hrastinski, s. & ozan, h. (2009). online collaboration as an enabler of open innovation

8/14/2019 Hrastinski, S. & Ozan, H. (2009). Online Collaboration as an Enabler of Open Innovation

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ONLINE COLLABORATION AS AN ENABLER OFOPEN INNOVATIONStefan Hrastinski, Uppsala UniversityHkan Ozan, CSCMay 2009


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Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way we interact witheach other, and harnessing the opportunity of onlinecollaboration is the foundation of open innovation.

Technology is secondary, while collaboration is essential.

The concept of open innovation

suggests that organizations need to

team up with, customers, employees

and other organizations in developing

and refining ideas, services and

products. Most people in the field

have a management background,

which explains why business

strategies and organizational change

are the focal point of interest. This

focus has undoubtedly

advanced ourunderstanding of

innovation processes,

not at least by showing

its multifaceted nature.

However, despite that

most of us agree on

that technology is of importance in

open innovation practices, we still

know very little about how various

technologies can be used to enable

open innovation.

We believe that online collaboration is

a key enabler of open innovation.

Influential scholars, such as Henry

Chesbrough, acknowledge that

technology is of importance in open

innovation processes. Our next step is

to move from acknowledging the role

of technology towards a deeper

understanding how online

collaboration can be used to enable

open innovation.

Dodgson and colleagues (2006)

suggest the promising concept of

innovation technology. They focus on

how data mining,

simulation, prototypingand visual presentation

can support open

innovation. While these

technologies are useful,

we believe that

collaboration tools, such

as online communities, wikis and

other social media, have even greater

potential in making innovation open,

since ideas are generated by people,

not by systems. Mining systems canbe a valuable complement to support

creative idea generation, but are not -

from our point of view - the main

enabler of innovation.

ONLINE COLLABORATION AS AN ENABLER OFOPEN INNOVATIONStefan Hrastinski, Uppsala UniversityHkan Ozan, CSC

May 2009

We believe thatonlinecollaboration is

the key enabler ofopen innovation.


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We are currently in the process ofreviewing all/most availabletechnological systems designed tosupport open innovation.Interestingly, we have found most ofthese systems to support

collaboration. The most common wayto support collaboration is by makingit possible for users to comment anddiscuss the ideas of peers. These[technically] very simple featuresoften unleash collaborative creativityin exciting ways. Online innovationbecomes user-driven, continuous andgeographically unbound.

The Internet opens up new

collaboration channels due to its

ubiquitous presence and changes theboundaries of the boxes in which we

are innovating. Previously we had the

need of tools to help us think outside

the box, but with the access of

thousands of external creative minds

we are now getting tools to help

THEM think inside of OUR box.

Online collaboration truly becomes

the foundation of networked

innovation. Open innovation is not

only B2C and B2E, it is also P2P.

ONLINE COLLABORATION AS AN ENABLER OF

OPEN INNOVATIONStefan Hrastinski, Uppsala UniversityHkan Ozan, CSC

May 2009

Open innovationis not only B2C

and B2E, it is alsoP2P.


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Open InnovationFrom the Open Innovation Forums perspective open innovation involves all aspects ofcreating new business opportunities by engaging end-users in co-creative activities. Web

2.0 technologies has caused electronic collaboration to evolve, hence paving the way forcompanies to invite customers and employees to be involved in the refinement of theirofferings. Ideally open innovation will create win-win situations where users get servicesthat are more oriented to their needs and organizations will offer services that are moredesired by the market.

The Open Innovation ForumThe Open Innovation Forum aims at being a knowledge hub and rallying point for user-oriented open innovation, where innovation experts and researchers can collaborate onimproving theories and practices, while open innovation novices are invited to follow, ortake active part, in the development of the area.

www.openinnovationforum.com

ONLINE COLLABORATION AS AN ENABLER OFOPEN INNOVATION

Stefan Hrastinski, Uppsala UniversityStefan Hrastinski is a Research Fellow and Director of Master Studies at the Department ofInformation Science, Uppsala University, Sweden. He received his PhD in Informatics from LundUniversity in 2007. Stefans research interests include open innovation, and collaborative learningand work. He is associated with the Swedish IT-User Centre and the Research School of Managementand IT.

Hkan Ozan, CSCHkan Ozan is a strategic management consultant at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) who isspecialized in IT strategy and innovation management. He is the Innovation Manager of CSC Swedenand has an M.Sc in Computer Science and a B.Sc. in Economics. He has been working with, andresearching, practical open innovation for several years and is currently the project manager of theAirport Living Lab at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport and the project manager of the Open InnovationFrameworks research project.

Further reading

Boland, R., & Tenkasi, R. (1995). Perspective Taking and Perspective Making inCommunities of Knowing. Organization Science, 6(4), 350-372.

Dodgson, M., Gann, D., & Salter, A. (2006). The role of technology in the shift towards openinnovation: the case of Procter & Gamble. R&D Management, 36(3), 333-346.

Yates, D. (2007). Technology support for virtual collaboration for innovation insynchronous and asynchronous interaction modes. Doctoral dissertation, University ofSouthern California.

The content in this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribute 3.0 License, which allows the materialto freely be copied, distributed, transmitted and remixed as long as the work is attributed to the original authors.

hrastinski, s. & ozan, h. (2009). online collaboration as an enabler of open innovation

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