Collaborative Innovation through Swarm Creativity
Peter A. Gloor · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2006
This chapter presents the concept of “swarm creativity”, beginning with the concept of swarm intelligence as observed in insects and drawing the parallels between social insects and collaborators in innovation networks. Through examples, how swarm creativity works is explored. The thriving community of Wikipedia (an encyclopedia on the Web) is used to present the key role played by Internet and Web technologies in making swarm creativity something businesses can use to their benefit. The open source software movement provides the example for the specific advantages of swarm creativity in the innovation process. How swarm creativity works in a business environment is illustrated through brief introductions to COINs at Eclipse, Linux, DaimlerChrysler, and Union Bank of Switzerland, which resulted in highly successful and financially lucrative innovations. The bulk of the second half of the chapter explores innovation by collaboration, putting it in an historical context that includes Leonardo da Vinci's network of collaborators and the work of early computer innovators.