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TRANSCRIPT
Open Innovation Version: 1.0 2013 Written by: Lena Holmberg, Bo Norrman & Helena Theander
A Blue Paper Report
Open Innovation — A Handbook for Researchers
Open Innovation 1
Foreword
At Innovationskontor Väst we support researchers who want to become even better at utilising their research. Many researchers want to know more about the opportunities and pitfalls associated with open innovation. There is also a lot of confusion about all the different concepts with almost the same names such as Crowdsourcing, Crowdfunding, Toolkit, Ideation, Open Data, Open Access, Easy Access, Creative Commons and User Innovation.
To meet this demand for more information, we first developed a presentation as part of the GoINN project financed by Vinnova, the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems. Then we transformed the presentation into this report. Even though we are located in Gothenburg, Sweden, an attempt has been made by us to include international as well as regional examples of open innovation.
Open innovation is very much about sharing and collaborating. Before publishing this report we distributed a preliminary version and received many useful comments for which we are very grateful (actually, a kind of crowdsourcing). We plan to update the report, which is why we welcome comments and suggestions about how we can improve subsequent editions even further. We are especially grateful to receive examples from the academic world.
By design, this is a read-‐and-‐click-‐book, where many links are provided as a means of developing a deeper understanding. This implies that you will miss a lot if you only read it on paper. We have provided two versions: one using the pdf-‐format with links, and one eBook using the epub-‐format.
Please be aware that we have chosen to protect this report under a Creative Commons license as a CC BY-‐NC-‐SA publication, that is, you can tweak and build upon this work non-‐commercially, as long as you credit us and license your new creation under the identical terms.
Lena Holmberg, Bo Norrman and Helena Theander
www.innovationskontorvast.se
Open Innovation 2
Table of Contents
1. Why Bother? ...................................................................................................................... 3
1.1. What is Open Innovation? .............................................................................................. 3
1.2. What is New? .................................................................................................................. 4
2. What is Good? ................................................................................................................... 5
3. What Tools ......................................................................................................................... 7
3.1. Crowdsourcing ................................................................................................................ 7
3.2. Crowdfunding ............................................................................................................... 12
3.3. Toolkit ........................................................................................................................... 16
3.4. Ideation ......................................................................................................................... 18
3.5. Open Data ..................................................................................................................... 20
3.6. Open Access .................................................................................................................. 23
3.7. Easy Access ................................................................................................................... 25
3.8. Creative Commons ........................................................................................................ 26
3.9. User Innovation ............................................................................................................ 28
4. Any Major Snags? ............................................................................................................ 29
4.1. Trust .............................................................................................................................. 29
4.2. Open Source ................................................................................................................. 32
4.3. Intellectual Assets and Properties ................................................................................ 33
5. Want to Know More About Open Innovation? ................................................................ 34
Open Innovation 3
1. Why Bother? Open innovation has for quite some time been a hyped concept in the world of business. A lot of research has already focused on how companies can benefit from open innovation. However, few have focused on the potential impact of open innovation on academic institutions and how researchers can use it for attaining funding and other resources, distributing their results and improving their educational programs. That’s what this report is all about.
We start with a short introduction of the "open innovation" concept and discuss what is new and what potential benefits it may have for researchers and society in general. Next, the following tools are presented, and examples are provided of how researchers have used them for various purposes:
Crowdsourcing Crowdfunding Toolkit Ideation Open Data
Open Access Easy Access Creative Commons User Innovation
Although we actively support the use of open innovation, we also point out what to look out for when applying these tools, such as intellectual assets and properties (IP). Finally, we provide some insights into where the area is moving by giving examples of what is going on in open innovation research.
1.1. What is Open Innovation? Open innovation is already an academic research field, why there are of course as many definitions as there are researchers. An indication of this is that the Open Innovation entry1 in Wikipedia is considered as "disputed" regarding neutrality (2013.08.07). However, we go mainstream and use the definition provided by Henry Chesbrough2:
“Open innovation is the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively. [This paradigm] assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as they look to advance their technology.”3
1 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_innovation 2 facultybio.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty-‐list/chesbrough-‐henry 3 Chesbrough, H.; Vanhaverbeke, W.; West, J., eds. (15 April 2008). Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm. Oxford University Press.
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You can hear him give an excellent five-‐minute explanation on Youtube4. Basically, Chesbrough claims that the old way of conducting innovative product development in companies was often based on this line of thinking:
• The smart people in our field work for us. • To profit from R&D, we must discover, and develop it ourselves. • If we discover it ourselves, we will reach the market first. • If we create the most and best ideas in our industry, we will win • We should restrict IP so that competitors don’t profit from our ideas.
However, with fast changes and easy access to information comes a need for open innovation based on the following ideas:
• Not all smart people work for us; • External R&D can create significant value; internal R&D is needed to claim some
of it; • We don’t need to originate R&D to profit from it; • If we make the best use of internal + external ideas, we will win; • We should profit from exporting our IP, and buy IP when it advances our
business model.
This definition takes departure in a company perspective. But open innovation as an approach, and all the concepts and tools associated with it, provide many kinds of interesting opportunities also for researchers. One aspect is that companies may want to collaborate with researchers in R&D projects as part of their innovation strategy.
1.2. What is New? Wait a minute! Collaboration between industry and academia has been going on for ages. In Sweden, we are particularly good at so called triple helix collaboration, where people from the public sector, academia and industry come together to work on research and innovation. Recently there has been talk of adding a fourth helix, since the non-‐profit sector is becoming an important force in the development of society. So what’s really new with open innovation?
Well, many companies are now recognising that they need to source ideas outside the organisation in order to keep the competitors at bay. Thus the change towards having the majority of new ideas from external sources is a major one, having an impact on the way R&D is organised. For some researchers and PhD students, this implies that changes of getting employment at such large department are getting slimmer.
4 www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UDBaDtwXfI
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Another major difference is that the Internet can be used to gather and distribute ideas and information, at a very low cost and high speed all over the world. This was not possible some years ago, and with the rapid increase of mobile devices, people without access to computers can now also participate in open innovation. As a researcher, you need to check out these opportunities in order to stay ahead of the competition.
This, in turn, places a lot of focus on intellectual assets in terms of who owns them and how to utilise them. An invention is an intellectual asset, as is a method, a set of data, a design, a piece of software and a model. Universities are already struggling in relation to how to handle such intellectual assets and how to protect them and turn them into intellectual properties such as patents, copyright, trademarks or Creative Commons5 licenses. For example, the European Union is urging all public authorities involved in research to create policies regarding intellectual assets and properties6.
