Ethics and ethos

The Estonian pilot is not only an attempt to increase citizens’ involvement into service design and development, but it also challenges the traditional format of social and health care services shifting from service-centred approaches to more person-centred solutions where the inclusion and involvement of service users, rather than the given framework of existing public services is the priority.

Social hackathon as a user driven development method encourages participants to think out of the box, and propose solving their problems with their own, unique solutions instead of forcing them into the given framework of the existing social and health care sector. It requires looking at all individuals as possesing valuable knowledge, lived experiences and even resources.

The method is especially important in remote, rural areas such as Vorumaa county, where limited resources seriously challenge the effectiveness of public services, and new resources can be only mobilized if innovation coming from different sectors is allowed and encouraged.

In a bottom-up approach where creative individual and community resources are mobilized, solutions need more action space to reach their potential and prove their ability to address emerging societal problems in the region.

Challenges

The social hackathon concept embraces the diversity of different stakeholders and this diversity will also be reflected in their solutions. The hackathon has proved to be an intense and very effective short-time solution for giving a kick-off to an idea. However, maintaining this development in the longer run is very challenging for the participants, as co-creation requires new mindsets and frameworks that differ from the participants’ daily network.

What we already see is that ideas are ambitious and co-creation allowed participants to come up with solutions far beyond their own competences and capacities. A challenge remains in the sustainability of co-creation after the intense hackathon event.