Hope to see you in Austin in March.

Paul Schumann

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Trends in Collaborative Creativity and Innovation

This panel will discuss the important trends in collaborative creativity and innovation. It will be composed of experts in the fields of creativity, innovation, collaborative systems, the future and knowledge management. Paul Schumann will host the panel. Panel members are :

Creating an Innovation Commons

An innovation commons is a space (physical or virtual) that enables innovation through the mutual and interdependent creativity of its members. It is an open system but it can be bounded. In an innovation commons everyone is expected to contribute. Anyone may be able to use the results. Members who don't build a positive reputation in the commons may be shunned. It is fluid & flexible. An innovation commons is abundant resource system, whereas most commons are scarce resource systems. An innovation commons is scaleable.

Other names that people have used to describe this type of system are open source, open innovation, democratic innovation, inclusive innovation, peer to peer (P2P), smart mobs and free agent collaboration. I think that the innovation commons concept, whatever it ends up being named, is one of the most important developments in how people work together.

Some attempts at creating an innovation commons have been successful, but most have failed. Why? What are principles of a successful innovation commons?

The goal of the Innovation Commons Network project is to shed some light on the factors that would make an innovation commons successful. The Innovation Commons Network, international group of over 70 people have been working in an innovation commons, to develop an understanding of conditions that would help assure an innovation commons' success.

In this seminar, I will be give an overview of the project, and share the results to date. These results will include our research on values and principles.

Paul Schumann is a consultant with expertise in creativity and innovation. He is the founder and director of the Innovation Commons Network, an international group of volunteers collaborating to understand the concept of an innovation commons. He had a thirty year career with IBM in three very different arenas - as a technologist and technology manager in semiconductor technology, as an internal entrepreneur creating the first independent business unit within IBM, and as a cultural change agent developing a more creative and innovative culture. Since retiring from IBM he has been consultant as a business futurist with programs in creativity and innovation. He is the founding president of the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society (www.CenTexWFS.org). More information about Paul can be found on his web sites ,www.innovationcommons.net, www.theinnovationroadmap.com and ;www.glocalvantage.com and his blogs www.innovationcommons.blogspot.com, www.illuminatedinnovant.blogspot.com and www.theinnovationroadmap.com/Travelogue/blogger.html.