Digital Technologies Hold the Future
Digital Technologies Hold the Future
January 24, 2008: A new report has warned organisations to get with the programme and realise industrial innovation has been and gone, it’s the user-led paradigm prevalent in online technologies that’s now leading the charge.
The report entitled, ‘User-led Innovation: A new framework for co-creating business and social value,’ come out of the Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre at Swinburne University.
Presenting findings that urge organisations to embrace the phenomenon, the report notes that certain ‘roadblocks’ to this user-led innovation could disrupt its charge if a foundation for open standards, shared resources and inter-organisations cooperation is ignored.
Report co-author Darren Sharp says the traditional 20th century model of innovation has been turned on its head. “The report looks at Do-It-Yourself media and participatory culture as representative of a much deeper and enduring shift in how companies innovate,” he says.
Finding an audience means any average couch potatoes can become an active produce in defining culture and the consumption of media. The report notes it’s a, ‘traditional linear one-to-many broadcast model’ is under fire with new evolving models ready to be leverage the creativity of avid technology users willing to participate.
It’s the R&D labs the elite universities, private companies and government agencies that look likely to be affected by the changing nature of innovation. While these institutions traditionally led the pack on idea renewal, they’ll be left behind without a strong commitment to embrace the user-led innovation.
Meanwhile it’s the sites we hear time and time again; YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia that the researches believes are leading the major shift in the production of media and culture. For some industries, drawing on the knowledge of ordinary folk to develop products and services will define their relevance in the furture.
Mandy Salomon another researcher on the project suggests that businesses need to learn from the virtual community in order to get an as to how copyright, payment and conception change in the online world. “Especially in regard to legislation and licence agreements,” she says.
It seems, find the report, that an overhaul of the current regulatory environment is required, especially given the constraints of copyright and intellectual property mechanisms that might stand in the way of innovation and idea generation.
The authors point to the evolution of the open source model as an example of how power innovations can become when users are offered open access to the foundations of a system.
“The open source software model, its related philosophy and licensing agreements, have been the single most important catalyst for the user-led movement, and provided inspiration for numerous other projects,” states the report.
So why are users interested in opening their modifications on goods and services to all? According to interviewee subject and though leader on the subject, Eric von Hippel it’s, “because they can’t get from manufacturers exactly what they want, and since its getting cheaper with user toolkits to develop things for themselves, they don’t have to make the compromises they used to make.”