Fostering Social Innovation through Multiple Social Media Combinations

Abstract

Social innovation requires extensive networking, communication, and collaboration among various social actors. This article presents an approach to fostering and supporting social innovation through the combined exploitation of multiple social media. Furthermore, a methodology is developed for evaluating this approach, based on sound theoretical foundations: The wicked problems theory and the diffusion of innovation theory. This methodology is used for evaluating three pilot applications of this approach, organized in cooperation with members of the European Parliament.

Keywords:

• social innovation
• Web 2.0
• social media
• wicked problems
• diffusion of innovation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yannis Charalabidis

Yannis Charalabidis is Assistant Professor at the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, Greece, in the area of e-Governance Information Systems. He has been employed for several years as executive director in singular IT group, leading software development and company expansion in Europe, India, and the United States. He also serves as the scientific manager at the Greek Interoperability Centre, hosted at Decision Support Systems Laboratory of the National Technical University of Athens, conducting high quality research in this domain. He writes and teaches on Government Service Systems, Enterprise Interoperability, Government Transformation, and Citizen Participation.

Euripidis Loukis

Euripidis Loukis is Associate Professor of information systems and decision support systems at the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, Greece. Formerly he has been information systems advisor at the Ministry to the Presidency of the Government, technical director of the Program of Modernization of Greek Public Administration of the Second Community Support Framework, and national representative in the programs “Telematics” and “IDA” (Interchange of Data between Administrations) of the European Union. His current research interests include e-Government, e-participation, information systems impact and business value, and medical decision support systems.

Aggeliki Androutsopoulou

Aggeliki Androutsopoulou is PhD candidate at the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, Greece. She holds a bachelor degree in informatics from the Athens University of Economics and Business and a master of science in “Technologies and Management of Information and Communication Systems” from the University of the Aegean, Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering. Currently, she is a research associate in the information systems laboratory of the above department. Her research interests lie in the area of e-government and e-business information systems, interoperability frameworks, e-participation, and policy modeling.