Open Innovation

Open Innovation is a neologism created in 2003, which aimed at defining a new trend in innovation: it no longer has to come 100% from within, and the combination of inside and outside knowledge and resources is often beneficial.
Co-catalyst is one of the more & more numerous "Innovation brokers": as e-bay connects buyers to sellers, the innovation brokers connect a company with a need for a new technology - or at least with one identified problem, to a company working on the solution. Innovation brokers go further than e-bay: they offer consulting, licensing and monitoring services to their clients.

An interesting article was published in February 2010 on Co-catalyst blog, concerning Open Innovation anhow to make the most of it - or how not to make mistakes!

For many years innovative organisations have been trying to resolve the conundrum of how to get to bigger impact innovation more quickly and with less investment. In answer to this, the practice of Open Innovation is increasingly being adopted as the normal mode of operation for leading innovative companies. Open Innovation, applied correctly, offers the opportunity to access leading capabilities from around the world, exploiting complementary technologies and partnerships to short-cut the need for expensive internal activity and to realise innovation strategies faster. Some companies have adapted to this new way of working quickly and relatively painlessly but many organisations have had teething problems, to say the least. We have identified 10 common mistakes which can stop organisations from benefiting from the Open Innovation way of working.
1. Engaging externally without a clear innovation strategy
2. Poor definition of the requirement or need
3. Failing to get sufficient internal business or brand team engagement
4. Not having a clear, aligned internal view about how to handle IP
5. Ruling out radical or unexpected options too quickly
6. Lack of variety in Open Innovation approach
7. Not understanding the attitude as well as capabilities of potential partners
8. Not respecting the needs of potential partners
9. Looking at potential partners in isolation
10. Last but not least…failure to build trust

Go check full post on the website: http://www.cocatalyst.com/blog/index.php/2009/02/27/10-common-open-innovation-mistakes/

Some more colours in our Cities

Wasted Spaces is a street art-based organization that uses abandoned buildings and vacant properties as a playground for its artists.

Their latest undertaking is the Smile Project which involves setting up various temporary installations depicting smiling faces, such as ’smiley balloons’, in public places in the English town of Wembley.

Eat your glass

After recycling objects, here comes the edible objects !

New York-based design consultancy The Way We See The World has developed a new version of disposable cups called Jelloware. These edible cups are made of agar agar, a gelatin derived from algae and used as an ingredient in desserts, which are cast in different flavors like rosemary-beet and lemon-basil to complement the beverage inside. Once used, the Jelloware can be simply tossed onto the grass where agar agar would nurture the plants to grow, making these cups an ideal substitute for disposable plastic and paper cups.

Label Lait 100% canadien

En 2010, la campagne de communication des producteurs de lait du Canada s'accompagne d'un label "Lait 100% canadien". Ils encouragent les consommateurs a le chercher sur les packaging.
Notamment, ce label permettrait d'éclairer le consommateur sur les desserts glacés qui ne sont pas faits avec de la crème.

http://www.plaisirslaitiers.ca/le-lait-100-canadien
http://www.craimeglacee.ca/concours

Rimouski's company competions i-pad!

Since i-pad was launched, the competition on this new market is flourishing.

From Singaporean startups (http://www.01net.com/editorial/515875/un-serieux-concurrent-pour-l-ipad-la-tablette-tactile-joojoo/) to BlackBerry (http://www.ipad-apple.net/category/concurrence/), the pad is everywhere.

A small company from Rimouski, Quebec launched a pad through a partnership with Microsoft!
http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/est-quebec/2010/02/11/002-exopc.shtml
Let's keep track of their success!

Microfinance companies on the Stock Exchange

NYSE Euronext et Microfis créent un segment de marché pour la finance responsable :

NYSE Euronext et Microfis ont annoncé leur intention de créer au quatrième trimestre 2010 un marché organisé pour la cotation et la négociation d' obligations ayant comme sous-jacents des créances sur des institutions de microfinance internationales ou sur des entités solidaires, au sens de la loi LME.

Il existait fin 2009 environ 1 milliard d'euros d'encours dans les fonds d'épargne salariale solidaires, mais que seulement 5 % de ce montant étaient effectivement investis.

Article complet : http://www.boursorama.com/opcvm/detail-actualite-opcvm.phtml?num=69dd3a0a343554f68db90b95aba2af41

The decline of Facebook ?

It won't happen overnight, but there seem to be a slihtly decline in Facebook popularity among teenagers.

That appeared in a recent Teens and Social Network study.

Acoording to that study, around one in five teens (19%) that have a Facebook account have either abandoned it or are using it less, found Roiworld.

The reasons pointed out by the study are:

- 45% have lost interest

- 16% are leaving because their parents have joined

- 14% think "too many adults/older people" now use the social network

- 13% are concerned about their personal

But despite, those first signs of decline, it remains the first social network used by teens with 69% who have an active profile. YouTube ranks second with 64% of teens claiming to have an active account. MySpace comes in third (41%) and Twitter fourth (20%).

Details of the study:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33751159/Teens-Study-June-2010