In addition to enabling communities working on line to solve challenges, Open Innovation platforms are also a networking place where you can find experts in different areas. In the video below, Deanna Zandt, media consultant, talks about the importance of networking to solve challenges and empower people.
Zandt is the author of Share This!: How You Will Change the World with Social Networking. The book is more about the use of social media for politics or activism. For instance, she explains how minorities or women can strategically use social media. However, it is also about tools for the change. This last point has a lot to do with innovation and Open Innovation. The global revolution of technology and of Social Media is related to the technical support and the communication models that Open Innovation needs to function correctly.
Asking and offering help
In the video, she talks about how networking allows people to ask for and offer help. This is crucial for businesses and the great contribution of Open Innovation modes. Its great breakthrough is the idea of collaborating in developing technology or products through co-working, partners, sharing knowledge or with the customers support.
She also notes that it isn’t possible to have all the skills, all the knowledge, or knowing what paths there are in life and business, or what is coming next. So the best way to work this out is trough collaboration. She contrasts this idea with the existence of a very strong individual work culture. This is the reason why, even when people tend to collaborate or prefer it, they act individually at work or business.
The video also talks about passion at work (very important for innovation). It’s 13 minutes long.