TNO Telecom

Valerie Frissen

The domestication of innovation: challenges for research and development

/ Erasmus University

Rotterdam 21 april 2005

6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 2

Outline

• Focus • role of users in innovation • ICT

• Conceptions of roles of users• from end-users to human-centred innovation• ‘diffusion’ and ‘domestication’ approaches• ‘shaping technologies’

• Shaping characteristics of ICTs

• The user as innovator• p2p-networks• social software

• Implications for R&D

Rotterdam 21 april 2005

6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 3

Sense & Simplicity

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New role of users

Sense & Simplicity • not just reflection of need for greater user-friendliness• reflects a shift towards human centred innovation

• user empowerment, supporting human interaction, context- and need

sensitive, personalized, etc. • Ambient Intelligence-concept

• technology completely blended into everyday surroundings of users• intelligent interfaces enable people and devices to interact with each other

an with environment• technology at the background, people at the foreground• strongly emphasizes the need for contextual, human-centred design • vision not reality! (based on NG-technologies currently in development)

Rotterdam 21 april 2005

6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 5

Rotterdam 21 april 2005

6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 6

Conceptions of users: the ‘end-user’

Technological determinism• technological innovation implies use• technological innovation implies social and behavioural

change

‘technological ‘imperative’• what is technologically possible will inevitably happen

Diffusion approach• innovation seen as a ‘trickle down’ effect• diffusion is s-curve with typical groups of ‘adopters’• role of users limited to ‘(non)adoption’

Rotterdam 21 april 2005

6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 7

Diffusion approach

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‘Mutual shaping’approaches

Innovation = dynamic interplay between technological and social factors in all stages of innovation process

• design and commodification of innovations conceived as a social process ‘configuration of users’ (Woolgar),

preferred uses incorporated into design (e.g. electric shaver)

• users seen as ‘co-constructors’ of technological innovations ‘appropriation’ of technology into everyday context of users

(e.g. pc versus internet)

• ‘shaping’ technologies doublefaced character of innovation: technology shapes use and use shapes technology

Rotterdam 21 april 2005

6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 9

Conceptions of use: domestication

• Users seen as co-constructors of innovation• Innovation goes beyond diffusion/role of users beyond

adoption• technologies need to be ‘domesticated’, incorporated into the social and

cultural dynamics and texture of everydaylife• Silverstone: ‘taming of the wild and cultivation of the tame’: users create

their own socio-technological sytems; • interpretative flexibility• use as ‘interface’ between technological and social change• may lead to unexpected innovation trajectories (both technological and

social) • example: SMS• example: ‘networked individualism’ (Wellman)

Rotterdam 21 april 2005

6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 10

Rotterdam 21 april 2005

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Shaping characteristics of ICTs

Potential for interpretative flexibility of ICTs is enormous

• network character decentralization• interactivity/

connectivity human interaction, communication• data capacity infinite exchange and selection of information• programming creativity and design• multimedia expression and representation

interaction between technology and use leads to continuous

innovation (both technological and social)

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6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 12

The user as innovator• P2P networks

• filesharing: pressure on traditional value chains and business models• gives rise to new user/producer roles and functions (e.g. users as producers and

distributors; makes tradtional players obsolete)

• Social software• easy to use software supporting every form of social interaction

• social networking software such as Orkut, Link-up etc,; instant messaging; blogging, Wiki’s, etc);

• converging more and more, creating new opportunities

• Networks with strongly decentralized, bottom-up character• Incubators for innovation and creativity (both technological and

social)• blurring of boundaries between use and design/production, e.g. media production, journalism,

but also software/application design• new forms of social behaviour, e.g. consensus seeking, self-regulation etc.

• Who or what initiates innovation increasingly irrelevant!

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6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 13

Rotterdam 21 april 2005

6 Countries Programme Conference 2005 14

Conclusion :implications for R&D

• Domestication of the digital world blurring of boundaries between technological and social, online and offline world already observable within the digital generation ‘prophecy’ of AmI reflects this shift

• Inevitabe shift towards human-centred design • Trend in HCI: contextual, participatory design• Living Lab-approach

• actively organise interaction between practices of design and use• substantial cooperation between technical and social research• RL-contexts; include unexpected and unintended innovation routes• Use the creative potential of users ( The ProAm Revolution/Leadbeater)

More radical: rethink user/producer/designer relations: in the future

these distinctions will become increasingly irrelevant!