It should also be noted that some of these changes are brought about by necessity. For example, as illustrated by Gary Pisano7 in his book "Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech8" it is postulated that the cost of developing new drugs for Big Pharma companies has become too great, demanding that new ways of conducting R&D be devised and implemented. Since traditional R&D models do not deliver needed value, resulting in R&D costs going through the roof. Practitioners thereby seek new business models and tools. Open innovation is a natural solution and is becoming the most prominent remedy for Big Pharma’s woes!
Another indicator of the establishment of this field is the growing number of consulting companies providing open innovation support, such as Innocentive9 and NineSigma10. And, of course, the large number of conferences11, books and articles.
2. What is Good? ”Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t” -‐ Bill Nye, The Science Guy12
OK, so this "open innovation" thing seems to be here to stay. But is it good? And good for whom? There are plenty of examples from industry that demonstrate that it actually can generate new products and business. For example: 5 www.creativecommons.org 6 ec.europa.eu/invest-‐in-‐research/pdf/ip_recommendation_en.pdf 7 www.gpisano.com/biography.html 8 Pisano, G. (2006). Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech. Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge. 9 www.innocentive.com 10 www.ninesigma.com/europe 11 www.openinnovation.net/category/conferences/ 12 www.billnye.com
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• Philips13 engages an expert crowd to help it make key decisions before entering a new market.
• An online community of knowledgeable and influential consumers helps generate more than 60 new ideas for Kraft Foods14.
• A global open innovation ideas search for smarter, flexible and more intelligent energy networks has helped Siemens15.
Clearly, companies get access to expertise much easier and quicker. They can also get faster responses from users and achieve a better focus on what the customer really needs and wants. They can also generate a new revenue stream by selling IP they’re not using.
For society, this means that better and safer products can reach the market faster, providing more efficient use of energy and materials, helping save lives and creating healthier living and so on. More products sold mean more money from taxes that can be used to develop regions and nations. From a democratic point of view, more people can participate in development, and it creates a greater transparency. However, let’s not get carried away. As with all approaches and tools, open innovation is not a guarantee for being able to create a more sustainable and resilient society. But it definitely can be helpful, if used in a proper manner.
How about researchers, how can they benefit from open innovation? In many ways actually, because it may have an impact on all phases in a research project, including -‐ but not limited to -‐ helping to:
• get funding for your research; • find partners for a project; • get access to large amounts of public and other data; • discover and stay in touch with individuals who can contribute to your research; • acquire useful software and computing power; • publish your results; • distribute intellectual property(s); • acquire credit and attribution for your research; • involve students in contributing to research.
However, there are both potential benefits and pitfalls. The need to map and manage innovation has never been more essential, not only are companies getting more 13 www.ideaconnection.com/open-‐innovation-‐success/Philips-‐Reaps-‐the-‐Benefits-‐of-‐Collaborating-‐with-‐Cons-‐00367.html 14 www.ideaconnection.com/open-‐innovation-‐success/Co-‐Creating-‐with-‐Consumers-‐Generates-‐Wins-‐for-‐Kraft-‐F-‐00371.html 15 www.ideaconnection.com/open-‐innovation-‐success/Siemens-‐Smart-‐Grid-‐Innovation-‐Contest-‐00350.html
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interested in collaborating with academic researchers. The need for active collaboration and subsequent access to research results and data is more often being required by funding agencies such as the EU than ever before. Luckily, new information technology tools are creating new opportunities for researchers to collaborate with organisations and individuals when gathering data and distributing information during a project; as well as providing new opportunities for utilisation and commercialisation.
All together, this makes it even more important than before to keep track of intellectual assets, which is why new strategies and policies are needed at all levels.
3. What Tools? Many tools are associated with open innovation and can be used in combination. Used correctly, they can provide lots of resources to researchers and teachers at universities. However, there are also lots of snags to be aware of in their use. In this report, we review various tools, their uses, and even include examples to better clarify their use. The tools are:
Crowdsourcing Crowdfunding Toolkit Ideation Open Data
Open Access Easy Access Creative Commons User Innovation
3.1. Crowdsourcing
Use crowd sourcing when you want to
• get help from many people and don't have much money; • get a lot of computational power; • help others with a problem and maybe get some money for the effort; • engage your students in contributing to science; • enrol a lot of people in experiments; • interact with your readers and make them help you write better articles and
books; • involve people in making change happen.
The Internet makes it easy and cheap to get in touch with people all over the world. That is, people who might be interested in helping you with your research. Additionally, one can readily contact organisations in need of one’s research results.
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Many new products have already been developed this way, and companies have incorporated crowdsourcing as a formal tool in their innovation strategy. Consequently, knowledgeable researchers have taken advantage of this new way of getting access to resources such as computer power, data and people’s ideas and opinions. Some common examples from the public world are:
• Open Street Map16 — a free editable map of the world; • Fix My Street17 — a place where people can help the authorities to pay attention
to things that are in need of fixing; • Linux18 — an operating system developed through open source.
However, lots of researchers all over the world in various disciplines have also made use of crowdsourcing:
• SETI@home19 is a scientific experiment at Berkeley University that uses Internet-‐connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence;
• Climateprediction.net20 is a distributed computing project to produce predictions of the Earth's climate up to 2100 and to test the accuracy of climate models, it is supported by University of Oxford, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and The Open University;
• The Quake-‐Catcher Network21 is a collaborative initiative for developing the world’s largest, low-‐cost strong-‐motion seismic network by utilising sensors in and attached to internet-‐connected computers, is support by Stanford University;
• LHC@home22 is a platform for volunteers to help physicists develop and exploit particle accelerators like CERN's Large Hadron Collider, and to compare theory with experimental data in the search for new fundamental particles;
• By playing EyeWire23, one can contribute to the neuroscience research conducted at MIT's Seung Lab and help scientists understand how the brain's wiring (the connectome) leads to higher-‐level function;
• In the Ventus Project24 researchers ask the public for help with gathering information about carbon dioxide at power plants all over the world.
• In Citizen Sort25 members of the public are invited to do real science by playing games. Biologists and naturalists get help classifying plants, animals and insects,
16 www.openstreetmap.org 17 www.fixmystreet.com 18 www.linux.org 19 setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu 20 climateprediction.net 21 qcn.stanford.edu/?lang=eng 22 lhcathome.web.cern.ch/LHCathome/ 23 https://eyewire.org 24 ventus.project.asu.edu
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and information scientists, human-‐computer interaction researchers, and computer scientists receive an opportunity understand citizen science.
