Building for Digital Social Innovation

Digital Social Innovation (DSI) is an increasingly important topic for Europe and the world, and Martel is proud to be taking an active role in promoting its growth and acceptance. Through our work with the CAPSSI community, DSI initiative, and others, we strive to move the needle on DSI and the benefits it can bring to us all.

It was in this spirit that Dr. Monique Calisti, Director of Martel, spoke at the ERA Conference in Lisbon. Taking place on the 27-28th of November, the event hosted more than 100 speakers and 1000 participants in a milestone event for social innovation initiatives across Europe.

As the coordinator of the ChiC project, she was part of the workshop on “Connected Social Innovation” chaired by Loretta Anania (DG Connect, European Commission) during the afternoon of the first day of the ERA Conference, where she spoke on the CAPS initiative, specifically on the importance of the Digital Social Innovation Manifesto initiative.

The DSI Manifesto aims at fostering civic participation into democratic and social processes, increasing societal resilience and mutual trust as core element of the Digital Society. It provides recommendations for policy makers, to drive the development of the European Digital Single Market to fulfil first and foremost societal and sustainability challenges (rather than short-lived economic interests), with the help and engagement of all citizens.

“To share the DSI Manifesto initiative in the broader context offered by the ERA Conference” she said. “Represents a unique opportunity to gain broader consensus and give a stronger voice to a growing number of initiatives that are putting technologies at the service of the society for the good of its citizens.” Her speech can be viewed in its entirety here.
At the forefront of these initiatives is ChiC, which Martel coordinates. ChiC is the Coordination and Support Action (CSA) supporting the CAPS initiatives, each of which aims to improve all aspects of society through technology. The member projects of the CAPS initiative aim to create and foster opportunities to turn digital innovation into factual social empowerment in the areas of sustainability, social collaboration, science, and open democracy.

The results of this work can now be found online at the CAPS Outcomes Catalogue, a living repository of the CAPS projects, their current status, and results, for the first time made available for any interested members of the public to use. Assembling and publishing the Catalogue was an enjoyable task for Martel, as it required careful work in the editorial process to integrate the diverse and often extremely technical outcome reports into a unified catalogue that is intuitively searchable by the interested layperson.

As a result of Martel Media’s work on universalising and presenting the information, the CAPS information is now available as part of the CAPS portal, also managed by Martel. As the Portal is the main media channel of the whole CAPS ecosystem, the Catalogue benefits from the portal’s excellent SEO ranking, visitor growth, and visibility online.

To support DSI and the power of technology to change society for the better, join with Martel, the CAPS projects and many others in endorsing the DSI Manifesto. When we work together, we can change society for the better!

The Social Innovation community (SIC) asked policy makers and experts about what they think is needed to make social innovation a reality in Europe, and about their visions for the future.