A lot is happening in the public domain in the Netherlands. Cutbacks are underway, responsibilities are being transferred from central to local governments and people are being asked to do more and more for themselves. What does this mean in practice? Who is in danger of falling through the cracks in the system? What does it mean for existing services and for our welfare state? We explore this unknown territory by developing methods that can better prepare us for what is to come.
In 2014 our social labs began to blossom. In these labs we experimented, together with those directly involved and in a local and temporary manner, with new trajectories for success. After a pilot phase focusing on care for the elderly in Amsteldorp, we established social labs in Dordrecht and Schiedam. For us, these labs were one of the highlights of the year!
Click on the arrow on the bottom right to continue.
In 2014 we also devoted much effort to making cultural heritage collections publicly accessible, to greater flexibility in copyright law, to increasing the use of open cultural data and to promoting innovation in education. Through countless innovations, projects, programmes and meetings, we continue to contribute to a smarter Netherlands. Innovation must not be seen as a goal in itself but rather as a means of achieving a more sustainable and social society, one in which the opportunities and potential of everyone are utilised to the full: a knowledge society.
Doing and making a difference are our primary focus, as are learning what does and does not work. By publishing and presenting about our work, by developing methods and by consciously organising feedback, we help to foster the accumulated knowledge necessary for social innovation.
The KL Academie voor Leiderschapsontwikkeling (KL Academy for Leadership Development), which we established at the beginning of 2014, was brought to a close at the end of the year. Although we continue to devote much attention to strengthening leadership, a separate entity did not in the end function well. Our leadership programmes are therefore now, once again, part of KL.
Click on the arrow on the bottom right for an overview (in no particular order) of our activities and successes.
Through organising a social lab in Amsteldorp we showed how such a lab can help citizens, professionals, volunteers, local government officials and KL take steps together towards inclusive, democratic and sustainable innovation in care and services for the elderly. The results have been shared with countless municipalities across the Netherlands.
See also our case 'Labs: test beds of the terra incognita'.
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Photo: Cover of the publication.
In response to a consultation by the European Commission, Kennisland helped Dutch cultural heritage institutions and members of the Europeana-network formulate a shared vision for the future of copyright law. The core message is: public cultural heritage institutions deserve better copyright rules! Read more
See also our case 'Europe needs a modern copyright system'.
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Photo: David Iliff CC BY-SA 3.0
Kennisland and our partners (Dutch only) helped Slimmernetwerk (Smarter network) (Dutch only) to grow over a period of five years to become an active innovation network of around 4,300 people working in government. This success has prompted the network for young people working in government FUTUR to take over the further development of the network.
See also our case Public professionals innovate the government from the ground up.
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Photo: Slimmernetwerk Magazine.
In 2013 we formulated a target together with Europeana: no more unlabelled objects in Europeana. Copyright labels provide clarity to users about what is and is not permitted with shared cultural heritage. All 40 million objects in Europeana are now labelled, of which around 13 million are freely available for use by everyone.
See also our case 'A strong public domain'.
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Image: Dans op boerenbruiloft (Dance at peasant wedding), Pieter van der Heyden, Theodoor Galle, Joannes Galle (Public Domain, via Rijksmuseum)
Social labs for social issues are hot. But what are they, and how are they useful? KL published the research report Lab Matters, generated new methodological knowledge with other labs in Lab Craft and tested a self-developed social lab approach in Beter Oud in Amsteldorp ('Amsteldorp Social Lab: towards a better future for the elderly' Dutch only for now). We were invited to share our knowledge about social labs in Copenhagen, Toronto, Vancouver and Singapore.
See also our case ‘Labs: test beds of the terra incognita’.
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Photo: Three of our publications on social innovation
During the InnovatieSafari (Innovation Safari, Dutch only) at the Katholieke Pabo Zwolle teachers tackled innovation questions at ten regional schools. They did so by testing prototypes for possible solutions, and by together creating space for new working methods in educational practice.
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As of 1 January 2015, the crowdfunding platform Voor je Buurt (For your Neighbourhood) has become a fully independent organisation. Voor je Buurt began in 2012 as an experimental project of Kennisland and Netwerk Democratie. As of the end of 2013, we worked hard towards making Voor je Buurt fully autonomous. Voor je Buurt is the second successful Kennisland spin-off after the Kafkabrigade (Kafka Brigade) in 2010.
See also our case 'Civic crowdfunding takes over the playing field between government and citizens'.
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Photo: bee keepers from the Bijenoase
Kennisland inspired and coached twenty Hivos Social Innovation Award finalists from sixteen countries. Thanks to the programme, they formed a close network – the Hivos Learning Community – from which they continue to benefit after the Award.
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Image: Slack group screenshot
The use of open teaching materials is gaining ground in education. This year, 85 teachers received training in copyright, open licenses and creating their own open teaching materials. We are happy to see more legal, high-quality open educational material. read more
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Photo: Sage Ross CC BY-SA 3.0
Although the InnovatieImpuls Onderwijs (Innovation Impulse Education, IIO) scheme came to a close in 2014, the schools involved continue to innovate. This ambition formed the focus of the festive conclusion to 5 years of IIO. Around 350 participants from across the field of education (from 150 IIO schools to administrators, political figureheads and social partners) got behind the movement.
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Photo: Bart Hoogveld (CC BY-NC-ND)
In 2014, 72 local social initiatives began a crowdfunding campaign via Voor je Buurt. Around 5,000 supporters donated more than €280,000. The number of projects and the amount of money raised in 2014 tripled with respect to 2013, the year in which the platform was launched.
See also our case 'Civic crowdfunding takes over the playing field between government and citizens'.
