heure où le numérique transforme les modes d’action collectifs, comment l’Économie Sociale et Solidaire (ESS) peut-elle tirer parti de ces outils sans dénaturer ses valeurs ?
Cet article du The Conversation signé Éléonore Delanoë et Arthur Gautier apporte un éclairage indispensable sur cette question.

Une révolution numérique qui bouscule l'ESS

Le numérique offre à l’ESS des leviers puissants : ciblage de publics désemparés, diffusion d’actions solidaires à grande échelle, transparence des financements, mesure d’impact grâce à l’intelligence artificielle…
Pourtant, son adoption reste inégale, freinée par des obstacles techniques, organisationnels et financiers.

Pourquoi l’ESS a tant à gagner (et à craindre) avec la tech

  • Inclusion et formation : La fracture numérique persiste parmi les publics vulnérables. L’ESS doit intégrer les compétences numériques mais aussi les valeurs et usages associés.

  • Modèles économiques adaptés : Les projets ESS reposent souvent sur des structures horizontales ou coopératives qui nécessitent des outils abordables, ouverts, et alignés sur leurs valeurs.

  • Transparence et confiance : Le numérique peut renforcer la confiance des donateurs et bénéficiaires grâce à des processus clairs et traçables.

Ce que cela signifie pour le SOGA

Cette réflexion rejoint notre conviction au Social Good Accelerator : le numérique n’est pas une fin, mais un moyen puissant d’inclusion, d’action collective et d’impact partagé.
Nos actions s’attachent à développer une tech qui respecte les principes de l’ESS : coopération, transparence, utilité sociale.

À lire ensuite

Consulter l'article complet de The Conversation

How EU institutions are preparing Social Economy response? Interview of Denis Stokkink

by | 13 May 2020 | Communs & plaidoyer, Editorial, Revue de presse



Denis Stokkink, Board member of SOGA EU, founding president of the Brussels-based European think & do tank POUR LA SOLIDARITÉ-PLS. An economist and lecturer in social economy at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, he is also general rapporteur of the European Commission’s Group of Experts on Social Entrepreneurship (GECES). He gives us a progress report on the current state of play of the European institutions mobilised for the Social Economy and the role of GECES during the Covid crisis.

Can you tell us more about the genesis of GECES (2012-2017) ?

Denis Stokkink : “In its Communication on the “Social Entrepreneurship Initiative” (October 25th, 2011), the European Commission announced the establishment of a “Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group on Social Entrepreneurship” which will review the progress of the measures envisaged by this Communication. (…) this group could be composed of representatives from Member States, local authorities, social entrepreneurship organisations, the banking and financial sector, and the academic world”. 

This group of experts for the Social Economy at the European Commission (GECES) has therefore been set up for 6 years (2012-2017) in order to be consulted by the EU Commission in the framework of the social entrepreneurship initiative and on other issues related to social entrepreneurship and the social and solidarity economy.

The roadmap of this first GECES ended in 2016, with a General Report to the Commission. It listed, inter alia, five positive contributions of the Social Economy to the development of the EU and thirteen recommendations for concrete actions to take full advantage of the potential of social enterprises to address the four main problems faced by social economy actors and social enterprises: a lack of visibility, recognition and identity; difficulties in accessing finance; an inadequate legal framework and a serious lack of European programmes, networks and support mechanisms.”

What is the new GECES roadmap (2017-2023)?

Denis Stokkink : “In 2017, new commitments have been made and are being steered by the Taskforce co-chaired by Ann Branch (DG Employment) and Ulla Engelmann (DG Grow).

The new GECES has seen its members renewed and was constituted with the will to meet regularly the members to discuss the future of HE in Europe. Two subjects are the subject of a more developed consultation: solidarity finance (a report submitted at the end of 2019 will be presented at the European Summit in Mannheim at the end of November 2020) and ecological and social innovation clusters with Hugues Sibille, Denis Stokkink and Ana Umbelino as rapporteurs. A report with 30 good practices published in 2019, new report will also be presented in Mannheim.”  


How did EU Social economy experts respond to the Covid crisis and how do they prepare Mannheim European Summit?

Denis Stokkink : The GECES continues to work actively by exchanging between public and private experts and the European Commission on the possibilities of highlighting SSE. 

The members met on 29 April to share :

  1. Sectoral “Bottum up” initiatives from Social economy and civil society in the territories to respond to the challenges that enable, in particular, precarious populations to propose social innovations in emergency/transitional society situations. For example, DG Grow has worked to reference the social economy initiatives created across Europe on Covid 19 (DG GRow) and to set up a support unit that offers webinars of actors from the European Social Economy community.
  2. The vision and ambitions of European Social Economy actors, taken up by the European Commissioner for Employment Nicolas Schmidt during a speech on Q&A, to help prepare the European Commission’s action plan for the SSE, in the 2nd quarter of 2021. Nicolas Schmit also sent a letter to the national authorities of all EU Member States, stressing the importance of SSE responses in the territories and the importance of significant economic rescue measures directed towards Social Economy actors. All GECES members were enthusiastic about Commissioner Schmidt’s announcement that he is truly committed to giving SSE the means to develop.

    The next meeting of the GECES will take place on 18 June on the preparation of the European Social Economy Summit in Mannheim.

    How the European Commission brought hackers & makers in the fight against Covid19?

    by | 12 May 2020 | Editorial, Revue de presse

     




    by Arnaud Castaignet, Board Member & Tech EU expert, Estonia.




    If much can be discussed about the contribution of European institutions to the fight against the pandemic, an interesting aspect is that they quickly embraced the idea that Tech for good communities of innovators, start-ups and makers of all sorts could contribute to develop innovative solutions to be deployed to alleviate the negative consequences of the corona crisis.

    Two main initiatives have been supported by the European Commission.

    This joint event between the European Commission and actors from similar national initiatives from Member States has been organised on 24 – 26 April with public officials such as Blazenka Divjak (Croatia’s Minister of Science and Education) and Pedro Duque (Spain’s Minister for Science and Innovation), private partners from the European tech community such as Daniel Ek (co-founder and CEO of Spotify), Peter Vesterbacka (creator of Angry Birds) and Juan de Antonio (Founder and CEO of Cabify) and organisations such as the French Refugee Council, Women In Tech Portugal and European Association for the Defense of Human Rights, to name a few.

    A total of 117 innovative solutions to tackle the coronavirus have been selected and some notable winners were Aidbind (Bulgaria, Germany, Malta, Sweden, Switzerland) for their solution to the information gap between demand, supply and funding of medical products, procured via donations and charity and Bankera Business Care (Lithuania) for their solution to provide SMEs with short-term financing to cover their liquidity needs during times of crisis.

    This event was held on 9 – 12 April and has been initiated by 3 Estonian organisations Garage48, Accelerate Estonia and Guaana that already organised Estonia’s Hack the Crisis hackathon on 13-15 of March. It gathered 12,000+ participants from 98 countries and received the active support and participation of organisations such as the UN SDG Action Campaign, the European Space Agency, the European Investment Bank, EU4Digital, Hack for Italy, Blockchain Philanthropy Foundation, World Cleanup Day, Business Finland, Innovation Centre Kosovo, to name a few.

    Among notable winners, there are Berlin-based SunCrafter, a solar powered disinfection station using UV light that doesn’t need maintenance and produces no waste and is already going to be implemented in Ghana, and Act on Crisis (Lithuania), a platform in which professionals can provide emotional support through phone calls to people with increased anxiety due to lockdowns. 

    Many online hackathons have been organised across Europe since the beginning of March. The largest hackathon has been the one organised in Germany on 20 March for 48 hours with 42869 participants who developed 800 projects.

