IdeaConnection Innovation
BLOG

A Call for Open Science

Nov-23-11 By Aminda
A TEDx Waterloo event featured a compelling call from physicist Michael Nielsen for scientists to embrace new tools for collaboration that will “enable discoveries to happen at the speed of Twitter.” Nielsen believes a cultural shift is required for scientists to embrace the internet as a means to expand their ability to solve the most challenging problems, thus accelerating science and amplifying collective intelligence. 

Tech Firms Move to Stop the Stop Online Piracy Act

Nov-22-11 By Aminda
On the heels of  the Net Neutrality controversy, tech industry giants from Google to Facebook to Twitter are speaking out against the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives, expanding the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. These companies are threatening to follow the footsteps of Yahoo who last month left the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the trade group supporting the legislation.

Data Dump

Nov-21-11 By Aminda
As crowdsourcing, social media and other forms of idea generation and customer engagement gain traction, a gap has developed in the ability for organizations to effectively use the type and volume of data obtained.

As reported by technology industry publication Sys-Con Media, “the promise of smarter decisions through open data remains largely unrealized. Relatively few software developers have worked to transform open data resources into actionable tools that create real public good… the costs of harnessing data often simply outweigh the benefits for many developers. Changing the value proposition for app developers requires a new set of best practices.”

Survey Provides Innovation Benchmark

Nov-18-11 By Aminda
NineSigma has released “Best Practices, Challenges & New Opportunities”, their 2011 Open Innovation Scorecard Survey Report. The survey, which includes responses from hundreds of organizations across a variety of industries around the globe, is designed to solicit responses from open innovation practitioners in virtually all industries regarding their collaboration practices and challenges. This report presents both a compilation and interpretation of those responses, and can also be used to benchmark a company’s or industry’s collaborative innovation practices and to provide insights into the rapidly expanding world of open innovation.

The Serendipity Strategy

Nov-16-11 By Aminda
With all that has been written about what to do and what not to do with an organization’s open innovation strategy, managers might occasionally need a reminder that sometimes it’s OK keep things a little loose. OI writer and consultant Stefan Lindegaard shares the account of Lego, who recently shut down a gaming project, at the cost of $50 million. What were the big take-away lessons Lindegaard found in the story? One was that sometimes extensive research can be dangerous. Another was that sometimes an organization needs to take chances. Lego identified their key mistake as requiring customers to buy a DVD in order to play the game—based on market research indicating that kids preferred a physical product. In hindsight, a Lego executive admits they should “probably have gone a little wild and just have sent out the game, listen to the users and then develop it further from there.”

Opposing Views on Net Neutrality

Nov-15-11 By Aminda
This past week saw an unsuccessful effort to overturn the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules scheduled to take effect November 20. These controversial rules have generated strong opinions on both sides. Ironically, both proponents and opponents of net neutrality argue in favor of sustaining innovation. Here is a brief overview of the issue.

Creative Job Creation

Nov-14-11 By Aminda
As the world struggles to break out of the recession, employment and job creation are of significant concern. A new company called MobileWorks is optimistic that their service has the potential to expand job opportunities to workers around the world. Basing its format on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, the site allows workers to perform simple tasks for a fee. The startup has seen positive results inIndiaandPakistanwhere workers do tasks that are “technical but unskilled—tagging images, proofreading articles, reading handwriting that computers can’t decipher.”

Innovation Investment for Developing Economies

Nov-11-11 By Aminda
Recently, announcements have been made of major funding going towards innovation to advance human welfare around the globe. The Gates Foundation has agreed to invest in governmental research and development of new products and technologies to help with global health and agriculture in the developing world. The Foundation, along withChina’s Ministry of Science and Technology are expected to invest $300 million through the course of the project.

A New Approach to Gaining Acceptance of Open Innovation

Nov-09-11 By Aminda
Despite the popularity of open innovation and the fact that many companies desire to embrace it, many organizations still struggle with how to gain acceptance of the concept. Fortunately there are plenty of organizations who have “been there, done that” and have insight and expertise to share. Fuentek, LLC has published a white paper outlining a unique strategy for overcoming unwillingness to accept outside sources.

The three-phased strategy is similar to that used in new product development: understand the customers and their needs, identify the solutions to their needs and then sell the solution to the customer.

New Crowdsourcing Sites Provide New Learning Opportunities

Nov-08-11 By Aminda
Some interesting new crowdsourcing sites are geared towards sharing knowledge.

As Wikipedia has proved there is a large demand for well-organized information on almost any topic, opportunities abound for similar tools. MentorMob.com launched recently with the goal of helping “anyone learn virtually anything by providing a repository of cultivated, crowdsourced educational content organized into step-by-step instruction.”