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Photo: The Green Marathon in Amsterdam, one of the initiatives on Voor je Buurt
In 2014, the network of Innovatiebrigadiers (Innovation Coaches) grew with the addition of 20 new education innovators who are helping other schools to find solutions to innovation issues. This includes stimulating peer-2-peer learning and spreading the lessons from InnovatieImpuls Onderwijs (Dutch only) further.
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The first participants in the training programme Leiderschap in Cultuur (Leadership in Culture, LinC) received their certificates at the end of 2014. A second group of forty professionals in the field of art and culture began the programme in September. Through LinC, KL is able to contribute to an enterprising and innovative cultural sector and to support the development of leadership skills.
Read more and also take a look at our case 'Leadership in the cultural sector'.
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Photo: Robin Zeilmaker CC BY 4.0
E-classes can be found on Wikiwijs (Dutch only), the SlimFit-app (Dutch only) was launched, six cases, 24 videos and dozens of articles are available on Leraar24 (Teacher24, Dutch only) and the lessons learned from the qualitative investigation (Dutch only) by the Kohnstamm Instituut and the HvA have been highlighted. This means that the results of InnovatieImpuls Onderwijs (IIO) are available to everyone working in education.
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How can teachers themselves become researchers? KL stimulated the debate about the role of research within education and helped to develop new research methods.
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Kennisland continues to work towards a strong public domain with Open Cultuur Data. In 2014, the consortium increased the scope of publicly accessible Dutch cultural heritage, highlighted how (and if) the size of the public domain can be measured and improved accessibility by developing a search engine (Dutch only) for open cultural data in the Netherlands.
See also our case 'A strong public domain'.
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Image: Girl in white kimono, George Hendrik Breitner, 1894 (Public domain, via Rijksmuseum)
In 2014, together with Vrij Nederland and Stichting DOEN, KL organised the second edition of Radicale vernieuwers (Radical innovators). A jury of experts chose thirteen initiatives that are not afraid to swim against the current in the service of a sustainable, social and better society. “We need more of them, because they make the Netherlands a better and more exciting place”, said chairman of the jury Daan Roosegaarde.
See also our case 'Radical innovators solve social problems'.
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Photo: Radical innovators in Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam.
KL established Beleidslabs (Policy labs) together with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in order to experiment with new methods of forming and implementing policy. Kennisland brought new perspectives, new approaches and new insights in order to find innovative solutions to stubborn issues.
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For the first time, Kennisland worked closely together with a school management organisation (Stichting Westelijke Tuinsteden, Dutch only) to create an innovation fund and an innovators' network within the group. This approach is based on the Onderwijs Pioniers (Education Pioneers) concept and has received much positive feedback from within the organisation.
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Slimmernetwerk employs the Do-tank method in more than 30 experiments: an approach for multi-organisational teams from across the public sector, led by professionals, who tackle a varied range of problems themselves. An explanation of the approach and all the working methods employed is available on the website (Dutch only).
See also our case 'Public professionals innovate the government from the ground up'.
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The results of InnovatieImpuls Onderwijs (Innovation Impulse Education) have not only been shared but also continue to flourish in schools. This time, questions from schools themselves set the agenda: how can I work together with schools in the neighbourhood to deal with falling numbers? How can primary and secondary education achieve a closer fit? How can I give pupils more personal guidance with the help of ICT?
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Photo: Bart Hoogveld CC BY
Together with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Kafkabrigade, KL developed a methodology for helping people with occupational disabilities find lasting employment. Lessons from two Do-tanks and a series of meetings formed the starting point for a network and an approach in which the target group, officials and entrepreneurs worked as a team to set up experiments around new jobs.
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Image: Still from a Slimmernetwerk video
Together with the Kafkabrigade, KL published the first complete publication on the bureaucratic pitfalls in special education practice. This essay (Dutch only) is the result of a two-year research programme conducted in and together with the education sector commissioned by the lower house of the Dutch parliament.
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Photo: Joost J. Bakker CC BY
The Social Innovation Safari , which KL has already organised on five occasions with international participants, became a truly international programme in 2014: participants from the Social Safari 2013 organised their own edition in Nairobi, Kenya following the tried and tested Safari method. This took place with participants from numerous countries including Uganda, Zimbabwe, Iraq, the US, the DRC, Kenya and the Netherlands.
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KL has a new house style and a new website with cases: comprehensive information about all areas in which we are working and wish to share with the wider world. Our new homepage shows exactly how we are currently working on concrete steps towards innovation.
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Photo: We said goodbye of the old KL logo in an appropriate manner
KL contributed to Amsterdam's entry, entitled Play2Work, for the Mayors Challenge. This competition, from Bloomberg Philanthropies, made available a budget of several million for a socially innovative idea from a European city. Amsterdam was one of the 21 finalists chosen from a total of 155 European cities. The municipality of Amsterdam has decided to continue the plan Play2Work (Dutch only), designed to tackle youth employment, as part of an ambitious jobs plan (Dutch only).
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Photo: Transformer18 CC BY
KL has supported innovation by teachers themselves for many years. Now that this idea has gained wider support, we have once again put the role of school leaders on the agenda with programmes such as Vernieuwend Schoolleiderschap po (Innovating school leadership in primary education). As part of this programme, 22 school leaders and their teams initiated concrete plans for innovation within one school year.
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The intention of the project Kansen die werken (Opportunities that work), based around a women's refuge in Apeldoorn, was to begin small but to create as great a lasting effect as possible. Because of this, we have made lessons, ideas, backgrounds and results publicly available to everyone in the publication Standing Up Or Moving Forwards.
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In 2014, we ceased using our offline IT infrastructure entirely and removed our servers from the old vault in our office. All documents and files have been transferred to the cloud, which makes it even easier to share and to collaborate with each other and with external parties. For internal communication, and for some projects, we no longer use e-mail but Slack.
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Photo: The vault in our office
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