• Blommar.nu26 is a Swedish site where people report on what’s happening in nature right now, such as if the blueberries are ripe in a certain location or if the apple trees are blooming, which is being supported by several Swedish universities.
Figure 1. At the www.blommar.nu website everyone can contribute with information about trees and plants, now showing where the lingon berries are ripe.
One Swedish collaborate Life Science effort is BIO-‐X™27. It is a structured way for companies to team up with leading academic teams to find previously unexposed projects that can provide creative input for a company’s product development. For academics, the BIO-‐X program offers advice, funding and process support so that a project can develop towards a proof-‐of-‐concept for a solution that benefits society. Researchers from universities in both Uppsala and Gothenburg are participating in this project. 25 www.citizensort.org 26 www.blommar.nu 27 www.uppsalabio.com/DynPage.aspx?id=98999&mpath=7400
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Researchers in natural sciences, life science, and engineering have been quick to exploit the use of the web to gather resources. However, as one blogger commented28, crowdsourcing should be an excellent tool also for research in, for example, social science. Some examples are:
• The Great War Archive29 — contains over 6,500 items contributed by the general public between March and June 2008. Every item originates from, or relates to, someone's experience of the First World War, either abroad or at home;
• Mapping For Change30 — is aiming to empower individuals and communities to make a difference to their local area through the use of mapping and the applications of geographical information.
• If you are willing to pay some money, you can also use low-‐cost work-‐force initiatives such as Mechanical Turks31, which could be great for experiments in psychology and other social sciences, as observed by The Economist32.
Many of the crowdsourcing initiatives are also suitable for use in education, such as:
• The GalaxyZoo33 where you can help researcher classify galaxies according to their shapes;
• There are lots of opportunities to help researchers gather information about various animals through initiatives such as The Lost Ladybug Project34, ElephantVoices35 and ECOCEAN Whaleshark Photo Library36;
• The Integrated Initiative for Global Health37 is focused on addressing the need for treatment of the world’s neglected diseases by combining a focus on developing new therapeutics and diagnostics with scholarship in public health policy and access to medicine which was launched by The Northeastern University;
• Eterna38 and other video games39 to tap the collective intelligence of people around the world.
28 dailycrowdsource.com/crowdsourcing/articles/opinions-‐discussion/1158-‐oh-‐man-‐the-‐crowd-‐is-‐getting-‐an-‐f-‐in-‐social-‐science 29 www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/ 30 www.mappingforchange.org.uk 31 www.mturk.com 32 www.economist.com/node/21555876 33 www.galaxyzoo.org 34 www.lostladybug.org 35 www.elephantvoices.org 36 www.whaleshark.org 37 www.northeastern.edu/globalhealth/ 38 eterna.cmu.edu/web/ 39 www.the-‐scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/33715/title/Games-‐for-‐Science/
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Some authors have used crowd sourcing in order to be able to publish better articles and books. One example is the innovation-‐oriented author/advisor/researcher Charles Leadbeater40, who published a draft of his book ”We Think” and asked people to comment. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is perhaps one of the earliest examples of crowdsourcing. An open call was made to the community for contributions by volunteers to index all words in the English language and example quotations of their usages for each one. Should you want to go the whole way and collectively write material, a Wiki41 is a good tool. The most famous wiki is, of course, Wikipedia42.
A special kind of crowd sourcing occurs when one uses the Internet to focus attention on various problems in the world. This can be an important way of disseminating research results, and at the same time enable people to act upon them. For example, Avaaz43 —meaning "voice" in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages— launched in 2007 with a simple democratic mission: organise citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want. A Swedish website with similar ambitions but with a slightly different business model is Take Space44.
Conversely, these same kinds of cool tools can of course also be used by others to organise campaigns against the research you are involved in, or against organisations you collaborate with, and the above alone should provide a good enough reason to check them out for yourself.
Of course, everyday social networking tools like Facebook can also be used in order to inform and engage society. As observed by the The Guardian in December 201145, a PhD student named Eleanor Ratcliffe of the University of Surrey, when engaged in studying the psychological benefits of bird song she also put her information about her "Birdsong Project46" on Facebook and has now more than 200 followers.
40 www.charlesleadbeater.net 41 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki 42 en.wikipedia.org 43 www.avaaz.org 44 www.takespace.se 45 www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/21/scientists-‐study-‐psychological-‐effects-‐birdsong 46 www.facebook.com/BirdsongProject
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Figure 2. The Birdsong Project on Facebook has many followers and supporters.
A special kind of crowd sourcing is websites offering an opportunity for people with problems finding people with solutions. Many companies use websites such as NineSigma47 and Innocentive48 in order to look for solutions to crucial innovation problems. This is one way for researchers to contribute their knowledge and maybe also get in touch with potential partners.
”By using intermediaries like InnoCentive we can get access to solutions from the world outside of our existing network and from people we would never have found ourselves.” Kerstin Johansson, Open Innovation Programme Manager, SCA Hygiene Products AB
Should you want more information, or inspiration regarding crowdsourcing you can always check out the Wikipedia definition of crowdsourcing49 or the Crowdsourcing.org50 website.
3.2. Crowdfunding
Use crowdfunding when you want
• money for doing research, verification or prototyping; • to get involved with communities of people interested in your work; • to learn more about how to reveal the right level of detail about your inventions
in order to get funding but keep control of your intellectual assets.
In addition to getting people to do things for you like classifying galaxies and moths, you can also get funding for your research through crowdfunding.
47 www.ninesigma.com 48 www.innocentive.com 49 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing 50 www.crowdsourcing.org
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Crowdfunding for product and company development has already been around for a while, with special websites such as Kickstarter51 and FundedByMe52 supporting the process. The band Marillion53 was a pioneer in the field, getting funding for their albums when the record company was going for younger bands. A more recent example is Amanda Palmer, an artist who used a combination of Kickstarter and social media such as blogging and Twitter to get funding for her band's new record. They pledged for 100,000$ and got almost 1.2 million dollars. She has also made a wonderful TED Talk54 about how to create a new kind of relationship between artists and fans.
Some companies and initiatives organise their own crowdfunding process, for example The Fairphone55 where the aim is to get 20,000 people to order a smartphone that has been made as sustainable as possible in terms of material used, distribution, design, working conditions, pricing etcetera.
