Supporting social innovation through visualisations of community interactions

Online communities that form through the introduction of sociotechnical platforms require significant effort to cultivate and sustain. Providing open, transparent information on community behaviour can motivate participation from community members themselves, while also providing platform administrators with detailed interaction dynamics. However, challenges arise in both understanding what information is conducive to engagement and sustainability, and then how best to represent this information to platform stakeholders. Towards a better understanding of these challenges, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a set of simple visualisations integrated into a Collective Awareness Platform for Social Innovation platform titled commonfare.net. We discuss the promise and challenge of bringing social innovation into the digital age, in terms of supporting sustained platform use and collective action, and how the introduction of community visualisations has been directed towards achieving this goal

Open Innovation Platform Design: The Case of Social Product Development

Open Innovation as a new product development strategy has been used by businesses for decades. However, Social Product Development (SPD) has been recently introduced and popularized as an open innovation business model. The SPD model formalizes and monetizes the collaboration between an organization and creative communities through introducing new products and services. Either managed by intermediaries or directly by innovation sponsors, SPD platforms enable and support online innovative communities to ideate, collaborate, and network. Despite their abilities, many of these platforms do not provide fulfilling user experiences. To bridge this gap, the present study focuses on how SPD platform developers can offer more robust user interfaces (UI) and engaging user experiences (UX) alongside the six key SPD processes—social engagement, ideation, experiential communication, social validation, co-development, and co-commercialization. Building on experience and affordances theories, we offer a design framework that can more broadly inform the design and evaluation of open innovation platforms

Analysis of open innovation communities from the perspective of social network analysis

Open innovation is an emergent paradigm by which organisations make use of their internal and external resources to perform their innovation processes. The growth of information and communication technologies has facilitated the spread of online open innovation communities, where users can share ideas as well as comment on and evaluate ideas posted by other community members. In this work, the behaviour of community members is analysed from the perspective of social network analysis. The final aim is twofold: first, to measure to what extent the different forms of participation are correlated to each other; and, second, how the collective intelligence evaluation schemes can be useful to identify those users posting ideas which are potentially applicable for the organisation. Obtained results can help community managers and organisations to improve the efficiency of the evaluation process when hundreds or thousands of ideas are shared through the online communit

The Dynamics of Co-Creation in the Video Game Industry: The Case of World of Warcraft

These latest years have seen both an increasing development of Users Generated Content (UGC) on the Internet and a growing number of free transactions of these contents through online communities. The video game industry shares this general trend and we shall examine it in detail through the example of a worldwide success game, World of Warcraft (WoW). This massively multiplayer online (MMO) game exhibits two specific economic characteristics. The first one is that the original content is produced by a game developer who keeps intellectual property rights while leaving open to players some possibilities to modify that original content into an enhanced content. We call this innovation process, which involves both the participation of the producer and of consumers, co-creation. Based on a typology of the different UGC in WoW, we specify the meaning of co-creation and put forward some arguments on the players' motivations to co-create and their consequences on the attractiveness of the gameplay to the players' community. The second characteristic is that co-creation is not limited to the design of the game before its marketing. It is a continuous interaction between players and developer even after its marketing. This dynamic process requires both regulatory actions by the developer and a new industrial organization to distribute these UGC through the WoW players' community.open innovation, online community, video game, innovative user, customization

Fascist Aspirants:Fascist Forge and Ideological Learning in the Extreme Right Online Milieu

Learning in extremist settings is often treated as operational, with little regard to how aspiring participants in extremist settings engage with complex and abstract ideological material. This paper examines learning in the context of the amorphous network of digital channels that compose the extreme-right online milieu. Through an in-depth qualitative analysis, we explore how well the prevailing model of extremist ideological learning (in ‘communities of practice’) accounts for the behaviour of aspiring participants of Fascist Forge, a now-defunct extreme-right web forum. The findings suggest that some of the social aspects of communities of practice have been replicated in the online setting of Fascist Forge. However, for a combination of technical and ideological reasons, the more directed and nurturing aspects of learning have not. Several issues are raised about the role of ideological learning in online communities, notably the open accessibility of extremist material, the lack of ideological control leading to potential mutation and innovation by self-learners, and the role of digital learning in the preparation, shaping and recruitment of individuals for real world organising and activism