    • No magic wounds but a proof that EU #SocialGoodTech Community has a lot to offer

    Of course, no technology and none of these initiatives pretend to “solve” the pandemic. The real heroes are the doctors and health workers currently saving lives and risking theirs, often lacking basic medical equipment such as masks, gloves, tests or ventilators. However, this pandemic highlighted the need for countries and organisations to be agile and adaptable.

    Across Europe, the makers community and networks of small-scale DIY manufacturers have played a relevant role and mobilized to fix the shortage of medical supply. The names of Cristian Fracassi and Alessandro Romaioli may not sound familiar but you have probably heard about their story. They are the 2 engineers who turned Decathlon’s snorkelling kits into emergency ventilator masks. In France, Covid-Initiatives platform, initiated by the French network of fablabs, gathered the community of makers to direct them where emergency PPE was needed.

    Hopefully, collaboration between European institutions and such communities is going to continue after this crisis. The European Commission has shown it can act quickly to support innovative initiatives and put the right financial support into them. But EU Social good Tech community would need durable investments and skills reinforcement to proove all its potential in the next few years.

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    Data & Philanthropy : how to accelerate impact through partnerships for the Common Good ?

    by | 3 Jul 2019 | Communs & plaidoyer, Editorial

    Last Thursday, May 23rd, we were at the Annual Forum of the European Foundation Center in Paris, an edition that promoted French values under the banner of “Liberty, Equality, Philanthropy…”. The opportunity for the 800 participants representing foundations from all over Europe to discover the specificities and philanthropic commitments of France with the Fondation de France, Fondation La France s’engage , Schneider Electric and Accenture.
    At the end of the day, a central theme for the patronage sector was brilliantly debated. Report and perspectives of this late afternoon on “Data and Philanthropy”, whose central issue was: “How can philanthropy have a systemic, rather than an occasional, impact through data? »
    We, along with Generation2 – Connection Philanthropy collaboration, offer here a sum up of the discussion and concrete illustration from our ecosystem.

    This paper has initially been published in French on Carenews.


    The different uses of data in philanthropy

    Stefaan Verhulst, co-founder and director of research and development at GovLab, introduced the debate with a very precise taxonomy, highlighting how data collection and analysis can help develop philanthropy.

    1. Datas as an asset for philanthropy: Datas can become a useful tool for the continuous improvement of philanthropy, which will allow for better analysis of needs, and adaptation of responses and solutions, as well as improved impact assessment. Wenabi, the first platform to simplify companies’ social commitment, mobilize their employees and effectively measure the impact of the solidarity actions carried out, illustrates this well. This platform also proposes to measure and evaluate the impact of companies, in particular through an integrated reporting tool, in order to monitor all the actions carried out and to measure their impact on employees and beneficiary associations.

    2. Datas as a financing compass: they allow funds to be better directed. For example, philanthropy can invest in the digital transition of the non-profit sector (data ventures). On the condition, of course, that you equip yourself with tools that facilitate the management, analysis and selection of incoming projects. The Optimy tool (Belgium) has made it possible to transform the cumbersome process of calls for foundation projects, which has thus gained in transparency and efficiency. But data sharing between foundations, provided that the GDPR is respected, could go further. In addition, digital technology can lead a prospective action, like chatbots philanthropy advisors, as is the case for the association 30 Million d’Amis, which offers a chatbot providing advice to pet owners in the summer period, in order to limit the risk of abandonment. Another example is Alexa, the Amazon compound, which, for the American Red Nose Day, encouraged people to give, which is a real novelty.

    3. Data as a tool for advocacy and activism: the analysis of global and shared data can also help to develop arguments and lead collective movements. Major online petition platforms such as Change.org and Avaaz have launched the movement, but the media are also beginning to associate storytelling with call to actions, such as Konbini and her latest collaboration with the media France inter around the day “Plastic, no thank you”. According to Stefaan Verhulst, many foundations are investing in this transition, and more and more are using data to guide their strategy.

    4. Data as a political vision: Philanthropy is expected to play an increasing role in the development of public policies regarding data. This is the case of Bayes Impact, which is now campaigning for the establishment of a Citizen Public Service. This initiative has led to the establishment of public/private collaboration in the provision of data that are useful for social innovation projects of citizens who so wish.

    A call for the creation of new institutional forms

    Lucy Bernholz of the Digital Civil Society Lab did not fail to point out the dangers of using data on the four fields mentioned. It is necessary to ask who governs this data and how. One of the solutions mentioned to deal with these dangers involves the creation of new institutional forms that are external to companies but also to governments. “Philanthropy must invest and create these institutions, otherwise they will be invented without us,” warned Lucy Bernholz. Rhodri Davies, Head of Policy and Program Director of the British think tank Giving Thought, predicts that the impact of technology on fundraising will be global, and will change the “where”, the “how” but also the “what” we give. In particular, it highlights a disintermediation of the historical actors, and a move towards “platformisation”, i.e. the growing role of platforms such as Facebook or Instagram in this field. Richard Benjamins, Chief Data Officer of Telefonica, provided an external perspective to the sector. According to him, “to have a real impact on our societies through data, we need sustainable business models.

    Philanthropy is not enough.

    ” It is therefore necessary to question the very foundations of data exploitation. Philanthropy alone will not solve a structural problem, but it must play a role as a catalyst for social innovation, as a venture capitalist with monitoring tools to scale up. The importance of awareness and education on these issues Anne Bouverot, founder of the Abeona Foundation (under the aegis of the Fondation de France) and holder of a doctorate in artificial intelligence, stressed the importance of raising individuals’ awareness of the needs of the nonprofit sector. She sees this as a new role for foundations. The key to development lies in multi-stakeholder collaboration. “If you really want to make a difference, you need to reach a significant number of people. …] It will be difficult for a company to do this on a large scale without it being perceived as a personal interest. » But how can we accelerate this movement?

    One of the ideas developed is to make the talents of companies and students available in probono for companies. The role of education in this process was also highlighted by Anne Bouverot: “We must ensure that we reach the people who will become the future engineers and data coders. » New collaborative tools for managing philanthropy in companies such as the Platform for Solidarity Commitment of microDon, Wenabi or MyCrowdcompany which offers platform-based engagement devices within companies, to allow better management of the efforts of. It is an innovative solution to bring together all the monetary and time donation mechanisms, a single location to understand the solidarity offer proposed by the company and its meaning. This simple and attractive tool makes philanthropy much more accessible in companies, thanks to data. Activism and the proposal of alternative models will also be fundamental to truly include civil society in this area.

    For Lucy Bernholz, the non-profit sector and philanthropy must stand as ramparts protecting the common good, and become essential interlocutors. A question of responsibility To meet today’s major challenges, it is necessary to reinvent current models, explained Lucy Bernholz. In particular, she suggested that the next step should be the establishment of a digital policy agenda. “The British Parliament, American representatives and large companies must commit to sharing their data, it is part of their responsibility. “Democracies are at risk if we do not learn to collaborate and cross-reference the visions of the different actors.

    Thinking about new ways of collaborating with civil society, which are more user-centred, is therefore necessary. A real challenge of democratization and accessibility of data is revealed. For Alberto Alemanno, founder and director of The Good Lobby, the establishment of legal frameworks is essential. He explained that “To permanently unlock privately held data, the private and public sectors must understand each other, harmonize their expectations and ensure that the respective benefits are understood and accessible to all. It is a shared responsibility[…] to share it with as many people as possible, not a minority. » This is one of the objectives of the SDG philanthropy platform, an inter-foundation collaborative model that provides data sharing on philanthropic efforts and data visualization related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and its 169 “targets”, implemented in 2015 after a major multi-stakeholder consultation to collectively focus efforts on social and climate emergencies.