Now even websites specialising in funding research project have arrived:
• Petridish56 — Here projects in Archaeology, History, Genetics, Marine Biology etcetera can get funding. In return, the funders can get -‐ recognition, spend some quality time with the researchers, books, t-‐shirts, souvenirs from the field and much more;
• I Am Scientist57 — a global community of science, technology and medical researchers who come together to accelerate research, support career development and drive the distribution of discoveries;
• Open Genius58 — the mission is to connect people and researchers, for the sake of alleviating academic poverty;
• LiU Fund of U59 — Linköping University asks for money from alumni to fund projects initiated by both researchers and students.
A group of researchers felt they needed to start a project on global warming really quickly in order to have an impact. They are now on their way to do the first-‐ever Greenland expedition relying solely on crowdfunding and they aim to answer the 'burning question': How much does wildfire and industrial soot darken the ice thereby increasing the rate of the melt? Read more about it at www.darksnowproject.org.
51 www.kickstarter.com 52 fundedbyme.com 53 marillion.com 54 www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.html 55 www.fairphone.org 56 www.petridish.org 57 www.iamscientist.com 58 www.opengenius.org 59 liufundofu.se
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Figure 3. The Dark Snow Project raises money for research through its website.
Erik Wallin at Drivhuset in Trollhättan wanted to research how really good incubators worked in various countries. With support from local companies he started the website www.thestartupadventure.com which formed the basis for his crowdfunding initiative. He raised more money than he aimed for, and was thus able to set out on a six month long journey to Israel, Kenya, India, China and New Zealand.
Figure 4. Erik Wallin made a video to promote his research project.
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Another success story 60 is how researcher Alexander Osterwalder funded the publication of his book "Business Model Generation61". He wanted to disseminate his research findings in a way that was in harmony with the message in the book, why he chose to create a small community whom he relied upon for both comments and funding. Now his model is used at incubators and by business developers all over the world, since he has continued providing information on the web and also let other people contribute. And of course, now there is an app to use as well: The Strategyzer62.
Another example of a research project using both crowdsourcing and crowdfunding is the "National Geographic’s Genographic Project63". Since its launch in 2005 it has used advanced DNA analysis and has worked with indigenous communities to help answer fundamental questions about where humans originated and how we came to populate the Earth. You participate in the project by sending your DNA and paying for an analysis.
However, not all kinds of crowdfunding are really for free. Be aware that some contributors want kickbacks, and not only in terms of baseball caps! Also, by asking for funding you also reveal information about your research, which is why it is important to think about what you want to keep secret during the process. As, of course, should always be the case when you apply for funding.
Note that crowdfunding is not just a way to get money. As pointed out by the #SciFund Challenge64, it is also a way to get scientists to directly engage with the public. Crowdfunding thereby forces scientists to build public interaction, and outreach by sharing their research with the public from day one. This interaction is of course a very important aspect of supporting sustainable development.
Of course, to some extent crowd funding of research has been around for ages. Many foundations for various diseases have been raising money from the public through various campaigns. In Sweden, one of the most commonly known initiatives is Cancerfonden’s Rosa Bandet.65
Read more about crowdfunding at Wikipedia66, and about how to put together a crowdfunding project at RocketHub67 and additionally find some examples of
60 vimeo.com/45703138 61 www.businessmodelgeneration.com 62 strategyzer.com 63 https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com 64 scifundchallenge.org 65 www.cancerfonden.se/sv/Om-‐Cancerfonden/Press/Pressmappar/Rosa-‐Bandet-‐2012/ 66 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_funding 67 rockethub.org
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crowdfunded research in the, but not limited to the following: NY Times article68 or a Scientific American blog post69.
3.3. Toolkit
When publishing a toolkit:
• make sure you know who owns the rights to the material you publish and that you have permission to do so;
• consider using Creative Commons markings to control how the toolkit can be used;
• think about maybe providing a combination of ICT tools, data and instructions on how to combine it with physical stuff and where to get it;
• help users with good instructions, for example through a YouTube type video format;
• consider creating a community and ask them to contribute comments, additions and data.
One way of providing support to others is through toolkits. In combination with crowdsourcing, publishing a tool kit can be a really good way for a researcher to get attribution and be recognised as an expert in the field. Companies have already been doing this for years, creating communities of developers. One example is Ericsson Labs70 where you can get a behind-‐the-‐scenes peek at the latest and greatest in on-‐going research and innovation at Ericsson Research. Many of these toolkits are based on software only but there are exceptions such as LEGO Mindstorms71 and Arduino72, combining both hard-‐ and software.
Some universities are also publishing toolkits, such as
• The Morgan Centre at Manchester University73 who provides toolkits for social science
• Z-‐Tree74 (Zurich Toolbox for Readymade Economic Experiments) is a software application for experimental economics
68 www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/science/12crowd.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 69 blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-‐blog/2012/05/23/crowdfunding-‐for-‐research-‐dollars-‐a-‐cure-‐for-‐sciences-‐ills/ 70 labs.ericsson.com 71 mindstorms.lego.com 72 www.arduino.cc 73 www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/morgancentre/realities/toolkits/ 74 www.iew.uzh.ch/ztree/index.php
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Marco Dozza is a researcher at Chalmers who is currently working at the SAFER Competence Center75 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He has put together a toolkit that makes it possible to access and interpret data that is scattered among various data sets. The SAFER100Car76 toolkit (SAFER100Car_v1.2.zip) consists of pre-‐processed data and analysis tools to facilitate the analysis of the ’public 100 Car’ data in Matlab environment. This toolkit is presently used for research77 as well as for education in the Master Programme for Automotive Engineering at Chalmers.
He has also put a video78 on YouTube explaining how to use the toolkit. It has been very successful and he has received many thanks from universities and car manufacturers all over the world:
Figure 5. Marco Dozza made an educational video on how to use his toolkit.
75 www.chalmers.se/safer/EN/ 76 www.chalmers.se/safer/EN/publications/project-‐reports 77 M. Dozza, "What factors influence drivers' response time for evasive maneuvers in real traffic?," Accid Anal Prev, Jun 29 2012 and T. Victor and M. Dozza, "Timing matters: Visual behaviour and crash risk in the 100-‐car on-‐line data," in Driver Distraction and Inattention International Conference, Göteborg, 2011. 78 www.youtube.com/watch?v=mucEqDbzlRQ
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After completing his Ph.D. in Fusion Energy, Marcin Jukobowski started farming. As shared by him in his TED Talk79, both he and his machinery got broke in the process, which is why he started to rethink the way basic farming machinery is designed and produced. He has now started the website OpenSourceEcology.org where he publishes the designs and instructions on how to manufacture them, and once people became aware of his contribution, they of course wanted to help and contributions in the form of donated money started pouring into his project.
