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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:

A Front Row Seat on Innovation with IdeaConnection’s Facilitators

Feb-28-14 By IdeaConnection
IdeaConnection’s challenge teams work for short and intense periods to deliver groundbreaking solutions to clients.

Helping them to achieve their creative and problem-solving goals is a team of world-class facilitators.

Periodically, we publish interviews with our most successful facilitators who talk about how they help to drive innovation forward. Here’s a short selection of some of their choicest quotes, with links to the full interviews:

How Companies Can Use Social Media for Innovation

Feb-27-14 By IdeaConnection
With its vast tentacles stretching right across the globe, social media has become a valuable tool for companies to spread the word about their products and services.

Smart consumer-facing organizations also establish their authority and credibility by supplying their social audiences with lots of free, valuable content.

But social media can also play another prominent role in business, and that’s innovation.

Global Conference on Crowdsourcing

Feb-24-14 By IdeaConnection
Wondering how your business can maximize the potential of the crowd? Need to know the right approaches and tools to engage external knowledge sources? This coming April, Singapore will host a Crowdsourcing Week that aims to provide answers to questions such as these and a whole lot more.

This massive global conference is an exploration of the contributions made to business by crowdsourcing, crowdfunding and the collaborative economy.

Crowdsourcing Help for When Words Don’t Come Easy

Feb-22-14 By IdeaConnection
Whether out on a first date, in a business meeting or attending an otherwise important occasion, many of us have been stuck for words at some point. It’s those agonizing moments where the brain is working overtime, but still the sentences don't come. Often you wish the ground would swallow you up or that there was some kind of help at hand.

Fear not, as there is a new crowdsourcing app called Crowdpilot that's designed to get people out of these sticky situations.

Crowdsourced Games to Understand Animal Camouflage

Feb-20-14 By IdeaConnection
Camouflage is the art of not being seen, and in nature it is vital for survival. Predators and prey are able to blend into the background via a number of techniques including coloring and changing body shape to appear similar to another object.

Scientists interested in learning more about camouflage in nature are turning to the crowds for help, and they're using a clutch of research-orientated games.

Open Innovation to Shape Vienna’s Future as a Tourist Destination

Feb-18-14 By IdeaConnection
The Vienna Tourist Board wants to put Vienna more firmly on the map by increasing the number of tourists to the beautiful city. So it is turning to the world for ideas through an open innovation competition.

Anyone, anywhere can take part whether or not you've actually been to the Austrian capital. There are prizes for the best ideas including an exclusive trip to the city. Not only are there prizes for the winners, but also for those who vote for them.