Living labs as a driver for change in regional television

Traditional television production and distribution organizations are increasingly being challenged by a rapidly changing technological environment. These evolutions force the television industry to leave their comfort zone. This context in mind, regional television broadcasters often lack the resources, knowledge and organizational flexibility to cope with this external pressure. In this paper, we discuss the use of Living Labs as ‘innovation intermediaries’ and ‘change facilitators’ that foster and enable user-centric innovation development processes, both inside and outside the organization. This phenomenon is approached from both an open innovation and a user innovation point of view. This paper considers Living Labs as open innovation ecosystems, enabling organizations to reach out and collaborate with their (potential) audience and other external actors, but also as an open ‘battle arena’ for the organization itself. The Living Lab process governs different expectations and enables conflicting opinions to come together and to steadily grow towards a mutual solution. Moreover, the innovation development process in the Living Lab seems to have innovation spill-over effects on the organizational level, catalyzing a broader organizational change

Living lab approach for developing massmarket IoT products and services

Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a central concept in both the industrial as in the academic world. In this context, Living Lab research has been shown as an effective means for the design, implementation, development, testing and validation of Internet of Things system’s pervasiveness. However, IoT products are not yet designed based on the needs of a larger, non-technical group of end-users. Therefore, in this paper we describe the AllThingsTalk Living Lab research track in which tangible end-user products are defined to be implemented on an online IoT platform. More specifically, by using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies (i.e., desk research, online survey, probe research and co-creation) and by selecting different types of users (i.e., based on Rogers’ adoption profiles) for these interaction moments, we were able to combine the input of these users to define tangible products that meet the needs of a heterogeneous group of end-users

Designing library tools: the (un)importance of employee involvement

The growing trend of public institutions to open up data and information to citizens encouraged archives and libraries to enhance the disclosure of their content towards end-users. This implies technical challenges as more and more information is exchanged not only between people, but also between different databases and applications which are consulted by different user groups through different devices and entry points. For libraries, the challenge lies in constructing a properly functioning catalogue which is able to combine a huge amount of information from various sources and is consultable by a large group of end-users in a user friendly manner. Based on the User Centred Design paradigm and Kaulio’s (1998) degrees of user involvement in innovation, this paper wants to consider whether involving users during the creation of metadata tools can result in more motivated library co-workers and a more appreciated tool and (hopefully) in a permanent tagging tool

Action research as a framework to evaluate the operation of a living lab

Living lab research consists of gathering user feedback on innovations implemented in a real-life context (Eriksson et al., 2005). This can be facilitated by means of a panel-based approach (Schuurman et al., 2012). Since this panel is vital for living lab research, it is important to know whether all panel members are satisfied with the operation of the living lab itself. An interesting way to capture and act upon the delights and frustrations of a panel can be by adopting an action research approach. Within a participatory action research process, "communities of inquiry and action evolve and address questions and issues that are significant for those who participate as co-researchers" (Reason and Bradbury, 2008). Action research contrasts with many research methods, which emphasize disinterested researchers and reproducibility of findings. Amongst others, Ståhlbröst (2008) already used action research as a methodology within a living lab environment aiming to involve users early and throughout the whole development process, and to design new IT systems from the basis of these users’ needs. But how can this research approach be a framework to get to know your participants’ thoughts on the operation of your living lab? How can action research help to involve as much panel members as possible and to encourage people to share their opinion? Does active research actually result in more practical solutions for a detected problem? In order to capture and solve frustrations of the iMinds Living Lab panel members, a researcher was actively involved in a selection of living lab projects and panel members themselves were inserted in the reflection phase of an action design research from which the obtained knowledge resulted in the co-creation of an iMinds Living Labs website for panel members

Bottom-up radio: creating a new media format using living lab research

This study resulted in the creation of a new media format for urban youth, adopting a living lab-approach, as current studies have shown that this group is currently not reached with the contemporary media offer. Living lab research is a state-of-the art methodology that aims at involving end-users in the innovation process over a longer time span, combining both quantitative and qualitative research techniques and tools. In a first phase, a panel of urban youngsters was created using an intake survey (N=290). These data were analyzed resulting in three distinct types of urban youngsters. In a second phase, a qualitative research trajectory was organized in order to refine the three profiles and get an insight in their media use, digital skills, media preferences and needs with regards to the current media offer. Research methods during this phase included diary studies, participatory observation during workshops and probe research. In a third phase, co-creation sessions were organized with youngsters from the urban panel in order to get feedback on a concept that was iteratively developed during the first two phases of the project. Results show that mobile devices and social media are important for these urban youngsters and that most of these youngsters have quite some creative skills. Radio seems to be a less popular medium, although they spend a significant amount of time listening to music. Further, results show that these youngsters are in need of a platform which stimulates community building and offers a space to express their creativity. A third requirement for the development of a new media format that would meet the needs of these youngers is a format that provides space for local elements and niche markets. This all resulted in the launch of Chase, an urban, crowdsourced radio station

