OMNI: human and social sciences to explore the challenges of the digital society

What is the role of the OMNI platform?

Nicolas Jullien: Structurally, OMNI is attached to the Marsouin scientific interest group, which brings together the 4 universities and grandes écoles of Brittany, and the three universities of Pays de la Loire*. This network has been serving a regional ambition for the past 20 years, namely to have a tool for researching and studying the impact of digital technology on the practices of citizens, communities... and organizations.

OMNI is the ability of this research network to propose studies on the impact of digital technology on society. The platform brings together practitioners and researchers to address the major issues facing public and private organizations. It then implements information gathering and analysis programs to answer these questions. Depending on requirements, we can carry out surveys by questionnaire - quantitative studies - or by interview - more qualitative studies. We also guarantee the confidentiality of responses, which is obviously important in the context of the RGDP. Above all, this guarantees neutrality between the party wishing to gather information and the parties being surveyed.

OMNI is therefore a platform for bringing together and structuring practitioners' questions, thanks to research in the human and social sciences?

NJ: Yes, absolutely. If an organization has questions about digital technology and its impact, and wants to work with Marsouin researchers to collect and analyze information to answer them, it goes through OMNI. We help them pose the problem, express their needs or even identify them. We mobilize Marsouin researchers to define the questions and the most appropriate information-gathering protocol, and we carry out the data collection, statistical analysis and response to the question posed.

What scientific skills can you mobilize?

NJ: Marsouin employs over 200 researchers in the humanities and social sciences. The themes we work on range from e-government to e-education, including social and digital inclusion, employment, consumption, economic models, how organizations and work function... The disciplines are very varied, and enable us to take a very comprehensive approach to the impact of digital technology on an organization, a population or a territory.

We include researchers in educational science, ergonomics, social and cognitive psychology, political science, and of course economists and sociologists. But we also have disciplines that are perhaps more surprising to the general public, but just as important in the study of digital technology and its impacts. These include geography, urban planning, management sciences and lawyers, who have been very much involved since the massive awareness of the importance of personal data.

The link between digital technology and geography may come as a surprise. For example, what contribution can a geographer make to the digital question?

NJ: Digital technology also raises the question of access to online resources. Geographers are particularly interested in the relationship between people, their resources and their territory. Integrating geography enables us to study the link between territory and the consumption of digital resources, and even to question more radically the relevance of physical territory in studies of the Internet's influence. It's also a discipline that allows us to look at certain factors that encourage innovation. Is it possible to innovate everywhere in France? What influence does an urban or rural area have on innovation? These are questions that chambers of commerce and industry, regional authorities and organizations like FrenchTech are particularly interested in. The health crisis has highlighted the French people's desire to find a new geographical balance between work and home. At Marsouin, thanks to researchers and OMNI, we've been studying these issues for several years.

Why do these organizations come to you? What are they looking for in a partnership with a scientific interest group?

NJ: I'd say that partners come to us looking for perspective. They want original questions, or a point of view, an expertise, that is specialized in complex fields. By working with researchers, they force themselves to pose their problem properly, and not necessarily look for answers right away. We have the ability to give them the breathing space they're looking for. But we can only do this if our researchers can make proposals and get involved in the partners' issues. We offer services, but we're not a consulting firm: our aim is to provide added research value.

An example of a partnership?

NJ: Generally speaking, our long-standing partner, without whom Marsouin would not exist, is the Brittany Region. We can cite here two examples of partner-supported surveys on digital uses:

• Individual CAPUNI 2019 survey on the evolution of digital uses. This survey was conducted as an extension of the work initiated by the ANR CAPACITY research project in 2017, which looked at issues of empowerment through digital uses. The work, supported by the Brittany Region, took on a national scope thanks to the support of the Agence Nationale à la Cohésion des Territoires (ANCT ) and the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. The survey was carried out by telephone among 7,500 people, with a particular focus on digital uses in priority urban districts.
• The company survey. After the confinements, in May 2021 we surveyed all companies in Brittany (with more than 10 employees) on the impact of the health crisis on their business practices, but also on their internal organization or cybersecurity issues. The Pays de la Loire region was interested in this survey, and asked us to replicate it on its territory (June 2021). In all, more than 20,000 companies were contacted (survey by mail, electronic follow-up and then by telephone).

What does the Carnot label mean for OMNI?

NJ: First of all, it's a recognition of our expertise and our relevance to organizations. Secondly, it gives us greater visibility at national level, enabling us to strengthen our partnerships with public organizations across the country. And it also means greater visibility with private players. We hope to rapidly develop new nationwide partnerships with companies on themes such as the digitization of society, the evolution of work and business models, and the industry of the future.

* M@rsouin members are :

Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Université de Rennes 1, Université de Rennes 2, Université de Bretagne Sud, IMT Atlantique, ENSAI, Sciences Po Rennes, Université d'Angers, Université du Mans, Université de Nantes.