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The Most Innovative Country in Europe is…

Nov-04-13 By IdeaConnection
Quick quiz for you: which country is the most innovative in Europe? Don’t worry we won’t keep you in suspense for long because the answer is Sweden. That’s according to a new innovation indicator launched by the European Commission.

According to the Commission the indicator measures innovation output, which creates better jobs and makes Europe more competitive.

Open Innovation Success Stories that Get Us Moving

Nov-02-13 By IdeaConnection
Open innovation and crowdsourcing may well be helping companies to innovate better and faster, but they can also contribute to eradicating some of the gripes that blight our daily lives.

One of the biggest thorns in many a commuter’s side is slow moving traffic.  Here’s a quick rundown of a few crowdsourcing initiatives that were designed to get people from A to B without too much interference.

Russian Boost to Innovation and Open Innovation

Oct-31-13 By IdeaConnection
Today sees the start of an important two-day open innovation event in Moscow. The Open Innovations Forum is attracting inventors and visionaries from all over the world who are sharing their concepts and successful case histories.

The goal of the forum is to turn technology trends into economic ones, both nationally and internationally.

How the Crowd is Riding to the Rescue of Sea Horses

Oct-30-13 By IdeaConnection
The sea horse is yet another marine animal that's heading into troubled waters. They are under threat from overfishing, habitat loss and use in traditional medicine and home aquariums.

Today, many species of seahorses are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

However, it’s not all bad news. An international crowdsourcing project called iSeahorse is allowing people to help improve our understanding of these animals, knowledge that will be used to protect them against multiple threats.

Crowdsourcing to Save England’s History

Oct-29-13 By IdeaConnection
England has 345,000 Grade-II listed buildings. These are structures such as stately homes, monuments and bridges that are deemed to be so historically important they cannot be altered or demolished without permission from local authorities.

To help preserve and protect the country’s architectural jewels, English Heritage the organisation that manages these historic sites has proposed turning to the crowd.

Crowdsourcing City Quiet Spots

Oct-28-13 By IdeaConnection
There is nothing quite like taking life in the slow lane every once in a while, perhaps a pause in the day to sit in solitude in some quiet, secluded spot.  In our busy urban centres these places are increasingly hard to find and are like gold dust.

If you are travelling to an unfamiliar city you may not know where the best spots are to gather your thoughts.  A new crowdsourcing initiative called Stereopublic is hoping to address this need.

The project is recruiting citizens to crowdsource tranquil settings.

Discover the Key Ingredient for Open Innovation Success

Oct-27-13 By IdeaConnection
So, what do you think is the one vital ingredient that can make open innovation work? That quintessential something that will ensure that companies and organisations can reap the maximum benefit of tapping external knowledge sources.

Boris Pluskowski over at Business2Community thinks he knows what it is – unhappiness.

Creativity Quotes for Your Innovation Endeavours

Oct-26-13 By IdeaConnection
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." Albert Einstein
Get the weekend off to an inspirational and imaginative start with these humorous, insightful and thought-provoking quotes about creativity from leading writers, scientists, thinkers and artists.

How Companies Undermine Innovation

Oct-23-13 By IdeaConnection
Businesses of all sizes are immersed in an environment where a great deal of emphasis is placed on innovation, and the pressure to come up with newer, better products in ever faster time frames is immense. Some get it right, many of them don’t. And all make mistakes from time to time.

A guest post over on the Harvard Business Review’s blog network has listed 11 ways that companies undermine innovation.

Can Crowdsourcing Revolutionise Breast Cancer Research?

Oct-20-13 By IdeaConnection
Normal (left) versus cancerous (right) mammography image.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) breast cancer is the top cancer in women in both the developed and developing world.

To gain a better understanding of its potential causes, breast cancer expert Susan Love, M.D. has launched a massive crowdsourcing platform that will involve women and men with and without a history of breast cancer.