As always when publishing, it is important to be sure that the intellectual assets revealed are provided with a carefully selected level of protection, and that you are 100% sure that you actually own the rights to distribute the asset.
Actually, some governments provide toolkits helping researcher make better agreements when collaborating with companies such as the Lambert Toolkit80 and the PRIMER Research Toolkit81. Finally, you can also naturally get help on how to better disseminate your research findings82 and how to integrate gender aspects when applying for research funding.
3.4. Ideation
When engaging in an ideation...
• think really hard about what you reveal about your inventions, since no confidentiality can be guaranteed;
• be aware that other people probably have similar ideas to yours, and why it can be difficult for companies to reward only one application;
• use it as an opportunity to get information about what companies are looking for and what other researchers and inventors are up to.
Some companies have really embraced Open Innovation and explore many ways to get new ideas. One way of doing this is through competitions. At the same time, they can also market their products and enhance their brand. In the Open Innovation world, such competitions are called Ideation. Some examples are:
• www.ecomagination.com — by GE • www.ideastorm.se — by DELL
79 www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/marcin_jakubowski.html 80 www.ipo.gov.uk/lambert 81 www.researchtoolkit.org/index.php/about 82 cloud1.gdnet.org/cms.php?id=disseminating_research_online
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Such competitions can be quite lucrative. According to this Silicon Republic article83, GE made US$18bn in revenues from products created through its Ecomagination programme, the company has revealed in the Ecomagination 2010 Annual Report.
The Guardian noticed that several companies crowdsource in order to create sustainable innovations.84 They compared two companies who set up ideations in two different ways: Unilever and Aarhus Water. The former claimed exclusive right to all IPR but the latter only wants the right to use the solution in their operations. As always, it's good to read the small print!
For a researcher, participating in a competition can be a good way of disseminating knowledge generated through research. However, it is important to read the small print since few companies can guarantee any confidentiality and the very act of applying to the competition can in itself be considered as a publication from an IP prior art perspective. That is, if you are considering patenting an invention, participating in such a competition may not really be a good idea, or at least you probably need some professional advice before entering.
Checking out these competitions is a good way of getting a feel for what kind of new knowledge companies are looking. Since contributions are sometimes displayed and can be voted on, it’s also a good way of collecting information about what others are doing in your field.
Perhaps the next step for researchers would be to have competitions where all kinds of people and organisations can suggest research questions?
A group of Swedish researchers in various organisations focusing on traffic-‐related issues have come together to publish information and data on a common website: Trafiklab85. This initiative has been highly praised by other researchers, companies and authorities.
In order to generate and enhance the use of their data, they organised an innovation competition: Travel Hack86. In this competition, developers can use the code and data available on the Trafiklab website to design new services.
83 www.siliconrepublic.com/clean-‐tech/item/22434-‐ecomagination-‐generates-‐us 84 www.theguardian.com/sustainable-‐business/companies-‐crowdsource-‐sustainable-‐innovation-‐water
85 www.trafiklab.se 86 travelhack.se
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Figure 6. The Travel Hack competition attracts all kinds of teams.
3.5. Open Data Open data is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. Examples are such data collected by the government, since that is paid for by tax money. Wikipedia has provided a good definition of Open Data87 as well as examples.
From a research perspective, the open data movement can open up data sources that have been difficult to get access to in the past. This means that data from more sources can be combined, making it possible to research more complex relationships.
An international example of open data is the World Intellectual Property Organisation Re: Research initiative88, where information about neglected tropical diseases is gathered and distributed. One of the organisations behind it is AstraZeneca.
In 2012, the Swedish government89 made a decision to develop a technical platform for public open data: Öppna data90. One example of how authorities provide data that can be
87 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_data 88 www.wipo.int/research/en/ 89 regeringen.se/sb/d/16324/a/197078 90 www.oppnadata.se
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useful for research is an initiative where information about water91 in terms of lakes and rivers is provided.
Figure 7. This open data website provides information about the lakes and rivers in Sweden.
Another way of thinking about open data is of course how you as a researcher can provide public access to your data. As always, you need to consider how this data can be used, ethical aspects, to what extent you really own the data set, and how you can make others add to the information.
The Swedish Institute of International Affairs is an independent institute and a platform for research and information on foreign affairs and international relations. Its mission is to inform and enrich the public debate by promoting interest in and knowledge of foreign affairs and international relations. One way they do this is though a website with information about several countries they are studying. They call it Landguiden92.
91 www.viss.lansstyrelsen.se 92 www.landguiden.se
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Figure 8. At Landguiden some information is for free but more details can be provided for a fee.
Open data can of course be combined with other open innovation tools. The Swedish ideation Big Apps93 encourage competing teams to use public open data in order to create applications. The ideation is supported by companies, associations and Vinnova, the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems.
Figure 9. The Swedish Big App ideation using public open data started in 2013.
93 bigapps.se
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Nevertheless, please keep in mind that to open up data in this way takes a lot more energy and effort than one might imagine. Whereas, often data is gathered in various dissimilar databases and even sometimes in spreadsheets. Since the data has been used by experts only, labels and explanations may need to be elaborated and or even added, making its use by the public problematic. So before charging ahead and simply publishing data, always think about the costs to develop and maintain such a site. And of course, to what extent you actually have the right to publish the data.
3.6. Open Access ”Open access (OA) is the practice of providing unrestricted access via the internet to peer-‐reviewed scholary journal articles.” Wikipedia94
Professor Peter Suber95 at Earlham College has published a good overview96 of the concept, as a result of his own research into the topic. One of his main points is that open access ”compatible with copyright, peer review, revenue (even profit), print, preservation, prestige, quality, career-‐advancement, indexing, and other features and supportive services associated with conventional scholarly literature. The primary difference is that the bills are not paid by readers and hence do not function as access barriers.”
In April 2012, a memo from Harvard Library97 warned the university's more than 2000 teaching and research staff that it no longer could afford the cost of the many journal publishers, which bill the library around $3.5m a year. Instead, they encouraged the staff to use open access instead in this very explicit way:
1. "Make sure that all of your own papers are accessible by submitting them to DASH in accordance with the faculty-‐initiated open-‐access policies (F).