    Despite the many challenges and obstacles ahead, the session ended on a note of hope. Speakers highlighted a growing sense of responsibility for data and its use: “Increasingly, we are asking about the impact, regardless of algorithms. There is a whole movement to be responsible,” said Richard Benjamin. “There are now leaders in this movement. It is up to European foundations to seize the superpowers of technology to build a virtuous model of collective intelligence around Big Data and artificial intelligence and strengthen the impact and growth of philanthropy in the old continent.

    EU Social Innovation: an important milestone at Web Summit 2018

    by | 12 Nov 2018 | Communs & plaidoyer, Editorial

    For the first time, European social innovation project holders and policy makers were gathered at Web Summit 2018 aka the “Davos for Geeks” in Lisbon (Novemebr 5-8th). Web Summit is the biggest venue of Tech players and innovators in Europe, and it was a very clear move that challenges Europe is facing could not been solved only by technology, but first by social and environnemental purposes and impacts. Around our “Social Innovation Village” and its 24 exhibiting projects were planned two discussions about Social Innovation at Forum Stage, before a thousand attendees. One year after the “High level conference – Opening up to an ERA of Social Innovation” in Lisbon, European social innovators and policy makers are again proving their ability to gather forces and networks to make their voice heard. Again in Lisbon at Web Summit 2018, an important milestone has been added along with Carlos Moedas, European Comissioner for Research, Science and Innovation.

    First discussion on Tuesday november 6th at Web summit : Conference “Social innovation: Achieving a triple A rating for Europe” gathering Carlos Moedas (European  Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation), Isabel Mota (Director, Gulbenkian Foundation), Maria Leitao Marques (Portuguese Minister of the Presidency and of Administrative Modernisation) and Madeleine Gabriel (NESTA foundation, Social innovation Community).

    The European Commission’s actions on social innovation stem from the Innovation Union initiative (2010) and of the Social Investment Package (2013). These actions facilitate the inducement, uptake and scaling-up of social innovation solutions. The main objectives were to promoting social innovation as a source of growth and jobs, sharing information about social innovation in Europe and supporting innovative entrepreneurs and mobilising investors and public organisations.

    At Web Summit 2018, a big annoucement has been made : more money is going to be invested by European institutions in Social Innovation, while the Mutiannual Financial Framework for the 7 years to come has already been discussed, prior to the European election next May 2019.



    Social Innovation Community was one of the H2020 funded Social Innovation Village ‘s projects at Web Summit 2018. During the following official visit on Social Innovation Village, they handed Social Innovation Community Declaration to Mr. Moedas and Mr Mahjoubi (French Secretary of State for Digital Affairs) : “For a Fairer, More Inclusive Europe” #SIDeclaration


     
    Social Innovation Community will be gathered in Sevila, Spain from November 12 to 13th, to prepare the next European mandate and gain leverage to increase funds, skills and acknowledgement, in the same effort as our Manifesto #MakeItForGood, more focus on the acceleration of partnerships in between Tech and social innovators.


    EU Prize for Women Innovators launched at Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon

    by | 10 Nov 2018 | Editorial, Revue de presse

    Along with other major declarations such as the Athenes nomination as EU Capital for Innovation of the rise of EU fundings for Social innovation, Carlos Moedas, EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation announced the launch of the EU Prize for Women Innovators at Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon this week.

    He was of the major speaker this year at Web Summit and maybe the leading one for more Social Good in Tech… and also a more balanced Tech economy. Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, has launched the 2019 EU Prize for Women Innovators at the Web Summit in Lisbon along with Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality.

    EU Prize for Women Innovators : why and what is it ?

    Because women are underrepresented in terms of creating innovative enterprises. This is untapped potential for Europe, which needs to optimise all available resources to remain competitive and find solutions to our societal challenges.This award recognises the role of women in bringing about game-changing innovations to market and honours the outstanding achievements of female entrepreneurs running innovative companies.