Open Innovation Platform Design: From User Experience to User Interface Design

Open Innovation as a business strategy has been used by companies for decades. Leading brands such as GE, BMW, P&G, Samsung, and LEGO have successfully utilized open innovation tactics to inform their product design and marketing. However, Social Product Development (SPD) has been recently introduced and popularized as an open innovation model. As a business model, SPD monetizes the collaboration between an organization and creative communities through introducing new products and services. Either managed by intermediaries or directly by innovation sponsors, SPD platforms enable and support online innovative communities to ideate, collaborate, and network. These platforms allow innovation seekers to harvest the crowd\u27s creative capacity and validate their new product concepts and novel service ideas. Yet, these platforms typically fall short in offering a robust user experience. User experience design is one of the critical success factors for online communities, and innovation community is not an exception. Focusing on a users’ needs, values, and abilities in UI/UX design has proved to encourage user engagement, maintain their participation and enhance the quality of the contribution. Lack of sustainable engagement, steep learning curve, and absence of critical ideation tools are the challenges that stem from the primitive design of open innovation platforms including SPD platforms. Hence, further research deems necessary in order to understand and improve the design of these platforms. Narrowing this gap, we studied the cases of Edison Nation and Quirky, two SPD platforms, designed to connect businesses and investors to community inventors in support of new product development. Edison Nation works directly with investors, manufacturers, and retailers that are actively searching for new product ideas. Likewise, Quirky assists inventors in creating products with the help of designers and manufacturers. Both platforms are designed to solicit new product ideas, support the development and selection process, connect the members, and provide feedback and updates on different projects. New product concepts are submitted to their secure portals on both platforms and then processed for selection, revision, and market validation. Then, if successful, a portion of the revenue is shared with the individuals who developed, promoted, and brought the product to life. These products are then sold through various manufacturers and retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, Black & Decker, and Bed Bath and Beyond. We studied user experience on these platforms from the perspective of their experiential values. The data was collected from Edison Nation and Quirky’s discussion forums and through the content analysis of the discussion topics related to user experience. To guide our content analysis, we first identified the key UI/UX elements related to existing platform functions: ideation (e.g., search, design, spark, submission), networking (e.g., forums, friends), and management (e.g., dashboard, help, guide). Then, we examined how users perceive the values of different functional affordances offered by these elements in terms of behavioral experiences (e.g., to create, be efficient), emotional experience (e.g., feel valued, have fun), learning experience (e.g., to develop skills, test ideas), and social experience (e.g., to connect to likeminded people). Informed by the users’ feedback, our findings revealed the importance of 21 UI/UX elements in designing SPD platforms. Lastly, we discussed how these design elements can facilitate the open innovation key activities including social engagement, ideation, experiential communication, social validation, co-development, and co-commercialization. In combination with the rapid growth of utilitarian SPD platforms, the results shed light on the importance of UI/UX in open innovation platform design and governance

Equipping the Next Generation for Responsible Research and Innovation with Open Educational Resources, Open Courses, Open Communities and Open Schooling: An Impact Case Study in Brazil

There has been an increasing number of projects and institutions promoting open education at scale through Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) to broaden learning opportunities for all. However, there are still many challenges in relation to sustainability, effective implementation and evidence-based impact to support educational policies. To explore this gap, this paper focuses on an integrated model that combines OER, MOOC, Communities of Practice (CoP) and Open Schooling to promote open education and foster inquiry skills for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), a key approach coined by the European Commission. This study focuses on the ENGAGE Project, with 14 partners in Europe who produced more than 300 OER, 60 MOOC in ten languages and supported 27 CoP with more than 17,000 members in the world including more than 2,000 from Brazil. Through a novel framework on impact assessment of OER for RRI underpinned by a mixed method approach, this study examines the influence of open education on academic and non-academic groups and the correlation between the outputs developed in the project with the outcomes reported by the Brazilian communities. Qualitative and quantitative data from the ENGAGE platform, journal articles produced by the Brazilian participants and interviews with authors were analysed. Findings report the different ways that the community developed open schooling projects, the changes in their practices to foster digital scientific literacy, and outcomes with implications for society

Using ODL and ICT to develop the skills of the unreached: a contribution to the ADEA triennial of the Working Group on Distance Education and Open Learning

