Socio Technical Systems and Policy Activity

Today’s advancements in Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), and notably the increased spreading of web 2.0 Internet based services and mobile computing, make an information-rich environment increasingly available where new types of Socio-Technical Systems (STS) can be established. Because of the ICT increasing pervasiveness, designing and developing Socio Technical Systems are raising an increasing interest also from a policy point of view. In fact, they play a crucial role in the improvement of the so-called soft-infrastructures, a main asset for delivering social innovation. Raising the performance of such an infrastructure turns out to be a major challenge to be addressed in order to meet the EU requirements for a smart growth. In this contribution, a concept of STS is suggested, and its ICT-enabled implications for policy activity are highlighted. To support the discussion reference is made to some findings in the Piedmont region, where since 2006 the Piedmont ICT Observatory (PICTO) has been monitoring the spreading of ICT among citizens, firms and local governmental bodies. The experience of a STS project recently implemented to accompany the regional road safety policy is also mentioned.