Democratising Innovation
The drive to recognise facilitate and promote the democratization of innovation is an area of research and practice that springs from a number of sources including
- Business Modeling (open innovation)
- Philosophy (post-structuralism)
- Programming (open source)
- Innovation research (through ‘lead users’ and the work of von Hippel)
- Political action (through mass creativity and culture jamming)
Design is a complex component in this emerging picture, the idea of designer as the wellspring of innovation and creativity is long obsolete but the profession still has an important part to play in current and developing creative communities of practice. The facilitation of more dynamic and effective innovation processes using new technology, new educational strategies, the application of design thinking and the development of new design processes is vital. The harnessing on the creative potential to innovate in all of us would be a step towards a stable political, cultural and ecological future.
Current Research Activities
The future of user-led news
The citizen of the active citizen coupled with advances in technology and communication systems are resulting in the emergence of new modes of distributed mass communication. This has significant implications for the future of both informal and professional newsgathering, distribution and consumption. This project explores these implications and seeks to develop and test new systems that facilitate the development of user-led approaches through working with partners such as BBC (Newsnight) and Guardian Unlimited.
Project Overview
Communications and especially news media are increasingly subject to radical changes in society, technology and journalism. There is a move away from passive consumption to an ‘active citizen’ model, the citizen is more demanding, selective and more likely to author as well as consume information across traditional and non-traditional media communication. This change is paradoxically leading and dependant on advances in technology. These range from new hardware (inexpensive computing, web and data recording), software (free editing tools) and systems (Web 2.0 or even 3.0). The aims of FUN are to,
- Understand and predict the future media landscape in relation to news production and consumption.
- Develop and test new strategies and services for user creation of news (both in terms of reportage and journalism).
- Develop a roadmap for the strategic integration of UGC news into future news production and consumption.
FUN draws on existing research in User Generated Content (UGC) in news media, technological development, open innovation and mass creativity with primary research approaches including ethnographic study, service design prototyping and application, professional practice case studies and future forecasting.
More Information
Contact: Leon Cruickshank
European Archive of Vernacular Invention
The archive is an art and design reference for researchers, practitioners and students. Vernacular design is indicative of cultural habits and environmental responsiveness within active (interest based) communities. The archive captures aspects of social identity and fragile heritage stored in objects and images created without contribution from vocational expertise. It is a means of assembling and celebrating the skill and invention of 'user led' creation in the field of design.
Project Overview
The concept of the Citizen Designer is only possible in response to a recognised hierarchy of capabilities and capacity within the field of expertise. The purpose of the archive is to protect and harness values that underpin the democratic evolution of culture expressed in design samples that have occurred without the commission of commercial exchange. In Europe, advanced industrial mass manufacture and global markets have underwritten the necessity for invention in indigenous production, common in pre-industrial societies. In relation to a mass expansion of the 'knowledge economy', professionalism is increasingly normalised in relation to acknowledged and authenticated trajectories of knowledge transfer and accumulation, risking oversight of naturally occurring expertise acquired from folklore, mass creativity, serendipity or an instinctive sensitivity to the environment. The Archive of Vernacular Invention is an expanding resource of examples of 'barefoot' design and 'outsider' art of relevance to current societies and contemporary innovation.
A first version of the archive will be ready by October 2008.
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