The vision of COSMIC - the Centre of Social Media Innovations for Communities - is to empower communities, through social media innovations that improve the way they live, work and play, specifically those in the informal economy who are typically underserved by existing technology vendors and telecom service providers. 
The research investigates new interaction paradigms and information technology scenarios, which have the potential to empower the next large user group - focusing on the common man in his everyday pursuit of activities in the 21st century.