Reconstructing

Communities through

Innovation

By Marlon Parker RLabs

“A Community in Tension is where the wellbeing of Citizens are being threatened”

“Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road

comes into existence.”Lin Yutang

People passionate about reconstructing communities

Our mission is to develop and sustain an

empowering environment where through teaching, learning, research

and scholarship our students and staff, in partnership with the community and industry, are able to

create and apply knowledge that contributes to development.

Collaborate

Impacted… 2007

Empowerment

Champions

Uplift

Athlone Living Lab (ALL)… 2008

Community Innovation

Community Driven

Capacity Building

“A reconstructing interaction space for collaborative design, creation,

dissemination and application of knowledge for empowerment, upliftment and

development of people and

communities in or headed for tension through the use of

innovation”

Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs)… 2009

Government Academia

Industry

Community

Innovation Partnerships

Innovative Partnerships – Academic Visits

Innovative Partnerships – Student Engagement

Innovative Partnerships – Business/Government Engagement

Innovative Partnerships – Community Empowerment

# of Blog Posts: 2,000

# of Social Network on FaceBook: +10,000

# of Followers on Twitter : +10,000

# of Twitter updates: +60,000

Community Skills Development

Social Media Surgeries

Mobile Citizens Journalism

Mobile Phones for Social Good

# of Subscribers: +80,000

# of Interactions: +2,500,000

…2010

Trained Community Champions

Community Innovation Academy

Business Incubator

- Social Media Factory

- Mobile Consulting

Business Models

Empowered Project Teams and Management

Sustainability

RLabs Modelling- Processes- Personas- Innovation - R&D- Skills- Engagement

Partnership (E.g. RLabs EC, RLabs Asia)

Commercialization/Transfer of Innovation & Skills

Mentorship

Expansion

Global Innovation

Technology and InnovationConclusion…

Collaboration / Partnership

Reconstructing Citizens

Reconstructing Communities

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for.

We are the change that we seek.”

Reconstructing Communities through Innovation

Thank Youwww.rlabs.org

www.marlonparker.co.za

marlon@rlabs.org

Marlon Parker

@marlonparker

marlonct

+2721 469 1138 +2721 637 4037 +2776 403 4920