2. Consider submitting articles to open-‐access journals, or to ones that have reasonable, sustainable subscription costs; move prestige to open access (F).
3. If on the editorial board of a journal involved, determine if it can be published as open access material, or independently from publishers that practice pricing described above. If not, consider resigning (F).
4. Contact professional organizations to raise these issues (F). 5. Encourage professional associations to take control of scholarly literature in their
field or shift the management of their e-‐journals to library-‐friendly organizations (F).
6. Encourage colleagues to consider and to discuss these or other options (F).
94 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access 95 https://plus.google.com/109377556796183035206/about 96 www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm 97 isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448
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7. Sign contracts that unbundle subscriptions and concentrate on higher-‐use journals (L).
8. Move journals to a sustainable pay per use system, (L). 9. Insist on subscription contracts in which the terms can be made public (L). " (ibid)
In a similar way, The Academic Senate of the University of California passed an Open Access Policy98 in July 2013, ensuring that future research articles authored by faculty at all 10 campuses of UC will be made available to the public at no charge. The policy covers more than 8,000 UC faculties at all 10 campuses of the University of California, and as many as 40,000 publications a year. By granting a license to the University of California prior to any contractual arrangement with publishers, faculty members can now make their research widely and publicly available, re-‐use it for various purposes, or modify it for future research publications.
Chalmers University of Technology also has a policy demanding researchers to negotiate open access agreements with publishers in order to secure knowledge dissemination. The Chalmers Library has published information about open access99 to support researchers in this endeavour.
Since open access goes against traditional publishing practices, there have been a lot of discussions concerning to what extent this practice really is helpful or not. Some examples are these articles from Reuters100, The Guardian101 and DCL102.
The publishers argue that they will lose so much revenue that it will not be possible for them to keep journals any longer. This could lead to less control and thus lower the quality of the material. The same argument was used as critique against Wikipedia, but research has demonstrated that the same amount of error seems to occur despite media but if published on the web it becomes easier to correct.
This has opened a market for new kinds of publishers with different business models. One of them is PLOS103 a non-‐profit publishing and advocating organisation wanting to accelerate advances in science and medicine. Librarian Helena Stjernberg at Lund University did an interview with researcher Erik Svensson on Youtube in English called
98 osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/openaccesspolicy/ 99 www.lib.chalmers.se/open_access/ 100 in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/16/us-‐science-‐publishing-‐idINBRE86F0UD20120716 101 www.guardian.co.uk/higher-‐education-‐network/blog/2012/aug/10/uk-‐open-‐access-‐research-‐debate-‐round-‐up 102 www.dclab.com/open_access_debate_still_rages.asp 103 www.plos.org
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”Making your research results Open Access” about the pros and cons of open access publishing104".
Be aware that research-‐funding agencies such as the EU are starting to look into open access and even demanding that all research funded by them should be published openly, as is argued in this article by Science Business105. The Swedish research funding agencies The Swedish Research Council106 and Formas107 both already have such requirements.
New software providing support for open access has been developed such as The Open Science Framework108. It is part network of research materials, part version control system, and part collaboration software. The purpose of the software is to support the scientist's workflow and help increase the alignment between scientific values and scientific practices.
In the future, open innovation and open access might change the way researchers get credit for their work. The emphasis today on which journals and how many citations in journals may be exchanged in the not too distant future for how many unique downloads by real people and citations on the Internet in online magazines, blogs and twits actually exist for the publication.
3.7. Easy Access When it comes to measuring research utilisation and dissemination, patents is a popular category. Not because it is a great measurement of how much value it creates for society, since that is very difficult to measure, but simply because it is very easy to measure. Many patents have in fact never been used to create products.
The University of Glasgow wanted to break this trend and started to make it possible for companies and organisations to use some of their patents for free. They called the concept Easy Access IP. Now many more universities have followed and together they make up the Easy Access IP Organisation109.
104 www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8qUL_nhKR0 105 www.sciencebusiness.net/news/75827/Horizon-‐2020-‐research-‐articles-‐to-‐be-‐accessible-‐for-‐free 106 www.vr.se 107 www.formas.se 108 openscienceframework.org
109 www.easyaccessip.org.uk
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In Sweden, the first university to explore this road is Mittuniversitetet110. Because Swedish law gives the rights to innovations to the researcher him or herself, it becomes a bit trickier to manage what is done with assets here in Sweden.
Figure 10. Several universities collaborate on developing the Easy Access concept.
If you decide to go for a patent in order to control an innovation but are not interested in getting any money for it, this could be one way of making sure that your knowledge comes to use. However, be aware that patents cost a lot of money to obtain, and maintain and the purpose behind patents is to communicate innovations, not to keep them a secret.
As a researcher one might also eventually be in need of access to inventions from others, and if this is the case, a good place to start looking and consider joining is iBridgeSM Network. Wherein the stated objective is to drive transparency and access to university developed innovations such that they are made available directly to the public and subject matter experts, all coming together to share ideas and information. Through the iBridgeSM Network111, researchers and those seeking innovations can easily search for and obtain the resources they need.
3.8. Creative Commons Want to let people share and use your photographs, but not allow companies to sell them? Looking for access to course materials from the world’s top universities? Want to encourage readers to re-‐publish your blog posts, as long as they give you credit? Looking for songs that you can use and remix, royalty-‐free?
110 www.miun.se/sv/Delwebbar/MIUNInnovation/naringsliv-‐och-‐samhalle/easy-‐access/ 111 www.ibridgenetwork.org
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Then you definitely want to become part of the Creative Commons112 world. In fact, you already are, since this report is published under a Creative Commons license, but you don't know that because you probably skipped the foreword, didn’t you?!?
The absolutely best introduction to Creative Commons is the video ”A Shared Culture113”, published by the Creative Commons community. It’s informative and engaging and, of course, published under a Creative Commons license.
Figure 11. A very informative and beautiful video describing the basics of Creative Commons.
As a researcher, you are focusing a lot on writing articles for established journals. However, you often produce lots of material that might not be suitable for journals (or at least, the editors may think so). Publishing material on the web, for example methods in handbooks, and using a Creative Commons license is a good way of utilising research and still get credit for it.
There are several licenses to choose from, and they are all free. You have to decide whether or not you want credit for your work, if it can be used for commercial purposes and to what extent other people can change or add anything.
