Kent Connects Competition

8/4/2019 Kent Connects Competition

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Kent Connects Competition

Kent Connects1 is developing a new approach of working with digital entrepreneursto develop ideas and prototypes of ICT solutions to local needs. This will include acompetition building up to a developer day event.

What are the benefits?

This will provide the Kent Connects Partner organisations, including KCC with:o ideas and prototypes that be used as applied research to inform development

of projects and serviceso methods of engagement and access to digital entrepreneurs to explore

opportunities for future collaboration and joint development of solutions

This reflects the opportunities outlined in theGovernment ICT Strategy2:o using agile project development in an accelerated way scanning the horizon

o through entrepreneurs to identify changes in technology

o providing a channel for entrepreneurs to participate in ICT with solutions

This would build on the successful and productive relationships built with the localand national digital community through work with Transformed by Youand with keypartners such as the University of Kent andKent Business School.

What is the rationale?

With the financial constraints we face, local councils need to explore more agile andefficient ways of making use of ICT.

At the same time, there is a massive opportunity to open up the development ofideas and solutions to entrepreneurs, universities and colleges who have thespecialist expertise on whats technically feasible.

We also know public services need to adapt to the changing trends in how peopleuse technology and what tools they use. Many technologies that were onlyrecently being used by a few are now increasingly being adopted by the mainstream.

How are we making sure the benefits will be realised?

To ensure that the digital entrepreneurs produce ideas and prototypes that beused as applied research to inform development of your projects and

services, we have designed an approach that willo put forward challenges that are relevant to the public (see Challenges

section) and where we can provide ICT assets to developers to useo engage the public to suggest and rate ideas on how ICT could be used to

tackle those challenges in advance of the evento select the most highly rated ideas to be developed into prototypes

o define the specification to provide to developers so that they can develop

prototypes that could work with partners internal systems

1Kent Connects is the lead technology partnership for Kent and Medway. It has invested in a single, county wide

infrastructure to enable its partners to join up and share their services delivery mechanisms in a secure, robust and

cost effective environment. The partnership also facili tates partner projects by providing advice and sharing bestpractice and resources.2http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/government-ict-strategy
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/government-ict-strategyhttp://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/government-ict-strategyhttp://www.slideshare.net/localinnovation/transformed-by-you-web-strategy-grouphttp://www.slideshare.net/localinnovation/transformed-by-you-web-strategy-grouphttp://www.kent.ac.uk/news/stories/kccworkshop/2010http://www.kent.gov.uk/news_and_events/news_archive/university_of_kent_mba_student.aspxhttp://www.kent.gov.uk/news_and_events/news_archive/university_of_kent_mba_student.aspxhttp://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/government-ict-strategyhttp://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/government-ict-strategyhttp://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/government-ict-strategyhttp://www.slideshare.net/localinnovation/transformed-by-you-web-strategy-grouphttp://www.kent.ac.uk/news/stories/kccworkshop/2010http://www.kent.gov.uk/news_and_events/news_archive/university_of_kent_mba_student.aspx


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o enable representatives of the Kent Connects Strategic Board to judge the

prototypes that best tackle the challengeso feed in the ideas and prototypes into R&D for Kent Connects

To ensure we test out effective methods of engagement and access to digital

entrepreneurs to explore opportunities for future collaboration & jointdevelopment of solutions, we haveo worked with existing local3 and national4 networks to identify and invite

entrepreneurs to take parto provide a competitive element by giving awards to the best ideas and

prototypes developed (sponsoredo partnered with Cabinet Office to launch the first ever local government

challenge on the new competition platform http://dotgovlabs.direct.gov.uko used the competition as a platform to understand how to involve them in the

development of ideas & solutions through Kent Connects5 in the future

What are we asking people to do?

Do you have an idea on how to make your local area a better place to live using ICT?Do you want to win the chance for your idea to be turned into reality?

Were organising a competition to stimulate collaboration between public services,entrepreneurs and communities to develop innovative ways of using technology toimprove their neighbourhoodsand we need your ideas!

