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Innovation Investment is on the Increase

Oct-18-13 By IdeaConnection
The importance of innovation to the lifeblood and future prosperity of companies is growing. A tough financial climate and the intensity of competition is boosting the value of ideas as currency.

A new survey by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), highlighted by CIO Insight reveals how organizations are more willing to invest dollars and resources in innovation endeavours.

Can Open Innovation Deliver Cheaper and More Efficient Car Batteries?

Oct-16-13 By IdeaConnection
The development of cheaper and longer lasting energy sources has just been given a healthy boost with news of the inauguration of an open innovation battery lab at the University of Michigan.

This brand new $8 million dollar facility will allow engineers, materials scientists, suppliers and manufacturers to work together to devise and develop ground-breaking energy solutions.

How Crowdsourcing is Tackling Cybercrime

Oct-14-13 By IdeaConnection
Cybercrime is on the increase as crooked individuals and outfits are wreaking ever more havoc and costing companies billions of dollars every year.

The news is often filled with stories of corporate America coming under cyber-attack which is proof that even the most sophisticated sites are not immune. Alarm bells are ringing loudly.

An article by Paul McDougall in CruxialCIO highlights a number of instances where companies have turned to crowdsourcing to bolster their defenses.

Open Innovation to Make Europe’s Cities Smarter

Oct-11-13 By IdeaConnection
Now what would be nirvana for a growing city? At the top of the list for most people would be the provision of a great quality of life while remaining competitive and achieving sustainable growth.

It’s a priority for many cities across the word, but rarely do they help each other by sharing bright ideas. Novel solutions tend to stay local.

In Europe, two new open innovation initiatives are hoping to change all that.

Crowdsourcing to Prevent Campus Flu Outbreaks

Oct-10-13 By IdeaConnection
Flu, like many infectious diseases spreads wherever people congregate, for example in office buildings, sports centers, shopping malls and university campuses.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW-Madison) has developed an app that will crowdsource flu surveillance to spot potential outbreaks on its campus.

Key Open Innovation Lessons

Oct-07-13 By IdeaConnection
Lucy Watt from FutureGov has just posted a series of lessons learned from running an open innovation challenge. FutureGov is a UK-based organisation that works with local governments to design better and cheaper public services.

Over a nine-month period it worked with Camden Council in London to develop the Camden Challenge, an open innovation project to help local people turn their radical ideas into workable projects.

New Open Innovation Gateway for Intelligence Agency

Oct-04-13 By IdeaConnection
As an austere financial climate shows scant signs of abating, firms and organizations are being asked to do much more with less. Military and defense institutions are not exempt from the harsh financial realities.

In recognition of this, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in the US is going to introduce its Open Innovation Gateway. The portal is slated for an end of year/beginning of 2014 launch.

What are the Best Routes to Innovation Success?

Oct-02-13 By IdeaConnection
New research offers some useful information to companies concerned about their innovation portfolio.

In Make, Buy, or Ally? Choice of and Payoff to Alternate Strategies for Innovations the authors analyze the question of whether it is better for companies to make, buy, or ally for innovations.

They found that R&D and alliances had a higher payoff than acquisitions which generates a negative payoff.

Four Open Innovation Success Stories

Sep-30-13 By IdeaConnection
The business landscape is dotted with numerous success stories of open innovation in practice and how engaging with distributed networks of brilliant minds can help companies solve problems and/or achieve their innovation goals.

We feature them on our website to show how well executed OI projects can reap gold. Here are a few examples of some of the stand-out open innovation success stories:

Crowdsourcing Project Maps More than 300,000 Galaxies

Sep-28-13 By IdeaConnection
A major crowdsourcing initiative is giving us unprecedented insights into the Universe. Minnesota University scientists have reported that more than 83,000 volunteer citizen scientists have mapped over 300,000 galaxies as part of Galaxy Zoo 2.

They have helped to build a database that’s at least ten times larger than any previous galaxies catalog.