Social Labs in Universities: Innovation and impact in Medialab UGR

Social laboratories, defined as experimental spaces for co-creation, have recently become the main centers of innovation. Medialabs are experimental laboratories of technologies and communication media which have co-evolved along with the digital society into mediation laboratories of citizen experimentation, observing a confluence of both models. in recent years, these centers have expanded within the higher education context, generating new forms of innovation and posing the question of how to measure the impact of such open spaces. This paper analyzes the origin and development of social laboratories in Spain. it first reviews their historical development from their antecedents in the 19th Century to the most recent initiatives. it focuses specifically on initiatives launched within the university context, highlighting their role as motors of innovation. Then, it presents the case of Medialab UgR, a co-creation and digital culture center of social collaboration framed in the digital context. Finally, it offers a first approach towards the assessment of its social impact by using Twitter and analyzes its capacity to mobilize and reach non-academic audiences. The findings show the plurality of actors involved in this type of networks as well as the difficulty and complexity of the task for the development of indicators that can comprise both, academic and social interests.