Social innovation: inspiring change through crowdsourcing

A new crowdsourcing initiative could have implications for engineering, design, research and development, says Sony’s Magdalena Wasowska.

‘Innovation’ is a word used in business with increasing frequency. But what does it mean? Is it a new idea? Is it the realisation of an idea, or inventing and patenting new technology?

Or is it looking at something in a way that others haven’t done before and finding how to fit the pieces together?

This concept of looking at things in a new way is at the heart of an initiative created by Sony called Open Planet Ideas, which is a form of social – or collaborative – innovation. Open Planet Ideas tasked young people from across the globe to look at the problems facing today’s world and to suggest ways in which technology might be used to solve them. Inspired by seven Sony technologies, they were invited to think of new ways for how today’s technology might be used for environmental or social good.

Even when crowdsourcing this challenge in different countries around the world, we encountered some similar themes. Sustainability and care for the environment were key areas, but one of the most pressing concerns amongst the Open Planet Ideas contributors was how to build communities and create a participation economy.

The resulting concept, called +U, is a micro-volunteering mobile application that connects users with volunteering opportunities in their local area and allows them to share their experience with their friends.

+U takes advantage of the rising trend for micro volunteering: the process of donating small chunks of free time to good causes. Furthermore, the application has been designed as open source to enable other organisations to repurpose the application to suit their own needs. It enables sustainable, mobile and social volunteering.

Open Planet Ideas was the first crowdsourcing project I’d been involved with – and whilst this strategy is not without risk, it was one that that has borne many benefits, including reaching, engaging and stimulating discussion with Sony’s key audiences.

But it did more than that, too.

Open Planet Ideas was a test bed, enabling us to explore a new approach to sustainability issues. From an internal perspective, the initiative was used to bring on board parts of the business that were not yet deeply engaged in the sustainability agenda. By bringing together senior people from engineering and design, Open Planet Ideas has helped to further frame sustainability as something intrinsically relevant to people’s jobs at Sony.

A further objective was to demonstrate that technology has a positive role in addressing sustainability challenges and that everyone can make active contributions to a better future. Open Planet Ideas provided a platform for people to both highlight their personal environmental concerns and bring their creativity and knowledge to bear on devising solutions, together. A focus on community, collaboration and openness was fundamental to success.

I believe it is this collaborative approach that best summarises social innovation. Through Open Planet Ideas, Sony was able to engage with a wide number of audiences, help change behaviour and create new ways of thinking. But best of all, Sony created +U, an aspirational idea that shares a facet with most great ideas: simplicity.

So what does innovation really mean? Innovation is being more than the sum of the parts. It is about creating something different and new but not necessarily conjuring something from nothing. By looking at things in a new way, embracing modern methods and listening to your audiences, anything is possible.

Magdalena Wasowska is General Manager Technology and Software at Sony.