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Meet our partners: Design Entrepreneurship Institute

Clara Pont2022-02-03T16:30:37+01:00

Simona De Rosa (PhD) is member of the Board of Directors at the DEN Institute.

The Design Entrepreneurship Institute is a non-profit think tank, working at European level thanks to an extended network of collaborators. DEN main areas of activities are: support to participatory innovation practices, socio-economic impact assessment of research and innovation initiatives; research on societal impacts of climate change mitigation, (Digital) Social Innovation, inclusion and non-discrimination, strategic consultancy on innovation of processes, use of ICT technologies and software technology transfer. In addition it also offers project and programme management as well as project communication and dissemination. In its research activities, DEN adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines and develops both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, following – when possible – the action-research principles. 

The DEN institute is a think tank that studies how design and technology can be used to support entrepreneurship and social impact, could you explain why it is so relevant to study this interaction? 

Nowadays, research is focusing more and more on how users can directly inform technological development through user engagement processes. This is urgently needed for developing tools, devices, but also processes that consider real user needs. However, user engagement is not limited to the definition of useful devices, but it is important to determine how to structure a sustainable and ethical future. To achieve this goal, it is also crucial to map what is behind the users in terms of values, behaviours and perceptions. By focusing on the complex interaction among current practices, values and needs we can analyse the implications of innovation in terms of impacts. Evidences on positive impacts help us in the definition of new scenarios for a brighter and sustainable future, and this is exactly what DEN tries to do!  

The Pandemic has hit hard the publishing sector, what were your thoughts before and now about the evolution of the book industry? 

As reported by the Federation of European Publishers “Book publishing is the largest cultural industry in Europe, and European publishing is a world leader”. We cannot deny this crucial sector have been impacted by the current Covid-19 pandemic. As reported by IDEA Consult (2020), in 2020 “Sales in bookstores dropped between 75% and 95% in most countries where a lockdown was in place”. A lot of bookshops and libraries closed their activities and bookfairs and public events have been canceled or postponed. All this tremendously affected the stakeholders working in this sector. However, due to the pandemic we also get the opportunity to rethink current practices. For instance, as reported by IDEA Consult et al. (2021), it has been observed in France that online sales increased +52% in March and +180% in April 2020 and many online platforms doubled or tripled their sales in early April. Moreover, as reported by the Global Web Index Coronavirus Research of April 2020, 33% of people worldwide read more books and listened to more audiobooks while at home during the crisis2.  This means that even if certain aspects have been damaged due to the pandemic, we are discovering new ways and new approaches to experience reading. So, hopefully the pandemic will not be a dramatic event hitting the publishing industry but a factor towards the adoption of new business models and books’ fruition. Being optimistic, we must take the chance to develop better and innovative ways to interact and exploit books, creating sustainable and creative solutions for the sake of the industry. 

You have an extensive role in the Möbius project since you are participating in all the work packages, could you tell us a little more about it from your point of view? 

DEN institute leads the activities related to the project’s impact assessment. This is a challenging task because we need to ensure that all potential impacts will be mapped by a consistent theoretical framework and by implementing it. The implementation of the methodology will allow us to finally get an estimation of the impacts of the project. As said, to do that we need to have a clear picture of the entire chain. We have to know all the challenges and considering all the aspects related to technical, social as well as economic dimensions. Moreover, the impact assessment cannot work without inputs, feedback and validation from sectoral stakeholders. Our role is to structure a consistent dialogue and a continuous exchange with all the partners so that the methodological framework will be co-designed and accepted by all. This is not easy if you think how complex is the Möbius project. Our engagement through all work packages guarantees that all partners and activities will be assessed and considered.  

How would you define the term prosumer and how this new kind of actor intervenes in the society?  

According to the definition used in the Möbius project, and as we have written in a paper recently published on the Publishing Research Quarterly, “the prosumer is an individual that can produce or improve goods and services he/she will eventually consume. In particular, in the publishing industry the prosumer includes publisher-managed communities, and the millions of users participating and contributing to online communities of interest (e.g., fanfiction communities)”. What makes the difference here, is the active participation of the user in the entire chain. The user is not passively waiting for a content, or a service. She/he is the one who produces but at the same time the one who consumes. We are all embedded in the technology, we are content creators and at the same time contents’ users thanks to technology that make it possible and easy. It was time to push the debate on the role of the prosumers in the publishing industry, and we are happy to be at the forefront of the discussion with the Möbius project. 

What are you expecting to discover from the Möbius project? 

