Tomorrow's Uploading Innovation event in London is fully booked, but you can join in the web discussion which is warming up around making communities work online and off (Matt O'Neill), the new impresarios developing collaborative economies (Steve Moore), and news of a new initiative in Practical Design for Social Action (Leonie Ramondt). The event is organised by my at friends Policy Unplugged, and promoted by NESTA the UK innovation agency.
Roland Harwood, who is leading NESTA Connect, explains here how the national programme is designed to encourage co-operative approaches.
Core to NESTA Connect is a simple but powerful concept; that innovation happens through collaboration, rather than in isolation. In other words, innovation is a ‘contact sport'. Our focus will be upon finding and supporting unexpected, novel or extreme collaborations that disrupt the boundaries between different disciplines, organisations and places. As with any meeting of individuals or organisations, it is critical that they can find a common language, so that they can communicate and collaborate. This is what NESTA Connect is all about.
We know that we cannot begin such an endeavour without tapping into and harnessing the extraordinary network effects of the Web to connect people to one another, to promote co-creation and harness collective intelligence. We are now developing a strategy, which will explore how collaborative innovation can be optimised online. We expect to have the details of our plans finalised in spring 2007 and Uploading Innovation has been convened to bring together 120 of the leading online collaboratives to inform this strategy development.
I'm very much looking forward to going along, and while I'm full of good intentions about shooting some video and doing some blogging, I think it may be one of those occasions when the buzz of face-to-face makes me neglect online commitments ... but somehow I don't think we'll be short of contributions.
Technorati Tags: collaboration, innovation, onlinecommunities
Don't worry David, I'll be there in 'official' social reporter mode :)
Posted by: Lloyd Davis | February 27, 2007 at 09:41 AM
Thanks Lloyd - as I noticed over here it doesn't hurt to concentrate on commenting and give blogging a rest
Posted by: David Wilcox | February 27, 2007 at 10:26 AM
david - i'm sorry that we didn't get a chance to talk yesterday. it was still going strong when I left and credit to steve for pulling together such an interesting crowd. i'm at heathrow now on my way to the highlands and islands to see how they network their digital media companies in the least populated region in western europe. roland
Posted by: roland | February 28, 2007 at 10:24 AM
Hey David - it was great to finally see you in all your 3D glory!
I had to leave the party early, to, um, go to another party, so didn't get nearly enough time to talk to anyone/everyone. I thought it was really interesting that the participant themes and conserns (while I was there anyhow) seemed to reflect the process so closely - particularly questions about structure and structurlessness.
I think we should all do it again, soon. Maybe over something community focused? best, Josie.
Posted by: Josie Fraser | March 01, 2007 at 04:36 PM
Good to meet you too Josie! Next week I'm working on a wiki carnival which should throw up more ideas and contacts. Any help welcome on that and more thoughts on a get together. What focus? Mine would be social media and collaboration ... particularly for social benefit, but hey, all open thinkers welcome.
Posted by: David Wilcox | March 01, 2007 at 05:07 PM