Google’s second Interactivism event was held in London on 17th and 18th February 2012. Google and FutureGov joined forces with the RSA and Livity to deliver Interactivism: Young People’s Hack Weekend. This time, teams were challenged to come up with innovative ways of using the web to help young people get into the job they want, or onto the training or education that will help them get there in the future.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, for us, a hack is an event where computer developers, designers and people with ideas come together to build real, working prototypes (or models) of their ideas in a short amount of time.
Before the hack weekend, the RSA hosted a roundtable discussion with young people and policy influencers to help frame the challenge. This informed a framework document that you can read here. Ideas were submitted here on Simpl and a short list of 10 ideas (click here to see which ten) were selected to be developed during the two day event. The event was held in Ravensbourne, a digital media and design university sector college, and the teams consisted of people with ideas, student developers, Googlers, young people with experience of being out of work and education, designers and social innovators (you can see the full list on the Eventbrite page here.) All of our teams produced some excellent prototypes during the two days and two winning ideas were selected. If you would like to help any of our teams develop their ideas further, please get in touch through the Simpl ideas page.
Details of the first Interactivism event: Interactivism - Accessibility Hack Weekend, where participants were challenged to make the web more accesible for older people, can be found here.
You can read all of the reports from Interactivism on the Simpl blog and can keen up to date with any future Interactivism events by following us on Twitter @Simplco.
All information collected for the Interactivism competition will be held by FutureGov, Google and RSA only. All ideas submitted for the competition remain the sole property of the idea originator unless otherwise stated by the idea originator. Idea originators must be prepared to work with Google should their idea be chosen to be given further support following the Interactivism event.
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future ideas posted to Simpl.
24Likely2Like An online platform that levels the playing field for both young talent looking to launch their careers and employers looking to attract the most relevant talent.
Young people leaving school and university are given access to the best information from the people that really know what they are talking about, as well as career opportunities at companies beyond the famous household names.
The employers are able to showcase their employer brand to groups of diverse and relevant young talent they would not otherwise be able to reach.
9Valuable internships found easy We propose a social search platform for internships, which helps finding paid and valuable learning opportunities easily. It is social, because interns can make pay-level and quality of learning experiences transparent by adding such information to the platform.
5Portfolio Fusion An activity portfolio tool enabling the measurement, visualisation and analysis of an individual’s transferable knowledge and skills.
5Gift a Skill Young people who want a career need work experience, but it can be hard to get started. Especially when you have bills to pay. Signing on is one option, but young people seeking benefits have to spend a certain amount of time looking for work a week, and after three months signing on, have to undertake a work placement, just to less than £60 a week. This all takes up valuable time, which could be spent on getting experience in a career, and is a factor in young people getting stuck, either in the benefit system or in a dead-end job.
4Cloud Gaming as Personal Tutor (C.G.P.T) Lack of interest and motivation or/and lack of knowledge of how to achieve desired goals, are some of the most important reasons for unemployment and illiteracy. A personal tutor and motivator is exactly what young people need in such situations; to help them fix things up and get back to the track. Young people require personal tutors who are ready wherever they are, whenever they need some help.
4Blastbeat in a Box - with Blastbeat Changemaker and MyPlace Blastbeat in a Box creates and gameifies the existing Blastbeat programme and develops an online tool kit, built around the Blastbeat programme. Blastbeat wraps the learning experience in music, dance or sport, that leverages young peoples interests and passions to engage NEETs back in the learning process and enhances their positive learning experience teaching business and life skills in a very compelling way.
Blastbeat in a Box helps to empower young people to be event creators and social entrepreneurs, programming and selling out live events and creating performance opportunities for other young people that are intense yet cool and FUN.
Blastbeat has a programme and an expertise that has proven very successful at engaging these young people, NEET's in particular will benefit young people NEET
3A "What's Going On?" Info Stream of Youth Activities/Job Opportunities w/ Custom RSS Subscriptions "Wouldn't it be great if young people could find out about jobs or skill-building, mentoring & learning opportunities, entrepreneurship, and, say, rock-and-roll-camp for girls - through a single RSS feed? And what if the feed was customizable - so that said young people (or parents/guardians/mentors) could subscribe to an organization (that hosts such activities), a venue (near home, for example), or a specific firm where said young people might really, really want to work?"
2Passion Finder: Network, Collaborate & Get Ahead (Mentoring but not as we know it) NOISE Passion Finder is a free online aggregator of existing social platforms, presented with a mix of bespoke input from insiders, celebs and those in the know; to curate and create tailored, purely relevant content to answer the unique, specific needs and requests of each young user. All in one central place. Created by the award-winning national charity NOISEfestival.com
2IIBIT! : "The Facebook of Education and the Twitter of Constructive Criticism" When implemented, this will revolutionize the collective growth of students all across the globe. Learning should be interactive, different and entertaining. "IIBIT!" seeks to break cultural diversity and school curriculum rigidity in order to create a fresh approach to educational development.
24 Likely2Like 
