The principal theme of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2008 in Davos is the “The Power of Collaborative Innovation”....
Looking at who is going to be at Davos, one cannot help but be tempted to declare that the age of open and collaborative innovation, hitherto a subject championed mainly by civil society and academic movements, such as the access to knowledge (A2K) movement, is finally here....However, the question remains whether the discussions in Davos herald the coming of age of the idea of collaborative and open innovation as the dominant theory in innovation policy thinking....
Knowledge is today a central determinant of everything from business success to national competitiveness through to solving the world’s most pressing problems, such as tackling the burden of disease in developing countries. The ability to leverage the power of knowledge has increased exponentially in the last decade or so thanks to the power of the internet and global trade integration. However, with more knowledge and powerful tools to distribute, share and exchange knowledge, why is the global community failing to make a dent in the world’s most pressing problems?
The answer partly lies in the fact that the global community has failed to face up to the challenge of governing knowledge democratically and fairly and harnessing the power of innovation in a new age....[A] critical factor on which the global community needs to start to develop a common vision is the systems of intellectual property protection and rights....
Some progress has been made in addressing the challenges posed by intellectual property in providing incentives for innovation while permitting broader dissemination and access to knowledge. However, much remains to be done. Recent years have seen a variety of initiatives in both the private and public sector ranging from the free and open source software (FLOSS) movement to initiatives to support open access to scientific and other research publications to the adoption of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda; a reform platform that addresses, among other things, open and collaborative models of innovation and access to knowledge....
And Remember Openness
The full power of collaborative innovation will only be unleashed when the question of openness; as in open innovation, is also addressed. The powerful idea of open innovation needs to be part of the conversation. Incentive and appropriation systems that can work in an open innovation environment need to be thought through and supported. People in Davos need to think: open collaborative innovation not just collaborative innovation.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/24/2008 08:38:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