    The EU Prize for Women Innovators is a cash prize awarded every year to European women from across the EU and countries associated to Horizon 2020, who founded a successful company and brought an innovation to market.
    • 3 prizes of €100,000 each
    • Rising Innovator (35 or younger): €50,000

    The award also recognises a number of finalists specially acknowledged for their outstanding record as women entrepreneurs and innovators.
    The prize will be awarded to up to 4 women innovators in total, who have had the largest impact on the innovation ecosystem by transforming ideas into new and advanced products and/ services for the benefit of European citizens.

    Award criteria

    • breakthrough innovation – the company  funded / co-funded  by  the  contestant  provides a cutting edge product or service
    • impact – the cutting edge product or service brings major benefits to citizens and society and the economy
    • inspiration – the contestant has shown active leadership, her role has influenced the success of the company and has the potential to inspire others

    Applications are judged by a panel of independent experts from across Europe.

    How to apply before Jaunary 16, 2019

    Participants can apply for the contest online BEFORE JANUARY 16, 2019. The full details are explained in the following documents.

    Interview with Matt Stokes, Senior Researcher, Foundation Nesta

    by | 11 Jul 2018 | Communs & plaidoyer, Interviews / Témoignages

    The Social Good Accelerator had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Stokes, a senior researcher in Collaborative Economy at Innovation Foundation Nesta and lead of the Horizon 2020-funded DSI4EU project, on his opinions on #SocialGoodTech. In addition, Matt has become a collaborator on our European Study as a part of the expert committee as well as an interviewee, with the first results to be presented in November 2018. Can you present DSI4EU and Nesta? Nesta is a global innovation foundation with a mission to back new ideas to tackle the big challenges of our time. Using our knowledge, networks, funding and skills, we work hard for new opportunities and challenges, to spark creative answers, to shape ideas into practical solutions and to shift systems in a new direction. We have been working in the field of digital social innovation (DSI) since 2013, exploring and supporting the people, projects and organisations across Europe who are using open and collaborative technologies to tackle social challenges. We’ve published landmark reports including Growing a digital social innovation ecosystem for Europe and What next for digital social innovation?, and developed an online hub for the community at digitalsocial.eu, where people can find information, stories, case studies, funding opportunities, events and Europe’s largest database of DSI organisations and projects. This program is supported by the European Commission and works within a network of actors. Can you explain the partnerships? One of Nesta’s core values is to never work alone, and since entering the field of DSI we’ve collaborated with several organisations. Currently, we’re working with six organisations – Waag (Netherlands), WeMake (Italy), betterplace lab (Germany), Barcelona Activa and Fab Lab Barcelona (Spain) and the ePaństwo Foundation (Poland). We bring together our complementary skills, networks and knowledge to maximise impact. Since the very beginning, our work in DSI has been made possible thanks to the generous funding of the European Commission, specifically the Directorate‑General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG-CONNECT). The Commission was one of the first big organisations to recognise the potential of technology for tackling social challenges and has funded over 50 projects within Horizon 2020’s CAPS (Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability) programme. We believe that one of our key roles is to help shape a shared agenda for DSI in Europe, to influence policy and to build new connections to speed up growth and maximise impact. What have been the key achievements and results of DSI4EU? What are the prospects for the coming months? The heart of the project is the digitalsocial.eu website, which is a valuable resource for all types of stakeholders. At the moment, we’re investing heavily in further development to make it even more useful, including growing the library of case studies. In our current project, we’re really excited to be increasing our policy engagement, through the development of a DSI Index which will measure how different countries and cities are supporting DSI and create a bank of ideas for policymakers. We’re also developing six “DSI clusters”, programmes of activity focused on specific social areas, which are helping practitioners on the ground maximise their impact. On the research side, we’re kicking off some exciting future-focused work, looking at how emerging tech trends will affect the development of DSI and building positive future scenarios for how technology can help us to address social challenges a decade down the line.

