“I See Innovation Ecosystems”

Our region enjoys innovation ecosystems that are vibrant / robust – “and” they could be more productive. “Network Explorer” is a new tool for social network analysis that makes innovation networks visible and actionable. Exposing relevant contributors and their relationships enables strategies and tactics that broaden and deepen the innovation ecosystem to become more targeted and effective.

Collaboration across technical, functional, and organizational boundaries produces high-value innovation. Our technique identifies and supports interdisciplinary "boundary-spanners" who connect separate domains. 3M has determined that boundary-spanners develop some of their most strategically important technologies. IDEO indicates that inter-disciplinary collaboration is a fundamental principle of modern innovation.

Our proprietary, Web-based system accesses publicly available information and eliminates labor-intensive, time-consuming, and inaccurate survey methodologies. We can observe product categories, investigate historical trends, and compare an organization or region to its competitors.

We’ll demonstrate the system and visualize some innovation networks on the fly. We’ll also share some of the regional insights that we’ve obtained with “Network Explorer” as a research tool. We’re seeking discussion and additional perspective around application domains, use cases, network metrics, other fun stuff.

• Startups
• Other