NESTA invited me along to the launch of a report on User-Led Innovation (ULI) by the University of Brighton’s CENTRIM and University of Sussex’s SPRU research centres.

The insightful, and timely, report focuses on how users, at individual and community levels, are changing the rules of innovation.  Though user-led innovation is nothing new, proliferating digital technologies and networks are serving as tools for users to power further innovations, and to connect with each other to share tools, techniques, ideas and feedback, to an unprecedented degree.

Focusing on video games, music, social networking and music software industries, the researchers have explored case study firms that are harnessing ULI through close and collaborative relationships with extensive user communities, such as music notation software company Sibelius, or that have emerged directly from communities of user innovators, such as games developers Splash Damage.

With companies based on ULI, such as Bebo and Last.fm, being sold on for millions just a few years after their creation, it’s hard to argue against the commercial value that ULI can potentially generate, and the social and public value of ULI is pretty easy to grasp too. However, the report’s authors go on to argue that policy-makers remain somewhat sceptical about the importance of ULI, noting that UK policy still suffers from a linear model of formal R&D ‘hangover’ and has only just begun to recognise the importance of users in innovation.

Realising the extent of user creativity and invention can perhaps only begin by adopting a policy of promoting ULI or, at the very least, thinking creatively around issues such as copyright law that currently serve as barriers to its take up.

Download the report here.

photo by thornj

I’ve just returned from MIPTV the AV and digital content market held each year in Cannes. It’s a vast event – over 13,000 delegates attend – and the buzz of trade inside the Palais des Festivals is matched, if not outstripped, by that of the deals being struck and contacts made in the many coffee shops, bars and hotels along the Croisette.

While there to build on Cogapp’s links with TV indies and broadcasters - and to explore the creative opportunities of convergence and multi-platform - I made sure I found the time to attend a number of conferences. The MIPTV programme gives a useful insight into what are currently felt by the industry to be some of its most pressing challenges and opportunities – and so I’d thought I’d pick up on and summarise a few themes that kept cropping up: the growth of online video, monetisation and how to measure engagement. Or, media, money and metrics…
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I’m sure it comes as little surprise to many of you that the body can emit some interesting, and perhaps even occasionally tuneful, noises. But have you ever stopped to think about the sounds of your inner space? Probably not (unless you’re a big fan of 60s movie Fantastic Voyage).

Well audio artist Harry Neve, textile/scupture designer Anna Orliac, interaction designer Thomas Michalak and heart and lung surgeon Francis Wells (who has pioneered a method of heart surgery based on Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings) have, and they’ve come up with The Sonic Body. According to their website: “The Sonic Body is an audio-installation inspired by the traditional practice of listening to the body to diagnose illness. The installation brings together art and medical-science to reveal the un-heard sounds of the body, using interactive technology to create an orchestra of the human body, with unusual and unheard sounds recorded from deep within the body’s organs, muscles, veins and bones”.

The installation is showing as part of November’s Brighton Digital Festival here.

Journalism professor, Jeff Jarvis, has written an interesting piece in this week’s Media Guardian, provoked by the New York Times’ decision to abandon its policy, after two years, of charging for content online. Jarvis proposes that this step is the latest affirmation of:

“a new economy of content online that isn’t built on scarcity and control but instead relies on the idea that content must be public and permanent to realise its value in the wider conversation.”

He suggests that the notion that consumers should come and pay for scarce and controlled information, seeking out brands and entering through the front doors designed for them is dying a death. Instead, people will arrive because of their own needs (ie search) or peers’ recommendations (via links).

He goes on to counsel:

“we in the media must open ourselves to the public in every way possible. Tearing down walls – pay, registration, archive. or just obtuse navigation – is only the start of it. I believe this also means finding more ways for our audiences to distribute us”.

Just as the publishing world attempts to get to grips with the seismic shifts de-stabilizing long-held business models and practices, so broadcasting is tasked with similar challenges – and opportunities.

This week sees the announcement of BBC Vision’s multi-platform strategy, as the public service broadcaster continues to re-position itself within a digital world of plenty. A Pact preview of the strategy suggests that the BBC are thinking in a similar way to Jarvis – that real value is not built upon scarcity and control. Rather, as content is woven into the tapestry of the online media ecology, it is about engaging in the wider conversation.

Read the article here

Jeff Jarvis’ blog