Future of Engineering

Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs) are online communities of like-minded people working together to create innovations. Author and scientist Peter Gloor originated the term. These cyberteams are cropping up everywhere, unified not only by their "collective vision" but by the giant tentacles of the Internet. In the case of Facebook, they are the Chinese users of the site who are helping to translate it into their native language. Elsewhere, they are the surgeons collaborating on SpineConnect, an online community where experts from around the world can exchange ideas for innovations in the treatment of spinal injuries.

The potential of all this pooling of ideas is enormous.

The Web-based encyclopaedia Wikipedia and the Internet browser Mozilla Firefox are just two of the products whose development relies upon the contribution of a community of online users.

The idea of working collaboratively to create innovations is not new. Even so, it is an approach that the business world has found hard to come to terms with.

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Labels: Society