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Crowdsourcing Clothing Choices

Mar-31-14 By IdeaConnection
Maybe this has happened to you. Scanning online shopping sites, you come across the perfect outfit or item of clothing, order it and eagerly await its arrival. When the package turns up you find the dress, jersey, shirt or suit either too large, too tight or too small.

You had filled in your details correctly, but with some brands offering dozens of different sizes, and the colossal variation of body sizes/types, it’s rarely easy to find the perfect fit.

However, crowdsourcing may be coming to the rescue with an ingenious use of the practice. Currently in private beta is a service called Fitbay that is aiming to only show users items that will fit their unique body type.

Launch of New Drug Discovery Open Innovation Platform

Mar-27-14 By IdeaConnection
One of the world’s most prominent pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca plc has launched a new open innovation platform that it says will make it easier for scientists all over the world to access the organisation’s OI projects.

With goals of new drugs, faster development times and lower costs, the pharmaceutical industry is keenly embracing open innovation. The pipeline has to be continually replenished so R&D output needs to be ramped up, something that many companies feel they now cannot do on their own.

Open Innovation and Breakthrough Ideas and Products

Mar-23-14 By IdeaConnection
Open innovation can be a gateway to breakthrough products and ideas for companies no matter their size or industry. From novel food products and clean energy solutions to new laundry goods and crowdsourced cars, the roster of open innovation success stories is long.

The solutions, companies and industries may well be different, but what unites them is a willingness to engage diverse knowledge sources, and a steadfast refusal to be stuck in a rut with a ‘not invented here’ mindset.

Here’s a small collection of some of the open innovation success stories we have featured on ideaConnection:

New Study Gives Crowdsourced Research the Thumbs Up

Mar-17-14 By IdeaConnection
Crowdsourcing is an effective tool for planetary science says a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The research concluded that members of the public are just as effective at spotting lunar craters as people with 5 to 50 years’ experience.

Crowdsourcing the Search for Missing Malaysian Flight

Mar-11-14 By IdeaConnection
It's been three days since flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing.  No fewer than 40 ships and 34 aircraft are taking part in the search. With hundreds of square miles to cover it is an enormous task, one that the crowd can now assist with.

DigitalGlobe is asking members of the public to scan and tag images of more than 1,200 square miles of ocean for any evidence that could help locate the missing plane.

Innovation Lessons from the World’s Most Innovative Companies

Mar-05-14 By IdeaConnection
The March edition of the Fast Company magazine has published its report on the World's Most Innovative Companies, drawing up a list of the 50 most innovative companies on the planet. Researchers spent six months collecting and analyzing the data.

Leading the way is Google, followed by Bloomberg then consumer electronics company Xiamoi in third place. In studying the data, the magazine’s Editor in Chief Robert Safian has drawn out 12 rising trends that help to create a culture of innovation.  Many provide a useful road map to guide companies wanting to innovate. They 12 trends are: