Tap the Collective: An Open Innovation Turning Point?
by Jenny Ambrozek
Is anyone planning to attend the Tap the Collective event in Washington DC this coming Wednesday, September 2? There’s an impressive presenter list:
- Don Burke, Intellipedia, Central Intelligence Agency
- Ryan Hahn, The World Bank
- Robin Hanson, George Mason University, Chief Scientist of ConsensusPoint
- Shyam Sankar, Palantir Technologies
- David Resseguie, Sensorpedia, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Emma Antunes, Spacebook, NASA
Sensorpedia, “a program initiated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to utilize Web 2.0 social networking principles to organize and provide access to online sensor network data and related data sets” particularly interests me. If I’m correctly understanding the next generation Web, as promoted through Tim Berners Lee “Linked Data“ and the new “Web Squared” O’Reilly white paper, Sensorpedia gives us a glimpse into the future. The site description explains:
“Instead of networking users based on mutual personal interests, Sensorpedia networks users based on mutual information interests. It provides near-real-time collaboration among communities with requirements to share sensor information.”
From my summer reading including papers:
“Harnessing Crowds: Mapping the Genome of Collective Intelligence” from Tom Malone et al at MIT
“The New, Faster Face of Innovation” by Erick Brynjolfsson & Michael Schrage in MIT Sloan Review
“Open innovation: where do french companies stand” by Thierry Weil
and recent business press stories including
“The Corporate Lab As Ringmaster” (New York Times)
“Big Blue’s Global Lab“ the Business Week story about IBM’s “collaboratories” about which Patti Anklam writes in her post here,
I’m wondering if we’ve reached an open innovation tipping point?
It’s 36 years since Bob Metcalfe invented Ethernet and laid the foundations for always-on global connectivity and the power of computer connected minds. Has recognition of the power of openness, mass collaboration, crowdsourcing and “collaboratories” to solve problems and innovate become just the way we work?
~ Jenny Ambrozek
Thought...
