Social Capital, Quality of Life and Information Society Technologies

1
Social Capital, Quality of Life and Information
Society Technologies

• Introduction
• Jeroen Heres (TNO)

2
Outline

• Background notions
• From a technology to a social orientation of IST
• Social return on IST investment from assumption
  to evidence
• Vision Mutual shaping
• ISTechnology ? ISocietyTechnologies
• ISocietyTechnologies ? ISTechnology
• Project SOCQUIT
• Objectives and approach
• Seminars with the special interest group
• Time frame deliverables
• Seminar program interactive discussion

3
What is IST good for (1)

• eEurope 2005 actionplan
• Broadband enabled communication, in combination
  with convergence, will bring social as well as
  economic benefits. It will contribute to
  e-inclusion, cohesion and cultural diversity. It
  offers the potential to improve and simplify the
  life of all Europeans and to change the way
  people interact, not just at work, but also with
  friends, family, community and institutions and
  the way companies operate. This is what users are
  interested in, and this is where eEurope 2005
  starts from.
• (page 8, eEurope 2005 An information society
  for all)

4
What is IST good for (2)

• Knowledge based economy will not only be a
  powerful engine for growth, competitiveness and
  jobs but in additionwill be capable of improving
  citizens quality of life
• (Councils Lisbon summit (2000) IST WP2003-4,
  paragraph 8)
• Enhanced productivity to which building human
  capital is directed should not be an end in
  itself. The essential longer-term goals,
  underpinned by social capital, are quality of
  life and social cohesion.
• (Bynner, Conference Social and Human Capital in
  the Knowledge Society Policy Implications 28
  29 October 2002)

5
IST-policy from a technology to a social
orientation

• IST policy documents
• lt1995 technology-oriented issues (DG13-reports)
• 1995 -1999 social issues embedded
• gt 1999 Socially inclusive information society
  (HLEG), e-europe
• IST speak
• Main value of IST giving access to information ?
  knowledge ? other people
• Information society ? knowledge society ? network
  society (?)
• IT ICT - IST - KST (?) NST (?) - ?

6
Social return on IST investment from assumption
to evidence

• Evolution towards knowledge society is associated
  with positive social economical effects
• However, there is conceptual ambiguity and vague
  distinction between assumption and evidence
• Conceptualization What is meant with the
  concepts?
• Evidence Are the relationships based on
  empirical studies or on assumptions?
• Generalization Are the effects applicable to
  specific ICTs and user groups, or could the
  effects be generalized?
• Evidence based decision making is important
• Sustainable IST policy should not be subject to
  belief
• Optimize social return on IST investment
  (targetted, effective efficient)

7
Vision on IST developmentmutual shaping

• IST development and social change are interwoven
• ISTs change society
• Society (users) changes ISTs

IST use
Social Life
8
Technology ? Social life

• Policy relevance
• Societal (social/economic) benefits as a result
  of IST development
• Social return on IST investment (social cohesion,
  cultural diversity, human capital, quality of
  life, social capital,etc.)
• IST industry relevance
• Product development social ICTs (social
  software, communication services, experience
  sharing, etc)
• Marketing positioning ICTs as enablers of
  quality of life social capital
• Corporate social responsibility

9
Social life ? Technology

• IST use is socially shaped
• Awareness and understanding of (new) ISTs
• Social support
• Application of IST for social purposes and in
  social contexts
• Social networks as the platform on which ISTs
  are introduced, getting a meaning and being
  incorporated in daily life.

10
SOCQUIT

• SOcial Capital, QUality of life and Information
  society Technologies
• Objectives
• Supporting RTD and policy (public and industrial)
  by showing the estimated influence of (new) ISTs
  on the development of social capital and quality
  of life
• Initiate expert networks and
• activities in this subject area
• Project within FP6-IST
• December 2003 July 2005
• Information http//www.eurescom.de/socquit

• Partners
• TNO
• Telenor
• Chimera
• Eurescom
• FTR

11
SOCQUIT approach

• Opening the black box
• Analyzing state of the art knowledge
• Literature review
• Data review
• Policy implications
• Proposing dynamic model
• Validation of the model by data-analysis
• Making model applicable for policy and RTD by
  creating decision support tool
• Identify key indicators
• Applying the model analyzing selected topics
• Testing the practical relevance
• Together with experts from policy, research and
  industry

12
SOCQUIT time frame
13
Special Interest Group Seminars

• Discuss and validate results in interactive
  seminars with experts from IST policy, industry
  and RTD to generate useful and usable results
• Seminar 1 (June 2004)
• meta-analysis
• address relevant topics
• Seminar 2 (January 2005)
• preliminary system dynamic model
• preliminary analyses selected topics
• Seminar 3 (May 2005)
• final model and demonstration decision support
  tool
• implications for research and policy agenda

14
Agenda seminar I

• Monday 14 June
• 16h30 Presentation SOCQUIT, an introduction
  (Jeroen Heres TNO)
• 17h00 Presentation Quality of life and IST
  (Ben Anderson - Chimera)
• 17h30 Presentation Social capital and IST
  (Richard Ling - Telenor)
• 18h00 Coffee-break/ post it session
• 18h30 Presentation IPTS (René van Bavel)
• 19h00 Discussion (including post-it inputs)
• (facilitated by Peter Stollenmayer Eurescom)
• 19h30 End
• Tuesday 15 June
• 9h00 What do we know? Synthesis of results
  in proposed conceptual
• framework (Jeroen Heres - TNO)
• 9h45 System dynamic modelling methodology
  (Rutger Mooy TNO)
• 10h10 Review of available datasets (Frank
  Thomas - FTR)
• 10h30 coffee break
• 11h00 Selecting top priority questions
  (facilitated by Ben Anderson)
• 12h30 Final conclusions
• 13h00 end

15
Post-it session overview of interrelationships

• How does ICT use influence
• Quality of Life ?
• 2) How does Social Capital
• influence Quality of Life?
• 3) How does ICT use influence
• Social Capital?
• 4) How does Social Capital
• influence ICT use?