Building upon the Participative Development Model for Education, BC ITversity has, in 2016, established the   

Botlhale Village (BV), a community-based innovation ecosystem. Through Botlhale Village, BC  ITversity  is  pioneering  the  valorisation  of  the  general-purpose  character  of  ICT  technologies in different sectors. It is the platform w here education, research and development meet through ICT and embark together on yielding innovative and tangible social impact. The Botlhale Village ecosystem design stands for a  systems  approach  to  building  a  dynamic,  diverse   interactive network of relationships that breeds sustainable innovation, and recognises the important position and roles of local and public stakeholders in developing innovation capacity and activity locally, regionally and nationally. 

Innovation/business ecosystem, a model for sustainable development – Innovation/business ecosystems represent a genuinely new and exciting model in addressing the wicked problem of sustainable development or innovation, i.e.  the multifaceted nature of  innovation  and  processes  by  which  knowledge is created and transferred in support of business  development which requires  the  extensive  collaboration  of  all  public and private stakeholders (i.e. Quadruple Helix). Each of them expected to be able to fulfil their specific needs with added value. The community, a key differentiator– Key properties  of  an  ecosystem  are  people,  infrastructure,  economic  assets,  enabling  environment,  but  most  importantly  the  social  dimension.  Connections and  communities,  represented  as  networking  assets,  are  central  and  a  key  success  factor  for  an  ecosystem’s  growth  and  sustainability. In building a diverse community, that nurtures an active collaborative approach and equitably involves multiple stakeholders  that  co-exist,  co-evolve  and  co-adapt  with  each  other,  Botlhale Village  creates  “relationship capital”  that  valorises  sustained  incremental  and  transformational  ICT  value  co-creation  to  the  benefit  of  all stakeholders and across different application domains. Within this concept,  

Botlhale Village also functions as a ‘learning factory’ environment where students are valued as knowledge creators and exposing students to innovation projects is a crucial aspect of BC ITversity’s offerings. 

Although the BV was only formally established in 2016 as a development boutique and is currently rapidly growing into a fully-fledged business/innovation ecosystem, the concept of the BV is already operational for many years through different R&D projects at the interface of BC. The following projects are exemplary of the portfolio of realizations and the expertise that has been built up throughout the  years  in  the  domain  of  ICT:  To see the projects, please visit the website.