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Open Innovation Survey Among Large Companies: The Results are In

Jul-23-13 By IdeaConnection
It’s been ten years since Prof. Henry Chesbrough coined the term ‘open innovation’.  The paradigm has been oft talked about since, and adoption is on the up. But there hasn’t been a systematic analysis of how large companies are using OI. Until now that is.

The Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have conducted a large-sample survey of open innovation adoption among large US and European companies.

Crowdsourcing a Medical Instagram

Jul-21-13 By IdeaConnection
Sharing photographs is one of the most popular fun social media activities. The tools and technologies that make it possible have also been harnessed for business applications.  For example, retailers making use of Pinterest to raise awareness of their products. And now the medical field is benefiting too.

Figure 1 is a photo sharing application that allows healthcare professionals to learn from each other by uploading images of conditions.  This will create a unique reference library as well as create discussions around those pictures.

Open Innovation and the Advertising Industry

Jul-18-13 By IdeaConnection
Open innovation has thrown a lifeline to many companies in numerous industries, helping them to innovate faster and at lower cost thus allowing them to steal a march on their competitors.

One industry that is starting to realize the potential of the crowd is advertising. A current article - ‘Is Open Innovation the Future of Advertising?' - in MediaJobs.com (a digital news platform) looks at the creative changes that traditional advertising agencies need to make to innovate and remain fresh and relevant.

How Open Innovation is Keeping Us Moving

Jul-16-13 By IdeaConnection
Traffic chaos and transit problems are perennial thorns in the sides of urban dwellers and commuters. Untangling congested networks often foxes local authorities, national governments and transport companies which is why a steadily increasing number of organisations is turning to the crowd for solutions.

Here are three crowdsourcing initiatives that are helping people to get from A to B without them tearing their hair out in frustration and losing the will to live.

Microsoft to Crowdsource the Hunt for Security Bugs

Jul-14-13 By IdeaConnection
Microsoft is turning to the crowd of computer experts, hackers, and coders to find security glitches in its software products, and then to fix those bugs.

And the computer behemoth is offering some big money incentives.

Open Innovation Boost to Earthquake Research

Jul-11-13 By IdeaConnection
Open innovation, social media and crowdsourcing are making signification contributions to the study of earthquakes according to a new report by the Commons Lab at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Transforming Earthquake Detection and Science Through Citizen Seismology describes how organizations such as The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are tapping into citizen science projects to augment their capabilities.

Walmart’s Latest Open Innovation Project to Get New Products on Shelves

Jul-09-13 By IdeaConnection
Following last year’s successful ‘Get on the Shelf’ contest, Walmart is once again looking to the crowd to get new products in its stores.

This year’s contest is underway and the company is inviting entrepreneurs and businesses “with a big dream and great product” to submit ideas through its website.

Words of Wisdom from 3 Innovators

Jul-05-13 By IdeaConnection
Enjoy this short collection of quotes from three innovators who need no introduction and knew a thing or two about ideas, originality, creativity and breaking barriers.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”

Latin America Capitalizing on Crowdsourcing

Jul-03-13 By IdeaConnection
Open innovation and crowdsourcing are making valuable inroads into Latin America. As the Internet reaches ever deeper and further into the region more companies and entrepreneurs are looking at how they can use it to boost their innovation efforts.

Crowdsourcing innovators, practitioners and those wanting to learn more about the paradigm will be making their way to Conferencia Crowdsourcing, an important meeting that will look at developments in crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and co-creation, and how they can be applied to Latin America.

The conference will be held on July 23rd and 24th in Sao Paulo.

Learning the Lessons from Open Innovation Failures

Jun-30-13 By IdeaConnection
The open innovation and crowdsourcing landscape is dotted with many fine success stories of companies that have worked well with smart and savvy crowds. The case histories offer plenty of inspiration for those thinking about embarking on OI initiatives.

But just as important to our OI education is discovering stories of those crowdsourcing projects that did not go according to plan – and learning from their mistakes.

Over on Search Engine Watch, Simon Heseltine has published an article entitled Crowdsourcing Gone Wrong: How Brands Can Avoid Messy Marketing Mistakes.