To submit your idea https://dotgovlabs.direct.gov.uk/Page/Challengesand select the Transformed by You Challenge

For more information www.openkent.org.uk/competition

How will the competition work?

Activities Dates

People will be able to submit and rateideas online on how technology could helpimprove their neighbourhoods

16 September-16 October

Delegates will be able to enter ideas on apaper form at the Kent ConnectsConference to be added online

16 September

People invited by Turner Contemporaryand Tomorrows People will be able todevelop their ideas at workshops hostedby those organisations to be added online

27 September and TBC

Students will be able to develop theirideas at workshops hosted by Mid KentCollege and Thanet College to be added

28 September and 11 October

3Community Action Network, Kent Association for Young Entrepreneurs, Kent Literacy & Reading Forum and

Voluntary Action Maidstone as well as 80 university/college lecturers and 60 local digital businesses4

Innovation Leadership Forum, Social Enterprise London, Total Place/Community Budgets Network, Transition

Institute, Urban Forum, Womens Entrepreneurs Network as well as 60 digital groups

5 Building on the objectives of the Kent Connects Governance Model 2011 that Suppliers will provide services,

research and innovate to deliver continuous improvement and new opportunities to the partnership and engagingwith service development units amongst the partner organisations
http://dotgovlabs.direct.gov.uk/https://dotgovlabs.direct.gov.uk/Page/Challengeshttp://www.openkent.org.uk/competitionhttp://dotgovlabs.direct.gov.uk/https://dotgovlabs.direct.gov.uk/Page/Challengeshttp://www.openkent.org.uk/competition


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online

Winners of the best idea of each of thetwo challenges will be announced

25 October

Digital entrepreneurs will be able to submitand rate prototypes they want to developthat build on the top ideas on theChallenges

25 October-24 November

Digital entrepreneurs will develop theirprototypes at an event hosted atGravesend with others to try and win thecompetition

25 November

Winners will be able to develop theirprototypes into business propositions at a

workshop hosted by Kent Business School

W/C 6 February

What are the challenges?

There are two challenges people can submit their idea to on how the use of digitaltechnology can

1. Help people help each other in your neighbourhood

There are many opportunities for how the use of technology could improve peoplesneighbourhood, whether it's to help people find a voice, share skills for a good cause,

or even organise community cleanups.

2. Make it easier for you to report issues to your council

There are many ways that technology is being used for people to report issues,whether it's reporting a pothole that needs fixing , texting in a photo of waste on thestreet orsharing your experience with frontline staff. And that information can beused in really creative ways . But there are issues which people cant report easily.

How do people come up with an idea?

People might have seen something that uses technology in a really creative way.

Well be encouraging them through the online platform to think about how these newways of using ICT could help improve their neighbourhood or public services.

What we're looking for is how the idea would meet either of the two Challenges andhow it would use ICT. It can be any kind of technology that can be used on the web,a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, console, SMS, or any softwareplatform broadly available to the public. People dont need to be experts intechnology to put forward ideas.

We are organising workshops with Mid Kent College, Thanet College, TomorrowsPeople and Turner Contemporary to stimulate ideas by their users on theChallenges.
http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/http://www.thegoodgym.org/how-it-works/http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2011/aug/16/riot-clear-up-community-actionhttp://bit.ly/oli41ohttp://bit.ly/qR2L0Mhttp://bit.ly/qR2L0Mhttp://bit.ly/ra6fTShttp://bit.ly/nlUvLphttp://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/http://www.thegoodgym.org/how-it-works/http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2011/aug/16/riot-clear-up-community-actionhttp://bit.ly/oli41ohttp://bit.ly/qR2L0Mhttp://bit.ly/qR2L0Mhttp://bit.ly/ra6fTShttp://bit.ly/nlUvLp


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How do people come up with prototypes?

Local public services also have ICT assets that could be re-used by entrepreneurs.There are amazing opportunities for open data to be used. You can see what peoplehave already created using the data from Open Kent here. Competitions organised

across the world have shown how effective they are at illustrating the opportunities itcan offer to the public. You can see a selection of them here.