112 creativecommons.org 113 www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DKm96Ftfko
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For this report we choose the combination CC BY NC SA. This means that you can tweak and build upon this work non-‐commercially, as long as you credit us and license your new creation under the identical terms. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
All the information you need is on CreativeCommons.org114. You can also read more about how it was created115 in 2001 at Wikipedia and listen to some critical voices.
3.9. User Innovation A special case of crowdsourcing is to take advantage of the knowledge and creativity of the most enthusiastic users of your products, the so-‐called Lead Users.
A whole method has been developed on how to do this, where the basic steps are:
1. Start off the Lead User process; 2. Identification of Needs and Trends; 3. Identification of Lead Users and secure interviews; 4. Concept Design (Workshop)
For more information, please see the MIT Lead User Project Handbook116 or go to Leaduser.com117.
One example of how this can be done is the initiative from the Package Arena, a collaboration cluster of researchers and companies in Värmland, Sweden. They wanted to get some ideas on how to develop the concept of using a ’Doggy Bag’, that is to make the concept more popular here in Sweden, where the tradition does not exist. To encourage this new concept, they arranged a workshop on the topic and this is the invitation118:
114 creativecommons.org 115 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons 116 web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/Lead User Project Handbook (Full Version).pdf 117 www.leaduser.com 118 www.attitydikarlstad.se/wp-‐content/uploads/2012/05/Inbjudan_Maltidtva.pdf
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Figure 12. Invitation to a user innovation workshop on how to develop a doggy bag concept for Swedes.
One of the leading researchers behind the Lead User Innovation concept is Eric von Hippel119 at MIT. He has made a YouTube video120 where he talks about the relationship between open innovation and user innovation.
4. Any Major Snags? Of course, as with all tools, one needs to know how to use them. And conversely it is often the case that not everything is out in the open when it comes to open innovation. In this section the issue of trust, and what to think about when publishing something as open source, and how to make sure that what you share with others is really yours to distribute, i.e. intellectual assets and properties, will be discussed.
4.1. Trust At the Open Innovation in the Life Science Sector conference121 in Barcelona, Spain, 18th-‐20th April 2012, Marcel Schreuder Goedheijt delivered a speech called “Open Innovation @ DSM”. One of his conclusions was: 119 web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/ 120 www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxvd4obm8XM&feature=related
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”People are by far the most important element in the realisation of Open Innovation. Open Innovation is about people, their mindsets and the way they are dealing with each other”
Open innovation collaboration is often done in consortia with many organisations of different kinds and sizes. The aim is probably to work together for a long time on complex matters with many high potential risks and rewards associated with the project. Since it’s about R&D, the process is unclear and changes can occur quickly in the environment and amongst the partners.
According to Schreuder, true collaboration can only take place if the open innovation environment is characterised by:
• Mutual trust; • Open internal communication; • Entrepreneurial behaviour; • Multi-‐disciplinary collaboration across organisation and geographic borders; • Collaboration with external parties; • Necessary resources and tools; • Absence of incomprehensive and redundant rules.
At the same conference, Andy Parsons talked about ”Building a co-‐creation culture in external R&D: Experience from the ceedd in GlaxoSmithKline”. He suggests the following strategies:
• Focus on delivery of value; • Embrace diversity and different perceptions; • Leverage your competitive edge; • Be aware of how you make decisions.
You can’t replace trust with legal documents, even though written agreements are of course also necessary. Fortunately, there are several methods that can be used in order to establish and sometimes even regaining trust:
121 www.marcusevans-‐conferences-‐paneuropean.com/marcusevans-‐conferences-‐event-‐details.asp?EventID=18740
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• Appreciative Inquiry122; • Fishbowl Conversations123; • Johari Window124; • Open Space Technology;
• Scenario Planning125; • SOAR126 instead of SWOT127; • World Café128.
All these approaches are directed towards transparency, commitment, recognition and learning. They are deceptively simple, yet one should consider consulting an expert before applying them in one’s project, if one has not been to such a session before the implementation of the tool. There are a number of subtle aspects one needs to know about, appreciate, and apply in order to be successful and really create the trust one wants.
Applying such methods could help create answers to crucial questions such as Why should we collaborate? What do we want to achieve? What’s in it for me and everybody else? How should we collaborate? Who should be involved (organisations and individuals) and what do they require? When is it important to communicate? What and how shall we communicate internally/externally? What needs to be in place in order to be successful, and how do we make sure that happens (risk management)? How do we deal with breakdowns? How do we make sure we recognise/celebrate progress?
A good way to begin is to start with a small project. If possible, doing job shadowing and exchange of personnel can be useful in order to learn more about methods and cultures. Maybe the collaboration takes place in a science park, where it’s possible to share a joint lunch place to encourage informal exchange. Finding and encouraging trust-‐building individuals at various levels is also good. Having a joint website and always communicating simultaneously or jointly is also an excellent approach.
As a researcher, when collaborating with companies in open innovation collaboration, it is a really good idea from the start to agree with the other party on the nature of the collaboration. Markus Perkmann and Ammon Salter at Imperial College in London have published a good article on this topic called ”How to Create Productive Partnerships With Universities129” available in the MIT Sloan Management Review. For example, an open long-‐term collaboration going after grand challenges is very different from doing
122 appreciativeinquiry.case.edu 123 www.kstoolkit.org/Fish+Bowl 124 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window 125 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenario_planning 126 appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/executiveDetail.cfm?coid=5331 127 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis 128 www.theworldcafe.com 129 sloanreview.mit.edu/the-‐magazine/2012-‐summer/53417/how-‐to-‐create-‐productive-‐partnerships-‐with-‐universities/
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short-‐term research as an extended workbench for a company. As the title indicates, this article is written from the company perspective but sometimes it’s good to take a look from another angle.
4.2. Open Source One of the most famous examples of open source code is the operating system Linux,130 and the web reader Mozilla Firefox131.
However, open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-‐source software must comply with the following criteria:
1. Free Redistribution; 2. Free Source Code; 3. The freedom of Derived Works; 4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code; 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups; 6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor; 7. Distribution of License; 8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product; 9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software; 10. License Must Be Technology-‐Neutral.
If you’re the slightest bit unsure about all this, please check out Opensource.org.
One example of researchers using open source is the BioPatRec132, a platform that allows you to easily implement algorithms to be tested in a real-‐life and challenging problem: to control artificial limbs through pattern recognition of bioelectric signals. In addition to the open source code, these researchers from Chalmers have also provided videos and instructions.
130 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux 131 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox 132 https://code.google.com/p/biopatrec/
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Figure 13. Video accompanying the BioPatRec open source code.
