The second date of the November 2009 tour was in Helsinki, at the Open 2009 Symposium organized within the Media Lab Helsinki of the Aalto University School of Art and Design.
It was a great advance for me, as I was invited there as a keynote speaker for the second day!
Unfortunately I could stay in Helsinki for very little time (less than two days), and I was still a bit ill for the flu of the previous days, but people from Media Lab Helsinki were very nice and friendly. I really hope that we will collaborate in the future!

One of the most surprising things about the Open 2009 was that there were almost no hackers / coders there. It’s the first Open Everything event with no hackers I’ve ever seen! This is an interesting fact that shows how the Open culture or at least the interest for it is spreading and advancing in the society (or at least in the Finnish society!). This idea is supported by the fact that also during the afternoon panel (which I participated in) the discussion quickly shifted from the state of the art in supporting Open Systems to using Open Culture, Open Systems and Open Processes as a way to change and improve society.
About this issue, I think that we should proceed on two directions at the same time. On one side we should research how to develop proper Open Tools, Open Methodologies and Open Processes for enabling Open Systems that really works and fosters collaboration. On the other side, we should also study independently what changes and what initiatives we should take in a collaborative way in order to change and improve society (and all its related issues about social, economic and environmental sustainability). Tools and Strategies have the same importance and should be mixed wisely (too many times I see open source projects that seems to me almost useless or a waste of time in terms of social impact). Tools are important because they change the processes and the outcomes we get, and strategies are important in order to use the tools properly (this is my comment to the last tweets and the last part of the panel discussion when someone proposed to forget tools and to create a movement instead).
And note that Open Source proved to be useful and interesting not trying to change the whole society at once but by proceeding step by step with a strong focus on single projects and tools.

Here’s my presentation.

Here are more pictures of the whole symposium as taken by three Flickr users:

After the first post, here I suggest you another report from Nordic Innovation Centre, a longer and more detailed one, edited by Emily Wise and Casper Høgenhaven: “User-Driven Innovation. Context and Cases in the Nordic Region“.

In this report, user-driven innovation is defined as the process of tapping users’ knowledge in order to develop new products, services and concepts. A user-driven innovation process is based on an understanding of true user needs and a more systematic involvement of users.
This definition encompasses two key elements: an understanding of true user needs (in order to be able to define unique experiences), and systematic user involvement in the innovation process. Two frameworks – the innovation wheel and the framework for mapping UDI processes – are used to describe user-driven innovation processes in more detail. Eight case examples are presented, describing the process (step by step), specific methods employed, results and key lessons. The general context regarding user-driven innovation (research, education, public and private sector activities) in each of the Nordic countries is also presented.¹

Recommendations²
The following areas are recommended for further research or policy action on a Nordic level:

• Building knowledge institutions with specialised skills in the area of user involvement
• Establishing platforms for user involvement
• Applying user-driven innovation in welfare benefits and public services

It is important here that they also point out that we need platforms for the collaborative activity (that generates open innovation), and that we can introduce them in welfare benefits and publics services.

In broad terms, there is nothing new about innovation being driven by market demand and entrepreneurial initiatives of users. However, the text above points to a number of new – or re-discovered and newly prioritized – factors that ARE new to ‘user-driven innovation’, such as:

• the increased ability for users to take part in innovation processes, thereby allowing users to get their demands heard and addressed (through IT-enablement and greater acceptance of ‘open innovation’ processes in a number of companies)
• companies’ desire to more systematically capture knowledge and inspiration from outside of the company
• companies’ understanding of more sophisticated consumer demand and increased focus on developing products/services that address unmet consumer needs or solve problems in new ways
• the increased frequency of companies’ employment of consumer insights and user involvement in their innovation processes.³

The report shows some detailed research about these cases:

Danish Case A: the Danfoss Group Water Vision Project
Industry: The Danfoss Group is a leading global manufacturer of components and solutions for Refrigeration & Air Conditioning, Heating & Water and Motion Control.

Danish Case B: DSB – Creating increased value for DSB’s customers
Industry: Transport service

Finnish Case: Outotec – “More out of Ore”
Industry: Leading global provider of process solutions, technologies and services for the mining and metallurgical industries

Icelandic Case: CCP
Industry: Producer of massively multiplayer online games in the entertainment products and services industry.

Norwegian Case: Tine – “Innovating Food”
Industry: Norway’s largest food company, a dairy cooperative owned by 17,400 Norwegian milk farmers

Swedish Case: Electrolux – “Thinking of Users”
Industry: Globally-leading producer of appliances and equipment for kitchen and cleaning

International Cases

USA: Intel – “Innovation Inside”
Industry: World’s largest semiconductor chip maker

USA: Valve – Innovative User Communities as a Part of a Business Model
Industry: Valve is a producer of computer games

via | Putting People First @Experientia

Notes:

1. p.7
2. p.7
3. p.15