Since its introduction into the business language by Henry Chesbrough in 2003, ‘Open Innovation’ has become a phrase synonymous with independent group interaction and the outsourcing of creative ideas. Open innovation covers a wide range of business activities, so it would be prudent to define the various different practices, their advantages and their shortcomings;
Open Source Innovation or Crowdsourcing This involves the release of information for the general public or a member forum to comment on, solve, or provide further information. Released information can take the form of specific calls for innovative solutions, experimental data or general areas of interest. The incentive to innovative often comes from a cash prize or a development contract. The advantage of this method is the outreach to a wide audience of potential solvers, however, this can lead to large amounts of information which require filtering and analysis to pick any promising leads. Intellectual property can also be a sticking point using crowdsourcing and many schemes have blanket agreements to ensure that all relevant IP is signed over.
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