The Open Book of Social Innovation

September 28, 2010 in case studies, education, people, techniques

I missed this when it was released back in March but the Open Book of Social Innovation [PDF 5.5MB] finally came across my radar while I was researching my previous post. It’s the result of a two-year collaboration between the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and The Young Foundation to develop a body of knowledge on social innovation. This report is part of a series on the topic.

The 224-page PDF describes over five hundred methods and tools for innovation being used across the world. As a grammar of social innovation there’s a lot to digest; I only got about halfway through before my brain shut down for the day.

Here’s an overview of the first section showing the contents and the number of methods (in parentheses) for each topic. Sections two and three are after the jump.

Prompts, Inspirations and Diagnoses

• Triggers and inspirations (6)
• Recognizing problems (27)
• From symptom to cause (3)

Proposals and Ideas

• Imagining solutions (10)
• Thinking differently (5)
• Open innovation (7)
• Participation (11)
• Facilitating participation (8)
• Institutions (3)

Prototypes and Pilots

• Prototypes, pilots and trials (10)
• Finance for emerging ideas (14)

Sustaining

• Creating a business (5)
• Ownership and organizational form (9)
• Governance (7)
• Organization and management models (5)
• Operations (4)
• Relational capital (10)
• Venture finance (7)
• Sustaining innovations / public sector (4)

Scaling and Diffusion

• Inspiration (2)
• Diffusing demand (6)
• Scaling and diffusion / public sector (6)
• Commissioning and procurement (14)
• Suppliers of innovation (7)
• Transmitters (9)
• Organization and scale (8)
• Metrics to show what works (22)

Systemic Change

• Ideas that energise systemic innovations (13)
• Infra- and Interstructures to support new systems (5)
• Formation of users and producers (4)
• Strategic moves that accelerate systems change (6)
• Regulatory and fiscal changes (9)
• Information, accounting and statistics (3)
• Progressive coalitions and social movements (3)
• Systemic finance (3)