    “A lot of the social sector, including charities in particular, lack digital skills and don’t know how to make the most of the opportunities. At the same time, huge amounts of money have gone into research and innovation for digital products, but a tiny fraction has been devoted to socially-oriented digital innovation.”

    In relation to your work, why is the pledge of the Social Good Accelerator for “More tech in social good, more social good in tech” important in Europe? Why is this commitment relevant, in your opinion? This pledge is important because it goes to the heart of what DSI aims to achieve. Over the past few years, social innovation has attracted more and more attention, but relatively little has been devoted to how technology can be used as a tool. A lot of actors in the social sector, including charities, lack digital skills and are struggling to make the most of the opportunities. At the same time, huge amounts of money have gone into research and innovation for digital technologies, but a tiny fraction has been devoted to socially-oriented digital innovation. Alongside this, over the past years pressing issues have come to the forefront of the very foundations of technology: concentration of power and money in the hands of a small number of tech giants, threats to net neutrality (particularly in the US), censorship, surveillance, big data and artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and the nebulous spectre of “fake news.” We think DSI also has a role in influencing the development of technology in a more responsible, ethical and inclusive direction. What could we do together to accelerate digital social innovation? There are loads of opportunities for collaboration, from events and research contributions to joint efforts in influencing policy and network-building. We believe that one of the reasons DSI hasn’t reached its full potential is that there isn’t always a shared agenda and a sense of community. Indeed, we still can’t decide what to call the field – social tech, digital social innovation, tech for good, civic tech, good tech… the list goes on. By building a movement together we’re more likely to be able to grow the impact of DSI, and so we’re always keen to work with organisations across and beyond Europe. From the Social Good Accelerator Team: If you want more information on the Horizon 2020 program, how you can apply (applications close in the coming weeks), or the new program, Horizon Europe 2027, sign up for our newsletter and/or contact us for more information.
    Génération2 : à la pointe du Tech for Good

    Génération2 : à la pointe du Tech for Good

    by | 12 Dec 2017 | Editorial, SOGA dans la presse

    Génération2 : à la pointe du Tech for Good

    Au cœur du Web Summit 2017, l’agence coopérative Génération2 a incarné la convergence entre technologie et impact social. Ce billet du blog Rapid Innovation in Digital Time, signé par Nicolas Bry, donne la parole à Jeanne Bretecher, cofondatrice de Génération2, pour comprendre cette ambition engagée.

    Une coopérative pas comme les autres

    Génération2 n’est pas une agence classique. Plutôt un collectif d’advisors coopératifs dédié à créer des synergies entre entreprises, associations, innovateurs sociaux et institutions publiques. Leur mission : faire vivre des partenariats Tech for Good, véritablement orientés vers l’intérêt général.
    Ils offrent quatre services clés :

    • des analyses sociétales et cartographies d’écosystèmes d’intérêt général,

    • du conseil en communication responsable et en mobilisation des parties prenantes,

    • des masterclasses/formations en innovation sociale ou philanthropique,

    • et l’organisation d’événements dédiés à l’impact social, notamment lors du Web Summit.

    Des réalisations concrètes

    Parmi leurs projets notables :

    • Cartographie ouverte des initiatives d’épicerie sociale (supermarchés solidaires, etc.).
    • Accompagnement de Thales dans la structuration de sa fondation, de la définition des priorités à l’évaluation de ses actions.
    • Organisation d’une masterclass et learning trip au Web Summit, avec la présence du président François Hollande.
      Ces actions illustrent le positionnement unique de Génération2 entre analyse stratégique, transformation et communication responsable.

    Une vision partagée

    Le texte reflète l’identité même du Social Good Accelerator : une vision incarnée où la technologie devient un levier coopératif de transformation sociale. Avec MonteVerdana, ils dessinent un chemin vers un numérique plus inclusif, durable, ancré dans l’intérêt collectif.

    À lire ensuite

    Consulter l'article complet de Rapid Innovation in Digital Time (EN)