The document discusses the transition of a local living lab called i-City in Flanders into a European mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business called Mobile Vikings. It describes how Mobile Vikings has grown from a small startup built by former i-City participants to a business with over 120,000 customers in Belgium through an iterative, community-focused approach. The document also outlines Mobile Vikings' plans to expand across Europe using the same living lab methodology of building, testing, and rebuilding with users and partners.

1. "From
local
Living
Lab
to
European
MVNO
Business"

2. The
biggest
living
lab
in
the
world
(2004)

3. Flanders
6
x
€
300.000
=
€
1.800.000
+
€
1.800.000

4. Research
Mobile
ApplicaNon
Build
a
Wireless
City
+
2.000
test
users
with
>
500
hotspots

5. Biggest
success
Alfa
community
of
i-­‐City
200
users
did
receive
a
very
small
budget
and
technical
support
for
their
dream
applicaNon
A
lot
of
the
alfa’s
did
became
an
employee
of
one
of
the
founding
companies
of
i-­‐City.

6. i-­‐City
2006
(before
Apple)
hWp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDGNLm8eAgk&feature=player_embedded

7. Lessons
learned
• CommunicaNon
is
key
• Hands
on
versus
academic
approach
• Unpredictable
• MulNdisciplinary
approach
works
• Don’t
be
afraid
to
fail
• Bringing
people
into
one
project
leads
to
new
businesses
• Partnerships

8. Spin-­‐offs

9. Our
spin-­‐off

10. Our
spin-­‐off
i-­‐City
moved
to
IBBT
(ilab.o)

11. What
did
we
take
from
the
lab
• Good
people
• Partnerships
• The
conversaNon
approach
with
new
tools
like
TwiWer
and
Facebook
• Discussion
with
focus
groups
• Trial
and
error
• ConNnuous
innovaNon
• Build,
test,
break,
rebuild,
test,
…

12. Example
1
Did
start
as
a
mini
lab
for
KPN
We
build
our
website
with
3
ex-­‐alfa’s
We
sNll
organize
focus
groups
We
found
our
first
test
user
over
twiWer

13. Growth
Mobile
Vikings
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0

14. Example
2
Build
with
the
community
Open
API’s
for
developers
Test
groups
of
users
Test
groups
of
merchants
Build,
test,
break,
rebuild,
test,
…

15. Result
in
one
week
>
24.000
Spots
made
by
Mobile
Vikings

16. Products
Maybe
?
Viking
TV
Viking
Media
Viking
Gaming

17. Plans
+
Viking
Research
?

18. European
Plans
• Poland
• Germany
• Netherlands
• ???

19. European
Plans
• Poland
• Germany
• Netherlands
• ???
Same
approach
build,
test,
rebuild,
test
…

20. Next
big
step
• Strong
idenNty
management
• Layers

21. Next
big
step
• Strong
idenNty
management
• Layers
For
this
we
will
need
partners
Academic
Partners
Governement
Business
Partners

22. Thank
you
TwiWer
:
@flaorank