Wired Sussex manned the stands at 2 University organised events recently. Curious was organised by the University of Sussex and was about “exploring how together we can meet business and social challenges, inform future research, and benefit business growth and development”. It introduced the invited audience to the key themes for the University’s research agenda in the coming years. One of these is ‘Digital Media’, hence our participation. The other event, organised by the other University (Brighton), was called Connecting Innovation and was also about bringing business and academics together, this time focussing on innovative practice in the creative industries sector. Hence our participation. In this one, I was on the panel commenting on Charlie Leadbetter’s earlier keynote (see www.wethinkthebook.net ). A bit like the Rutles taking the stage after the Beatles.
It is undeniable that both the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton are key players in supporting the growth of the digital media sector here in Brighton. They have the resources, the next generation of young talent, the research opportunities, and the time. And these events do nothing if not prove their willingness to get stuck in and connect up with the wild and wonderful digital media talent base that resides here. Certainly, we at Wired Sussex have spent an enormous amount of time and effort trying to ensure that our members benefit from the presence of 2 class academic institutions.
Perhaps one of the challenges they face is that the way that the digital world innovates (and so moves forward) does not always fit into the models that the universities are used to. The classic models of business innovation are either that of the individual genius having that eureka moment or the industrial R + D model of throwing millions at NASA and getting Teflon invented. Both have their place in digital media (the geek genius in the bedroom is a common image and much of Microsoft hooves to the big spending R + D model), but more and more there is an additional model developing – one which is predicated on collective innovation techniques. A few well known examples:
Crowd sourcing innovation: For 15 years the oil spillage from the Exxon Valdez stayed at the bottom of the Alaskan sea with no-one working out how to dispose of it until an environmental group posted the problem on a crowd sourcing innovation site called InnoCentive. A cement engineer thousands of miles away came up with a solution based on the vibrators used to keep cement from setting.
Open sourcing: The most innovative and interesting area for apps development is currently the iphone – everyone seems to have their own favourite app. This, thanks to Apple’s open source strategy.
The unconference ‘movement’ shifts the dynamic of the dynamic of events to one which is participatory and focussed on collective problem solving.
Historically, academics have been good at finding collective, supportive ways of connecting between each other, so it would be interesting to see how they could work with businesses using similar approaches rather than jettisoning them in favour of what are often perceived as business led innovation models but are often nothing of the kind.
It is undeniable that both the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton are key players in supporting the growth of the digital media sector here in Brighton. They have the resources, the next generation of young talent, the research opportunities, and the time. And these events do nothing if not prove their willingness to get stuck in and connect up with the wild and wonderful digital media talent base that resides here. Certainly, we at Wired Sussex have spent an enormous amount of time and effort trying to ensure that our members benefit from the presence of 2 class academic institutions.
Perhaps one of the challenges they face is that the way that the digital world innovates (and so moves forward) does not always fit into the models that the universities are used to. The classic models of business innovation are either that of the individual genius having that eureka moment or the industrial R + D model of throwing millions at NASA and getting Teflon invented. Both have their place in digital media (the geek genius in the bedroom is a common image and much of Microsoft hooves to the big spending R + D model), but more and more there is an additional model developing – one which is predicated on collective innovation techniques. A few well known examples:
Crowd sourcing innovation: For 15 years the oil spillage from the Exxon Valdez stayed at the bottom of the Alaskan sea with no-one working out how to dispose of it until an environmental group posted the problem on a crowd sourcing innovation site called InnoCentive. A cement engineer thousands of miles away came up with a solution based on the vibrators used to keep cement from setting.
Open sourcing: The most innovative and interesting area for apps development is currently the iphone – everyone seems to have their own favourite app. This, thanks to Apple’s open source strategy.
The unconference ‘movement’ shifts the dynamic of the dynamic of events to one which is participatory and focussed on collective problem solving.
Historically, academics have been good at finding collective, supportive ways of connecting between each other, so it would be interesting to see how they could work with businesses using similar approaches rather than jettisoning them in favour of what are often perceived as business led innovation models but are often nothing of the kind.
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