Business Innovation Centers as communities of entrepreneurs: the Sachsen project Stefano Micelli University Ca’ Foscari of Venice e.mail: Seminar Community Networks for the Local Economy Development Milan, 11 February 1999

The economics of social communities Beside the theory of learning we agree on, do we have an effective economic theory about (virtual) communities? The concept of community has become a buzzword in the business community.

The WINT community t The WINT project has been conceived by the Business Development Center Sachsen to achieve two main goals: —Rethinking coaching tools for the development of new local entrepreneurs facing growing economic and technological complexity —Lowering training costs by empowering final users, assigning them a key role in the system design Key word: community of practice

The evolving role of WINT members 1. Step: admission inside the community 2. Step: coaching 3. Step: proactive role The business idea is presented and discussed The entrepreneur and a dedicated coaching team redefine the project The firm grows and develops its presence on relevant market User Key player External Community life cycleEntrepreneur role Firm life cycle Conception Take off Business Development

WINT community management tools t The community offers a bundle of services that can be divided as follows: — information tools (search engines, selections of classified documents, yellow pages, collaborative filtering) — cooperation spaces (on line consulting, personalized document workflow management, restricted discussion groups, explicitly managed discussion groups)

WINT community members

The Web interface1/2

The Web interface 2/2

WINT: the groupware and the web

Results from the pilot program t The entrepreneurs actively participated to community life, contributing to archives development. t Experts and consultants played a key role in activating users participation t The most used services: communication and interaction areas where dialogues are continuously edited. t An active community requires a considerable management effort. t The activity of content certification by community managers is fundamental to catch users’ attention. t A considerable part of community management should be dedicated to interfacing other communities. Empirical evidence Guidelines for development

The Leeds Virtual Science Park t The Leeds Virtual Science Park (VSP), an initiative of the University of Leeds provides an on-line, Web-based environment for its tenants. t The VSP uses a familiar ‘physical metaphor’ as its interface. Clients rent space on the Park in order to set up a tenancy to support the development of their business. t Services offered include Knowledge Resource Rooms, On- line tutorial support, Group discussion forums, Offices for academic and industrial mentors, Access to the full range of expertise and knowledge resources publicly available within the VSP

One of the Virtual Rooms of the VSP Leeds

The BarcelonaNetActiva experience t Barcelona Activa - a private municipal company from Barcelona City Council - has created a Virtual Busines Incubator, a web-based tool for innovation and knowledge t This community provides its tenants with four main service areas —information databases —business cooperation systems —distance learning environments —community services

The Portal of BarcelonaNetActiva

A converging path t Virtual Business Innovation Centers seem to be —strongly rooted in a specific geographical area — activated by end users eager to share business experience with other entrepreneurs facing similar experiences —managed with a constant support a well equipped back office — focus on users learning experience to provide newcomers with the older entrepreneurs’ experience