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Digital spaces are digital, virtual or computer-generated worlds, but also the spaces we live in, where we use digital media, digital communication devices, digital gadgets, etc.
The Digital Spaces Living Lab (DSLL) was founded in 2008 in Sofia, Bulgaria, to support industrial and academic partners working in the field of new digital media technologies, location-based services (LBS), and smart city services and apps. DSLL provides a creative environment for research and innovation, as well as new forms of direct user involvement in the innovation process. It aims to establish links between business enterprises, media partners, academia and citizens to ensure the successful collaboration between all these parties.
The main objectives of the Digital Spaces Living Lab in Sofia are:
- to help IT, media and communications companies to test new technologies and products in very early stages of their development and with real users
- via the DSLL Technology Incubator to support new ideas and start-up companies in the digital media, LBS and smart city sectors
- to give start-up companies in the digital media, LBS and smart city sectors access to unique, specialised and cutting-edge infrastructure and facilities which will help them develop quicker and better their products and services
- to foster co-creation and co-development of new technologies and products that combine and fuse core technologies developed by industrial and academic partners
- to create a real-life and online community of specialists and non-specialists who are interested in such technologies and a venue and forum where they can meet and discuss ideas.
The means by which DSLL involves and engages its main users – members and citizens - is by organizing workshops (real-life and online) to showcase cutting-edge technologies and products under development and by using interactive systems to collect relevant feedback from current and future users.
The DSLL Technology Incubator was created in 2009 by DSLL to support teams and start-up companies in South-Eastern Europe in (further) developing novel technologies and services in the digital media, LBS and smart city domains.
In the beginning of 2012 a new part of DSLL called KidsLab@DSLL was created, which is focused on interactive ICT and digital media education and games for kids. One of the main aims of Kids Lab is to allow children to touch, explore and learn more about new cutting-edge computing, communications, and digital media technologies, by playing with them and experiencing them in specially designed physical and digital spaces.
The Digital Spaces Living Lab, DSLL Technology Incubator, and KidsLab@DSLL, are co-ordinated and managed by Digital Spaces Living Lab Ltd.
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