”INNOVATION FACTORS IMPROVED BY ONLINE

COLLABORATION”
Håkan Ozan, CSC

June 2009
”INNOVATION FACTORS IMPROVED BY ONLINE
COLLABORATION”
Håkan Ozan, CSC

June 2009

Having ubiquitous access to peers changes the way

innovation can be utilized. But which factors change and in
what way are they improved?

The Internet changes the ways we collaborate.

Introduction innovative and hence successful

Internet and web-based systems have output increases. Sometimes these
started providing traditional methods regard tools to improve
innovation methods with new means. individual creativity, but most often
In our view, the strongest contributor they aim at enhancing group
to this phenomenon is the improved creativity. The general shortcoming of
connectivity between people, what we individual creativity is that it lacks the
choose to call “online collaboration”. multifaceted perspectives of others,
In two articles we will first look at the something that commonly
factors that improve strengthens the quality
innovation activities, “The paramount of ideas. An intricacy of
and in a second article strength of online group creativity has been
we will analyze services is their the difficulty of
conventional ubiquitous coordinating the agendas
innovation methods accessibility.” of innovative people. If
and look at how they you want good people at
are improved with new technology. a creative session, you have to get all
of them to the same place and at the
Electronic collaboration supports same time. With collective creativity it
collective creativity has also been difficult to ensure the
Regardless of method used to spread and width of relevant
improve an organization’s innovation competence at the moment of the
capability and outcomes, most activity. You want as much
methods focus on improving aggregated competence at the
creativity. Most innovations happen at session as possible, but there is
the boundaries and specializations of limited space in a room, and the more
people, so by stimulating creative people you summon the more difficult
thinking among diverse competences the session will be to coordinate.
the likeliness of generating more
”INNOVATION FACTORS IMPROVED BY ONLINE
COLLABORATION”
Håkan Ozan, CSC

June 2009

The major evolution in innovation is do so. As a consequence, innovation

the accessibility to collaborative
activities regarding innovation. Even
though conventional real-time
activities such as brainstorms and
focus group workshops are difficult to
surpass in the sense of qualitative
outcome, there are other factors
regarding electronic collaboration
that has the potential of improving
innovation altogether.
Improvement factors due to online
collaboration
In summary, there are four, closely
intertwined, primary factors that are
improved by online collaboration,
where the second two are derived
from the first two.
1. Time
The paramount strength of online
services is their ubiquitous
accessibility. Hence, electronic
collaboration becomes less
constrained to the specific moment
where all invited participants have
simultaneous spare time in their
agendas. Instead, with online
collaboration, activities can be more
flexible, or even asynchronous, so
that participants can collaborate when
THEY (individually) have the time to
becomes on-demand, user-driven, and
as ubiquitous as the Internet itself.
2. Place
It is both time consuming and
problematic to bring many people to
the same location, especially if they
are geographically dispersed. There
are two major drawbacks of involving
long-distance collaborators that
negatively influence the cost-
efficiency of group creativity sessions;
1) time-loss due to travel times, 2)
increased costs due to
disproportionate travel expenses. On
the other hand, if we choose to
reduce travel time-loss and costs by
only inviting nearby innovators, we
take a substantial risk of losing
momentous competence in the
creativity loop and thereby miss out
on potent and creative feedback and
ideas.
Reversely, with online collaboration
people can communicate using the
same medium, regardless of their
physical location. Hence, accessibility
will be location neutral and
participants can be given the
opportunity to collaborate at the
place of their own choice.
”INNOVATION FACTORS IMPROVED BY ONLINE
COLLABORATION”
Håkan Ozan, CSC

June 2009

3. Availability synchronous and asynchronous. If

With the diminishment of the time they want to collaborate in real-time
and place barriers, there are two they can simply log on to an instant
important gains; one being time spent communications service. If they do
on creative innovation instead of not, they can chose to participate
travel, the second being the total solely at times when they are inspired
amount of people [competence] being to do so and when they have
able to participate in the innovation constructive ideas to propose.
dialog. As in the case of TRIZ Regardless of synchronicity
methodology, it is said that innovation becomes an ongoing
“somebody, someplace, process that is continuous instead of
has already solved this problem (or event based.
one very similar to it), creativity is
now finding that solution and
adapting it to this particular
problem”.
The increase in connectivity brings
more people to the problem, and with
varied backgrounds and more
accumulated experiences, the
likeliness of finding that solution rise
immensely.

4. Continuity
Another disadvantage of participants The improvement factors of online
collaboration.
having to be at the same spot
simultaneously is that it restricts the
amount of occasions when creativity A friend once described his home
can take place. If participants are cleaning philosophy to me. He said;
required to attend physically at every “I clean my home
session, only so many sessions will be continuously. I mean, at least once a
able to take place per year. With the year..”.
right mix of tools for online
collaboration creativity can be both
”INNOVATION FACTORS IMPROVED BY ONLINE
COLLABORATION”
Håkan Ozan, CSC

June 2009

If innovation is to be handled in the managed correctly, increase

same way, you can be certain that the companies’ innovation outcomes
innovation floors of your organization considerably, even though they can
will also be continuously dirty. On the not yet be considered a full substitute
other hand, at this point in time there for interpersonal creative activities. ¶
are early mover opportunities of open
innovation pioneers, especially since
most companies have not even
established a strategy for how to
integrate online collaboration as part
of their innovation process.

Summary
Even though non-continuous, the
pace and quality of communication is
superior in physical sessions since
complementary communication
channels such as body language and
tone of voice tend to vanish in
electronic environments. Furthermore,
even though keyboard communication
gives the author more time for
reflection than does live
communication, a lot of spontaneous
communication that occurs in live
environments may be lost. And many
times the least expected events give
birth to the greatest ideas.

Altogether, the conclusion is that

online collaboration is an
extraordinary complement to
qualitative group sessions. Online
collaboration activities may, if
 “INNOVATION FACTORS IMPROVED BY ONLINE
COLLABORATION”
Håkan Ozan, CSC
Håkan Ozan is a strategic management consultant at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) who is
specialized in IT strategy and innovation management. He is the Innovation Manager of CSC Sweden
and has an M.Sc in Computer Science and a B.Sc. in Economics. He has been working with, and
researching, practical open innovation for several years and is currently the project manager of the
Airport Living Lab at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport and the project manager of the Open Innovation
Frameworks research project.

Further reading

Altschuller, G., Shulyak, L. (1998). 40 principles: Triz Keys to Technical Innovation. Tecnical
Innovation Center INC.

De Bono, E. (1973). Lateral thinking: creativity step by step. Harper Colophon.

Wainfan, L., Davis, P. (2004). Challenges in Virtual Collaboration. RAND Corporation.

Open Innovation
From the Open Innovation Forum’s perspective open innovation involves all aspects of
creating new business opportunities by engaging end-users in co-creative activities. Web
2.0 technologies has caused electronic collaboration to evolve, hence paving the way for
companies to invite customers and employees to be involved in the refinement of their
offerings. Ideally open innovation will create win-win situations where users get services
that are more oriented to their needs and organizations will offer services that are more
desired by the market.

The Open Innovation Forum

The Open Innovation Forum aims at being a knowledge hub and rallying point for user-
oriented open innovation, where innovation experts and researchers can collaborate on
improving theories and practices, while open innovation novices are invited to follow, or
take active part, in the development of the area.

www.openinnovationforum.com
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