Two hundred heads are better than one!

Introducing the Open Innovation Collective

There are hundreds of problems posted online by companies, governments and institutions which involve engineering, design, IT, chemical and other technical issues. Various websites exist including Nine Sigma and Innocentive which publish problems and seek solvers. By releasing the problem to the wild, the company has a bigger pool of potential solutions to choose from and can protect any IP through signed non-disclosure agreements. This type of open innovation is attractive to recent graduates because it allows us to use our skills, gain experience, potentially win rewards and make ourselves known to engineering companies. The company finds a solution and we have the opportunity to solve real world problems, promote ourselves in a competitive marketplace and attract the attention of potential employers. 

The Open Innovation Collective was founded in late 2013 by three fellow graduates from DTU, Bryan O'Regan, Marianne Skovborg Krog and Troels Theilby. The OIC has the following aims:

1. Develop an open innovation network of problem solving engineers and designers with members from all over Europe including Ireland, Denmark, Poland and France. Why not join the LinkedIn group and follow our updates? 
2. Select open source problems, present these to the network, develop solutions and solve challenges. If you are an expert in some area, why not pitch in and help solve a problem?  

Initially, communications will take place on the LinkedIn group page and Google Docs. In the next post, we will go through the problem selection process and hopefully, with some feedback from the group, define an effective solving technique.