It was created in 2007 by Martine Bidegain and Thierry Happe in partnership with the French Senate and the French Ministry for the Digital Economy. Netexplo takes a unique approach to understanding digital society. Through its international spotter network, the Netexplo Observatory scans the world for the new faces of tech and their inventions. The founding partners, the Senate, the Ministry for t
he Digital Economy and HEC Paris business school share Netexplo’s commitment to covering every aspect of digital innovation, whether technological, commercial, organisational, social or environmental. Netexplo’s innovation watch and analyses focus on emerging uses of digital tech worldwide. The Netexplo Observatory is founded on a twofold conviction:
- innovation stems more from disruptive practices than the technology itself
- while technology will continue to be driven by the world’s best universities (AIST, MIT, Singapore, Stanford, Technion, etc.) new ways of using digital tech in emerging countries (Brazil, Chile, China, India, Kenya, South Africa, etc.) will establish new ecosystems for information, trade, the environment or community action. Our spotter network is especially active in these key countries for the near future. The Netexplo Observatory’s unique approach is based on:
- a global network of digital innovation spotters, including major universities in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe
- an annual selection of the 100 most promising digital initiatives and the 10 Netexplo award winners who take part each year in the Netexplo Forum in Paris, in partnership with UNESCO
predictive sociological analyses of the trends behind those digital innovations, published in the annual Netexplo Reports.