We know that open data is a very new area for the public. Most people will neverhave heard of open data, let alone used it to create visualisations. Others howevermay have used tools to turn data into new web applications. They are also usingAPIs from customer relationship management systems in a similar way. Thats whywe want to stimulate use of open data by encouraging technology innovators to usedatasets to turn the publics ideas into new ways of using technology.

Thats why after the competition for submitting ideas has closed, people with skills indeveloping and designing ICT applications will be invited to put forward prototypes to

the top ideas from the either of the two Challenges.

The technical criteria they will have if they choose

o Challenge 1:Help people help each other in your neighbourhood, they

will be asked to use OS Open Data.o Challenge 2: Make it easier for you to report issues to your council, they

will be asked to use theLagan Open 311 Integration Toolkit

They will have a month to come up with what the prototypes would look like and howthey would work. They would then be invited to an event hosted at GraveshamCouncil where they can develop the prototypes with others on the 25th November.

What are the prizes for the competition?

Kent Connects will be offering 500 to the winners of the best idea and 1000 for thewinners of the best prototype of each of the Challenges. These prizes are jointlysponsored by Kent Connects and Ordnance Survey.

The winners of the best idea & prototype for both challenges will also be invited totest their idea and develop a business proposition at two special workshops.

The User Testing Workshop will be hosted by Tunbridge Wells Council bringing

together a selection of users of their services to test out the winning prototypes. Thewinners will also be invited to gain vital feedback on how to improve usability.

The Prototype to Proposition Workshop will be hosted by Kent Business Schoolwhere a cohort of its MBA students will work with entrepreneurs on developing abusiness proposition that will help them take their prototypes to market.

How will the prototypes be judged?

Submission questions Judging Criteria

Whats the name of your prototype? Evidence of creativity
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What idea/s are you developing yourprototype on

Evidence of prototype building on one ormore of the ideas put forward in theDeveloper Day Ideas Competition

How are you going to develop it? Evidence that the prototype can be usedby a member of the public

For Challenge 1: How are you using theopen data?

Evidence of use ofOS Open Data

For Challenge 2: How are you makingservice requests to the CRM?

Evidence of use ofLagan Open 311Integration Toolkit

What tools and techniques are you goingto use to develop it?

Evidence of ability to use tools andtechniques in an innovative way and thatare accessible to all

How would you take your idea forward? Evidence of ability to engage people touse the prototype and sponsors to fund itsdevelopment

These will be judged by a representative from Kent Connects and Ordnance Survey.Other judges will be selected from Kent Connects Partners in due course.

What if peoples ideas/prototypes are not selected?

People who submit ideas that are not selected to go forward to the next stage of thecompetition can continue to work on them in the Dot Gov Labs space. This applies toprototypes that have been put forward too.

What is Dot Gov Labs?

Dot Gov Labs is an online innovation competition platform which has over 1700entrepreneurs, developers and users of public services. Public service agencies (sofar including DWP, NHS and Cabinet Office) put forward challenges they require ICTsolutions to and people are invited to submit ideas to these. Each challenge will havedifferent criteria and prizes, but runs through the same process.

Dot Gov Labs is a HM Skunkworks programme run by the newGovernment DigitalService. The GDS is responsible for ensuring that there are appropriate forms ofsupport for people who cant access or use digital services, improving the waycitizens can interact with government online, freeing up information and facilitatingthe use of new tools, as well as accrediting third party identity to facilitate digitaltransactions. These include projects such as DirectGov and the ePetitions website.

The Kent Connects Competition will be the first time a local public service haslaunched a challenge.

Who are the sponsors?

As well as Kent Connects, Kent Business School and Ordnance Survey sponsoringas mentioned above, Lagan will also be sponsoring by providing use of their Open

311 Integration Toolkit to developers until 25 November).
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Whos eligible to participate?

This competition is open to any UK resident. To facilitate the free exchange of ideas,all visualizations and other contributions you make to this challenge will be coveredunder the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
http://bit.ly/nGXnwWhttp://bit.ly/nGXnwW

Kent Connects Competition

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Transcript of Kent Connects Competition