User involvement in FIRE

In order to assess the impact of technological changes to the Internet in socioeconomic terms, it is necessary to involve user communities on a large scale at an early stage of development. The FIRE stakeholders are investigating how far they can profit from advanced user-driven open innovation methodologies, as they are for example developed and applied in the European Network of Living Labs (www.openlivinglabs.eu). In a Living Lab, all relevant actors are integrated in a flexible service and technology innovation ecosystem. Bringing the user in at an early stage into the innovation process allows all actors, including businesses and industry, to better discover new and emerging behaviours and user patterns and to assess the socioeconomic implications of nex technological solutions.