They argued that a living lab represents a user-centric research methodology for sensing, prototyping, validating and refining complex solutions in multiple and evolving real-life contexts.
[13][14][15][16][17][18] A living lab is a user-centered, open-innovation ecosystem,[19][20][21] often operating in a territorial context (e.g. city, agglomeration, region, campus), integrating concurrent research and innovation processes[22] within a public-private-people partnership.
More recently, the Web 2.0 has demonstrated the positive impact of involving user communities in new product development (NPD) such as mass collaboration projects (e.g. crowdsourcing, Wisdom of Crowds) in collectively creating new contents and applications.
A living lab is not similar to a testbed as its philosophy is to turn users, from being traditionally considered as observed subjects for testing modules against requirements, into value creation in contributing to the co-creation and exploration of emerging ideas, breakthrough scenarios, innovative concepts and related artefacts.
In practice, living labs place the citizen at the centre of innovation, and have thus shown the ability to better mould the opportunities offered by new ICT concepts and solutions to the specific needs and aspirations of local contexts, cultures, and creativity potentials.
[32] ENoLL focuses on facilitating knowledge exchange, joint actions and project partnerships among its historically labelled +/- 500 members, influencing EU policies, promoting living labs and enabling their implementation worldwide.
From 2004 to 2007, the MIT House_n Consortium (now City Science), directed by Kent Larson, created and operated the PlaceLab,[33] a residential living laboratory located in a multi-family apartment building in Cambridge.
Volunteer occupants lived in the facility for weeks at a time to test the effectiveness of proactive health systems related to diet, exercise, medication adherence, and other interventions.
Our work spans in scale from the personal to the urban, and addresses challenges related to health, energy, and creativity.The consortium has since been reorganized as the City Science Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, within the School of Architecture + Planning.