. thats wat you need onlyBEGINNINGS OF OPEN INNOVATION ON THE WEB
Nowadays, a lot of companies benefit from the fact that majority of people spend a lot of time on the Web by leaving traces about their activities. For example, Facebook relies on that information in order to send personalized publicities to the users. We are especially interested in the type of companies that are using the Web for open innovation strategies, in order to actively include users in their problem solving process. The companies take diverse number of actions to take advantage of open innovation, such as providing simple interfaces for individuals outside the company to interact with their organization. For example, Procter & Gamble was among the first companies engaged in a process of open innovation. P&G has developedits Connect + Develop website to get in touch with external innovators, so that they could contribute through propositions of solutions to P&G problems. This is an example of Web initiative for the development of a strategy of open innovation.
With the development of online social networks and other Social Web tools, the Web has become a platform for collaboration. In a synergy with the Social Web, the open innovation model has triggered the growth of intermediaries through open innovation platforms (ex. Hypios2, Innocentive3, NineSigma who are putting in contact, on the one hand, the companies (seekers) who are struggling to solve their R&D problems and, on the other hand, a large network of potential solvers, i.e. individuals or groups who are more likely to have a solution to business problems. The emerging open innovation platforms are trying to leverage the Web technology, and most notably its social aspects to help innovation happen on the Web.
MAPPING THE SPECIFIC WEB
TECHNOLOGIES TO DIFFERENT OPEN INNOVATION PARADIGMS
In this section we describe the implications of Web technologies in open innovation strategies. Our aim was then to identify the match of a relevant technology with an open innovation paradigm.
In the following table we have summarized what technologies can be used for each paradigm analyzed in this paper.
Table 1 Technologies used for different paradigms
Paradigms / technologies |
Expert finding |
Semantic keyword matching |
Social propagation |
“Broadcasting” |
|
|
X |
“Cross- |
X |
X |
|
“Weak ties” |
X |
X |
|