As always, before publishing anything as part of open source, check that you have the legal right to publish it. It is also good to think though how to handle a potential community that wants to use and develop your code.
4.3. Intellectual Assets and Properties Open Innovation really may sound very laid back, that is, just sharing and collaborating in order to create a better world, right? However, to some extent it is quite the opposite. In order to share intellectual assets such as methods, models, data, software, designs and inventions you really need to keep track of who has the right to what in the asset landscape. This is often described in agreements at different levels, that is, unless the participants have been very thorough in describing the background, i.e. the intellectual assets developed before the project that will be used, and have very good processes for handling the assets developed within the project this can be a very messy business.
Intellectual assets should not be confused with intellectual properties, or IP for short133. When you take measures to protect your intellectual assets, for example by applying for a patent, then your asset becomes your property. Other ways are trademarks and pattern protection. There are special regulations regarding software. As mentioned 133 More about intellectual assets vs property at www.innovationskontorvast.se
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before, one way of managing the control of information such as documents, videos, photos and data is to publish it with a Creative Commons license.
If you don’t care about managing your intellectual assets, you could actually end up with somebody else taking control of them and making sure nobody else can use them. Quite the opposite of making them available to the whole world, as is the objective of many researchers. You also have to be aware of how properties you license to other organisations are used. In response to demands from student and health activists134, Yale University, the owner of the key patent on an important HIV treatment (stavudine), pressured Bristol-‐Myers Squibb, the licensee of this patent, to agree not to enforce the patent in South Africa, thus making it available to more people.
5. Want to Know More About Open Innovation? This report provides a brief introduction to open innovation and how to apply it in academic settings. If you want to learn more about the recent developments in the area, or come in contact with some of the open innovation experts in the West Sweden region, you'll find some good places to start your exploration below.
A lot has happened since Henry Chesbrough started talking about open innovation. Indeed, to some extent he’s already changed his mind a bit since 2003. In this YouTube video135 he talks about what’s he thinks right now. IBM published an interview with him in 2011136. He has also begun looking at the relationship between open innovation and sustainability137.
In addition, Chesbrough has also published a report called ”Open Innovation and Public Policy in Europe138” together with Professor Wim Vanhaverbeke, of ESADE in Barcelona, Vlerick Management School and the University of Hasselt, in Belgium. This report combines new research and analysis on open innovation with focused interviews of major participants in the European innovation system. Together the recommendations comprise an informal "charter" for EU open innovation policy.
In Gothenburg, several researchers are looking into open innovation. One of them is Susanne Ollila at Chalmers, who runs the project ”Managing Open Innovation139”.
134 www.salon.com/2001/05/01/aids_8/ 135 www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbiJ_9W7UHM 136 ibm-‐news.tmcnet.com/news/2011/09/30/5818931.htm 137 www.openinnovation.net/featured/henry-‐chesbroughs-‐presentation-‐at-‐hit-‐barcelona-‐world-‐innovation-‐summit/ 138 sciencebusiness.net/OurReports/ReportDetail.aspx?ReportId=25 139 https://www.chalmers.se/tme/SV/organisation/avdelningar/management/forskningsprojekt/managing-‐open-‐innovation
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Although research on open innovation is increasing, more research is needed about how opening up the borders of the innovation process affects managerial practices, organizational design and those participating in the collaboration. The project is focused on studying SAFER140, an open innovation arena for vehicle and traffic safety, but the findings are also of interest to other inter-‐organizational collaborations involving multiple partners. Recently, she started the research group "Managing In-‐Between", focusing on managerial practices for innovation in new, emerging organisations, which will further the knowledge created in the project through a number of collaborative projects that are currently being set up. Together with some colleagues she has also written an article 141about the development of the open innovation field.
Another open innovation researcher is Björn Remneland Wikhamn at the University of Gothenburg. Together with group of researchers he has started the website OpenInnovationGbg.se. He has also published a book in Swedish called ”Öppen innovation” and did a lecture at ESPRI142 on this topic (in Swedish). Recently he and his colleagues started a project on Open Innovation and Gender143.
At the Stockholm School of Economics, Robin Teigland and her research team are working on several open innovation research projects and have written numerous papers on these. One area of research investigates crowdfunding in Sweden and how entrepreneurs, and in particular IT entrepreneurs, have responded to the increased availability of crowdfunding in Sweden. A report commissioned by .SE was published in June 2013144. A second area of research focuses on open entrepreneurship, which is the process through which entrepreneurs who are active in open source communities gain access to resources and expertise through building their social capital within the community. The researchers have investigated open entrepreneurship within two global communities: OpenSimulator -‐ the open source virtual world platform community and Bitcoin – the virtual currency. A third project focuses on how firms that sponsor open source communities manage these communities and the resulting impact on the firm’s innovation capacity. The subject of this research is eZ Systems – a Norwegian software firm. Finally, one research area looks at how open innovation, crowdfunding, open entrepreneurship, 3D printing, and other aspects of the new industrial revolution are impacting economic and social development in Africa. This is part of a larger study commissioned by UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. More information on Robin's research can be found on her homepage: www.knowledgenetworking.org. 140 www.chalmers.se/safer 141 Elmquist M., Fredberg T., Ollila S. (2009) “Exploring the field of open innovation” European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 326-‐345 142 www.esbri.se/forelasning.asp?link=visaforelas&id=190 143 www.fas.se/sv/Projektkatalog/?arende=26377 144 www.iis.se/docs/Crowdfunding_among_IT_Entrepreneurs_in_Sweden.pdf
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If you want more information about open innovation, there are many useful websites such as Openinnovation.net and Openinnovation.eu. And of course, there is always the Open Innovation145 entry in Wikipedia to check out.
As we have said before, collaborative research is not a new thing. With respect to the drivers presented before, we are inclined to agree with the quote below, which by no means makes it less important to learn more about open innovation. Quite the opposite, in fact!
”Finally, what will be the future of open innovation? My prediction is that we should not be surprised to learn that within a decade, the term will fade away. Not because the concept has lost its usefulness, but, on the contrary, because it has been fully integrated in innovation management practices. Which organization can afford to assume it has nothing to learn nor gain from the rest of the world”
Huizingh, E.K.R.E., Open innovation: State of the art and future perspectives146. Technovation (2010), doi:10.1016/j.technovation.2010.10.002
145 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_innovation 146 www.rug.nl/staff/k.r.e.huizingh/openinnovationstate.pdf