The Art and Science of Open Innovation – Part I – the Opportunity

This post is part 1 of a 4-part series canvassing the event; Crowdsourcing: the Art and Science of Open Innovation. We encourage you to subscribe to the blog (top right) and join this important conversation.

The Gathering

On July 18th, we were honored to participate in the event Crowdsourcing: the Art and Science of Open Innovation. Held at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Washington D.C., the event gathered scores of representatives from national agencies seeking solutions Crowdsourcing could help manifest.

Their event team did a remarkable job of setting the tone and describing the purpose of this focused gathering with one simple paragraph:

Crowdsourcing: The Art and Science of Open Innovation will explore new ways to incentivize innovation in biomedical research with the prize authority recently given to all federal agencies by Congress. The meeting will focus on the key aspects of this new approach that include: how to identify problems that can be solved through open innovation; how to communicate a scientific problem across disciplines—to a lay person or a technology geek; and how to test, evaluate and synergize the solutions. 

The Sentiment Entering

Though the Federal mandate is in place and the wide spectrum of agencies are primed to experiment and adopt Crowdsourcing techniques and community development approaches, there exists a challenge of illuminating how various agencies can have success through open innovation. The purpose of this series is to provide some needed luminance. Through examples, videos and theory we will share our knowledge of what is working and we ask you to follow the series and contribute to the ongoing social conversation.

To bolster the macro-theory being circulated, presenters such as Open Innovation academic Karim Lakhani (Harvard Business School), Adrien Treuille (Co-creator of the scientific online game FoldIt), and Tim O’Reilly shared specific tales illustrating how they have seen or personally leveraged Crowdsourcing to foster innovation.

From TopCoder, our CTO Mike Lydon was asked to join the panel; The Spectrum of Open Innovation which focused on the truly wide array of work and challenges Crowdsourcing techniques can be applied to. Enjoy the video of Mike’s short presentation highlighting the various types of algorithmic competitions TopCoder has hosted and some of the extreme outcomes they have produced.

The Big Take-Aways

At an event chock full of moments, there are always topics, conversations and even quotes that auto-parse in our memories and beg to be shared and acted on. As a service to those who could not attend and to re-visit some of these moments with those who were inside the Natcher Auditorium, we have selected 3 outstanding take-aways which will act as the basis for the remainder of this blog series. They are:

Part II – Do Not Do it Alone!

We often hear the phrase that zero to one is the hardest step and for those in the agency world, it can be especially difficult to maneuver through various hurdles the first time through. Learn what has already worked and how you can best prepare your agency to adopt Crowdsourcing as part of your solutions and innovation strategy. Look for Part II of this series to be released soon.

Part III – The Gaming of Innovation

Gamification, the technique of applying game-based mechanics to assuage human behaviors and actions is becoming prevalent and is viewed as a powerful way to better motivate an amorphous community. Part III of the series unveils examples of gamified success, the future role of game-based motivation in community development and an ongoing TopCoder/DARPA initiative aimed at shepherding American children into the fields of science & technology.

Part IV – The Role of Performance Models within Expert Credential Models

TopCoder Platform Manager Andy LaMora explores the ways these two different approaches can do more than simply co-exist and delves into how performance models can enhance expert-driven models through optimization and repurposing.

We hope you enjoy this focused series of articles and suggest you subscribe to the TopCoder Blog (top right of page), thank you.

If you work in government or with a corporation seeking solutions in Open Innovation, Crowdsourcing and community development, please connect with us via the button below.

Image Credit:wercchicago.com

Video Credit: Original Source – http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?file=16755