This is a very challenging question. Let’s say that as a researcher working in the project, I expect that new approaches emerge to reading and writing experiences and translate those findings into innovative and disruptive technologies created by the Möbius project. From my point of view, it is essential that our outcomes will generate positive impacts opening to innovative, inclusive and sustainable tools and processes for the publishing industry. On the other hand, as a researcher engaged in the creative and cultural industry community, I really expect, and hope, that the Möbius project will put the spotlight on the publishing industry, which certainly is an incredibly relevant sector among the creative and cultural industries and one of the strongest at European level. As said, the industry is strong, but it is also facing challenges, more funds allocated to the sector and intersections with other fields of research are crucial to support innovation forcing sectorial stakeholders to explore and experiment new ways to run traditional business. I think this is extremely needed and I hope that some opportunity for further funding will come in the upcoming work programmes under the Horizon Europe Programme. 

 

Simona De Rosa (PhD) is member of the Board of Directors at the DEN Institute.
Since 2015, she has participated as a researcher in responsible positions in more than 10 European projects funded by the European Commission under the research frameworks FP7 and H2020. She is mainly in charge of policy analysis, participatory processes for policy development and impact assessment analysis. She is currently deeply involved in the research community on social media and disinformation and she is an active member of the creative and cultural industries community at European level. Simona holds a bachelor and a master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Naples L’Orientale where she defended both theses in Economic Geography. In 2011 she started her PhD in Economic Geography from the University of Rome La Sapienza and concluded it with the defense of her thesis “Italian Networks of firms: the role of proximity through an empirical case study” in March 2015. During the PhD she worked mainly on Network of Firms and forms of Proximity among SMEs with specific focus on Innovation. Other research interests during the PhD were linked to migration, social movements and all possible relations between culture and the territory.


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1 Jul

💡Do you prefer to read on paper or on screen? This dilemma arises constantly, but here it is explainedwhat has happened to traditional reading after the pandemic. Discovering and reading go hand in hand, join us! 🔗👉

https://www.ft.com/content/a1768ded-e039-4c3b-8590-1d5d811ed1c2

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30 Jun

Möbius Awards Ceremony🏆 The winners of the open call for manuscripts were announced!

👉Meet the winner of the first mobius book
👉Get to know the project and find out how you can be the next one.
👉Discover the winners

Enjoy the full event here 🔗https://youtu.be/elz4tisizM4

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⏰THE MÖBIUS OPEN CALL IS CLOSING TOMORROW! 'Th ⏰THE MÖBIUS OPEN CALL IS CLOSING TOMORROW!

'The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.' The Nobel Prize Dennis Gabor once said, which seemed to be visioning what the Möbius project aims to do: create the world of tomorrow with the values we dream today according to the New European Bauhaus.🚀

Are you thrilled to be part of it? Then, do not hesitate to participate in the Möbius Open Call! 
 
🥇1,500€ will be awarded for the best story 

 🥈🥉500€ will be awarded for each of the 2nd and 3rd places.  

 🎫The prizes will be delivered in kind 
 
 Eligibility conditions: 

 💡Unpublished work 

 📄Max. length of 6.000 characters (including spaces) 

 🌍Participants must be of legal age (>18) and EU-citizens (plus Norway and Iceland) 

 💬Languages: English, Italian and Spanish  

 🗓Deadline: TOMORROW!
 👉 Link in bio!
The Möbius Open Call is about to close! Don't pro The Möbius Open Call is about to close! Don't procrastinate the submission of your manuscript because there are huge things that can come up!  

🥇1,500€ will be awarded for the best story 

 🥈🥉500€ will be awarded for each of the 2nd and 3rd places.  

 🎫The prizes will be delivered in kind 

Eligibility conditions: 

 💡Unpublished work 

 📄Max. length of 6.000 characters (including spaces) 

 🌍Participants must be of legal age (>18) and EU-citizens (plus Norway and Iceland) 

 💬Languages: English, Italian and Spanish 

 🗓Deadline: January 15th, 2022 

Stay connected! 

Link in bio!
🟣APPLY TO THE MÖBIUS OPEN CALL! This is a 🟣APPLY TO THE MÖBIUS OPEN CALL! 

This is a call to all writers, whether professional or amateur🤩! We are looking for short original fantasy stories. The winning manuscript will become the 1st Möbius Book, a cross-media experience involving a 3D audio and virtual reality production and art installation! We want authors to imagine and build a beautiful and liveable future, the future we dream about. Participate now in the creation of the #MobiusBook!🔝 

 🥇1,500€ will be awarded for the best story 

 🥈🥉500€ will be awarded for each of the 2nd and 3rd places.  

