G.I.G. is a group of creative folks from various fields who are trying to establish a 21st century version of the 17th century Royal Society – but with a deeper understanding of how innovation occurs and with the use of today’s collaborative technology.
A number of people have expressed interest in the progress of G.I.G. So I’ll be writing periodic updates here, especially after each meeting.
For the next few meetings, at least, people will be presenting various ideas/projects. Mostly these focus on what is called social innovation. Partly this is a reflection of the issues that the collaborators are interested in. Partly this is a reflection of the fact that we have not yet worked out the intellectual property and other economic issues that are part of commercial product innovation.
It was clear from the presentations that there are three types: presentation of an idea for enlightenment or fun (kind of a TED talk); a presentation which asks for feedback, but is pretty much limited to discussion at the meeting; and a presentation which is really an invitation for one or more G.I.G. collaborators to participate in the project being presented.
The second and third categories are much like presentations made by entrepreneurs to panels of venture capitalists or angel investors. Except in the case of G.I.G., the proposal presenters are seeking the creative ideas and energies of the other G.I.G. collaborators.
So last night, May 22, we had our second meeting, at which the following proposals were presented and discussed:
- Leveraging FlexSpace to Power GIG, and vice-versa. This was presented from the beta FlexSpace room in San Jose to the group in New York. FlexSpace is an evolving set of technologies to enable distributed people to work together. The solution is designed to facilitate the creative process by enabling virtual post-its, white boarding, co-creation of content and a fascinating blending of physical and virtual space.
- A real-time mobile logistics platform: to support on-the-fly coordination of large groups, while mitigating impact on other traffic. While initially focused on a bicycle event, this is potentially generalizable to all kinds of scenarios.
- Open Line Studio: a collaborative distributed research studio about potential futures of waterfronts in Toronto, New York City, Bremen, Istanbul, and Busan. The project will serve as a proof-of-concept for intensive virtual sharing of physical plans as a way to improve local future-making.
There was also quite a bit of discussion about the process of innovation, how creative people can organize, etc. – all part of giving birth to G.I.G.
Our next meeting is Tuesday, June 19, where we will discuss additional projects/ideas.
Please let me know (njacknis@cisco.com) if you are interested in attending or participating in G.I.G.
We’ll also be working on enhancing the website and including the PowerPoints from this meeting.
© 2012 Norman Jacknis
[http://njacknis.tumblr.com/post/23640417438/gotham-innovation-greenhouse-progress-report]