Innovation in technology is occurring at rapid pace thus shrinking the distances and making information and knowledge more than ever accessible to everyone irrespective of where the person resides. This paper consists of four main articles. The first one deals with technological trends. The second one focuses on the deployment and use of open and distance education mode in rural areas by documenting initiatives that embrace information and communication technologies (ICTs). Due to challenges faced in rural areas only a few success stories/cases currently exist and some of these are cited in this article. The challenges faced in the deployment of ICT enhanced ODL have been highlighted as well as the potential of developing and delivering effective and relevant ODL programmes in rural areas in order to ensure that issues of educational equity and social exclusion rural communities are adequately addressed. ICTs in ODL are perhaps the greatest tool to date for self-education and value addition to any community’s development efforts, yet poor rural communities particularly in Africa do not have the necessary awareness, skills or facilities to enable themselves to develop using ICTs. Inadequate ICT infrastructures in rural areas remain a major source for the digital divide in Africa and for under-performance of distance learners. The third one analyses the support provided to ODL learners who often encounter difficulties in completing their studies through the distance education mode due to loneliness, uncertainties and de-motivation. ICT has not been able to sufficiently support distance learners in overcoming those obstacles efficiently. An investigation regarding those learning supports has been conducted in ten distance learning institutions, along with an intensive literature review with the aim of understanding the high percentage of dropout rates of distant learners. The learners’ interactions have been scrutinized through content analysis of their synchronous exchanges, during a completely online course. After taking into account the limited technical and human resources in Africa, a technological virtual environment along with a pedagogical framework has been proposed with the aim of giving adequate educational support to them. The fourth article has explored The Open University (UK) and its efforts to use new technologies to deliver online courses to difficult-to- reach learners in prison environments. The case study analysed here is an international course (called, B201- Business Organisations and their environments) which also touches an African cohort of learners. The implications for designing and delivering online ODL to the complex unreachable environments of prisons anywhere, and particularly in Africa, have been discussed

Master\u27s Project: DASHBOARD 2.0: A Visual Storytelling Mechanism to Inspire Relationship Building, Participation, & Collaboration for Storytelling

The Aloha+ Challenge Dashboard 2.0 project explores an inclusive, decolonizing approach to advance sustainability in Hawaiʻi through the value of data and communications to inspire action. Due to its isolated location, rich biodiversity and natural and cultural resources, and strong and committed leadership and communities, Hawaiʻi is uniquely positioned to be a leader in sustainability, and to develop placed-based practices for sustainable living that can inspire others to create unique sustainable practices for their communities. This project seeks to advance sustainability outcomes through developing innovative community data capture mechanisms and compelling data visualizations for the State’s online open-data Dashboard which tracks Hawaiʻi’s sustainability goals - the Aloha+ Challenge - and serves as a mechanism for transparency, accountability, and action. This next phase of the Dashboard will be called “Dashboard 2.0”. The increased interactivity and engagement of communities and the next generation in sustainability efforts will advance these sustainability goals that have global context and prepare the next generation of leaders to continue to create a more sustainable future for Hawaiʻi and beyond. The success of the innovation and development of the new features for Dashboard 2.0 will be measured by feedback from users including Hawaiʻi practitioners, government, students, educators, and civil society

Open innovation through social media in the idea generation phase of the design consultancy process. Case company: Case Company X

In a competitive business environment, innovation among others present companies and organizations the opportunity to differentiate themselves from competitors. While in the past, internal R&D activities of companies could provide the magic required for world class innovation, the fast changing demand of users requires their involvement in the innovation process referred to as open innovation. This paradigm shift from closed innovation to open innovation is applicable at different stages of the design process. Furthermore, the proliferation of digital technology especially in the form of social media and online communities supports this paradigm shift. Social media has not only been utilized for engaging customers and enhancing brand images of companies but also for generating input from end users especially in the business to consumer category. In addition, weak ties such as public creative thinkers or professionals who do not work for such firms in the design consulting process are rarely looked upon for such inputs. Therefore, this study explored social media platforms that enables contribution of input by such creative thinkers, their profile, as well as establish techniques, strategies and processes required to make this function. The entire study was carried out in the second half of year 2012 through a qualitative research method of in-depth interviews, video analysis and benchmarking. The selected method was due to the exploratory nature of the research and rarity of materials in the field. The convergence of theoretical concepts and collected data was utilized in establishing different strategies and techniques utilizable in online open innovation. In addition, the result of the study pointed to online open innovation as a new way of producing things as well as the source of new business models for a design consulting firm