Bridging the gap between Open and User Innovation? : exploring the value of Living Labs as a means to structure user contribution and manage distributed innovation

In nowadays society, organizations are struggling with the practical implementation of ‘distributed innovation’, or the fact that organizations need to reach outside their boundaries to tap into distributed sources of knowledge to enhance their innovation processes. Within this PhD, we will look at a specific approach, promoted and supported by the European Commission, that tries to facilitate and manage distributed innovation processes through a Public-Private-People partnership with a central role for the end-user: Living Labs. Following Almirall & Wareham (2011) and Leminen et al. (2014), we define Living Labs as an organized approach (as opposed to an ad hoc approach) to innovation consisting of real-life experimentation and active user involvement by means of different methods involving multiple stakeholders, as is implied in the Public-Private-People character of Living Labs. However, there are two main problems associated with these Living Labs. First problem, in terms of Living Lab practice and activity, is that there seem to be too many initiatives, without enough noticeable results or impact. This is linked to the second problem, dealing with Living Labs theory. To this date, there have been a lot of Living Lab publications, but there is no consistency in terms of connection to larger research paradigms and frameworks, and there is a lack of papers with a significant academic impact as well as research clearly illustrating their value. Therefore, from a theoretical perspective, we have investigated both the Open and User Innovation paradigms and demonstrated that Living Labs are an embodiment of both, although there are only few references to these literature streams in the current Living Labs literature. From a practice perspective, we have illustrated that Living Labs are rooted within various European predecessors such as cooperative design, social experiments and ‘digital cities’, but that out of the 345 affiliated members to the European Network of Living Labs, at least 40% is currently inactive. In order to further evolve Living Labs as a concept and to allow a better conceptualization, we developed a three layered model, consisting of a macro level (the Living Lab constellation), the meso level (consisting of a Living Lab innovation project) and the micro level (consisting of the different methodological research steps). Moreover, within a multiple case study analysis of 4 Living Lab constellation, 21 Living Lab innovation projects and 107 methodological research steps, we have been able to demonstrate that the concepts gathered from the Open Innovation literature could be used to analyze the macro level, whereas the concepts from the User Innovation literature could be used on the micro level. Through co-creation, both levels merge on the meso level, resulting in useful contributions to the innovation in development. Therefore, we concluded that Living Labs are able to govern innovation networks and to structure user participation in concrete innovation projects

Exploring the benefits of integrating business model research within living lab projects

Business model and living lab research both have similar objectives – to maximize the probability of successful market introduction of innovative solutions – be it through different means. Yet, there are still only few studies or reports discussing both, with those studies that do touch the subject staying at a high level. iMinds Living Labs has gained a lot of experience in combined living lab and business model innovation projects and, rather than being competing approaches, our results have shown that these two research methodologies can be complementary, where the combined approach turns out to be more powerful than each individual approach used alone. The goal of this article is to promote the inclusion of business model research in a model of "a living lab as a service" (and vice versa) by explaining the benefits and by introducing a practical framework to implement such combined research tracks based on the experience at iMinds Living Labs over the past few years

Connecting with citizen journalists: an exploratory Living lab study on motivations for using mobile reporting applications

In the context of user generated content in the newsroom, mobile reporting applications are seen as a facilitator of citizen journalism, bringing news items from the user to the newsroom and vice versa. In this paper, we describe a Living Lab project aimed at developing a mobile reporting application for a regional television broadcaster that struggles reaching a young audience. Data were collected through an online survey (n:500), one focus group (n:9), a field trial (n:35) and in-depth interviews (n:10). Besides user motivations for using mobile reporting applications, we provide three user profiles and give insights in citizen journalism projects. A mobile reporting application could provide a solution for regional news stations to reach more youngsters, however, reasonable efforts should be taken to make such a project succeed

Technological convergence in audiovisual media technologies

This paper presents the results of a large-scale survey on viewing practices. Data from over 10,000 cases are used to explore the adoption-use diffusion gap and the correlation structures in the frequencies of the use of multiple channels (e.g. linear television, download, Vod) on multiple devices. The results show that although a lot of devices capable of audiovisual playback are adopted, few (only computers) of them are used to consume television content. Furthermore, in terms of viewing frequencies, the data suggest spill over effects of using multiple devices, rather than a displacement. Finally, it shows there is a stable tendency to use multiple delivery channels within devices, rather than forming a pattern between devices. That is, channels usage frequencies are correlated within devices, rather than scattered among devices