 🎫The prizes will be delivered in kind 

Eligibility conditions: 

 💡Unpublished work 

 📄Max. length of 6.000 characters (including spaces) 

 🌍Participants must be of legal age (>18) and EU-citizens (plus Norway and Iceland) 

 💬Languages: English, Italian and Spanish 

 🗓Deadline: January 15th, 2022 

 Link in bio!
🟣 Does this slogan ring a bell? “A book for t 🟣 Does this slogan ring a bell? “A book for the price of a pack of cigarettes” It was from Allen Lane, who started the @penguinrandomhouse

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🖊Marjorie Grassler
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👉 Link in bio!
🖊Marjorie Grassler
🟣 With the arrival of the internet and other te 🟣 With the arrival of the internet and other technologies, the publishing sector had to dig to its deeper roots to extract new formats to reach its audiences 📚. So many business models have emerged to tackle the digital disruption, adapting sometimes the old way of working to the online and interactive environment. The encyclopedia salesperson has not disappeared; they have only been uploaded to the cloud!

👉 Link in bio!
 🖊Marjorie Grassler

#mobiusbook #booklovers #bookstagram #techlover #cloud
🟪Book publishing is the largest cultural indust 🟪Book publishing is the largest cultural industry in Europe🤩

💡Did you know that the total market value is €36-38 billion? (@europeancommission)

The majority of the world’s top publishing groups are European-owned: six to eight of the top 10 publishing groups, according to the annual Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry).” 🌍🚀

Source: Publishing Perspectives

#mobiusbook #booklovers #inspiration #publishing #culture #europe #h2020
🟣 Did you know that e-books are 15-20% cheaper 🟣 Did you know that e-books are 15-20% cheaper to produce than physically books? 🤩 Ebooks are often cheaper in the long run than traditional books because there are no printing fees associated with them 🚀 

Source: @breobox

📸 Photo by Perfecto Capucine on Unsplash
🟣Looking for fan fiction enthusiasts to join 🟣Looking for  fan fiction enthusiasts  to join an online discussion on  new reading experiences  next Thursday!

✨ Interested in joining? 

👉Leave your details in the link you will find in the bio and we'll reach out to you
🟣🗣 Did you know that in Europe every year th 🟣🗣 Did you know that in Europe every year there are 500.000 titles published and there are 22 millions of titles available? Looking at longer term trends, up to 2007 there was steady growth both in terms of turnover and of title output. In 2008 title production kept growing whilst turnover, adjusting for exchange rates, experienced a flat year. 2009 showed a slight decrease in turnover (accounting for exchange rates) and a slowdown of title growth 📚. 

💡 The crisis had less of an impact on publishing when compared to most other sectors. In 2010, growth resumed (especially exports), although favoured by exchange rates. 📖In 2011 and 2012, the market went down, and title production growth was sluggish; the e-book market grew rapidly, and exports were strong. In 2013 and 2014 the market slowed down again, with the most notable trends being the continuous growth of the e-book market and the good performance of exports, which became even stronger from 2015 to 2017. 

📲The e-book market (now nearing 10% of the total) showed signs of stagnation for the last 5 years (but it could be a matter of capturing the right data), whereas audio book sales exploded in 2019, giving new impetus to digital sales. If 2018 marked a trend reversal in the recovery process started in 2015, 2019 confirmed the positive trend🚀. 

Source: @fedeuropeanpublishers
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Deeper shifts in many of these markets require us to dive beneath the Surface. From Argetina Brazil and Mexico, to the UK and to a slightly less extent, even traditionalist Germany, self-publishing has managed to establish itself as a new industry segment of significant scope -one that has achieved remarkable economic success. However, due to a lack of data, our undestanding of this segment is appallingly incomplete📚

Source: The Business of Books 2019

📸 Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash

#mobiusbook #stories #booklovers #bookaholics #freshthoughts #hypertext #readers #bookstagram #bookaddict #inspiration
🟪The closure of the bookshops has been devastat 🟪The closure of the bookshops has been devastating for the publishing sector. The Spanish ones had 22’5% of losses during the pandemic, as explained by the sector (elperiodico). ⁠
⁠
Product offerings consumer preferences and consumption patterns are becoming more liquid and segmented by various factors, they include different perspectives on books, reading and audio consumption 💡.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 957185