DEAKINS ABSTRACT "Innovation: A global View"

Innovation is a driver of social development, but social exchange is increasingly having a fundamental impact on innovation.

In the 70s and 80’s, both Marshall McLuhan and Alvin Toffler predicted that with the evolution of electric technology, the role of producers and consumers would begin to blur and merge.

Sophisticated networking technologies have now arrived and are creating a new social phenomenon - peer production. Peer production is the phrase used to describe communities of ‘prosumers’ collaboratively producing goods and services. It is premised on a fundamental economic innovation that Web 2.0 technologies make possible: cheap co-ordination.

Peer production marks the shift of the ‘information economy’ from an industrial model to an open, collaborative, decentralised one - an ‘open source’ culture. The term ‘open source’ is mostly associated with the free software development movement; however, open source philosophies now permeate other areas such as scientific practice, artistic practice and business models. This shift is challenging the roles of existing cultural gatekeepers such as governments, organised religion and the media.

Digital communications have removed information barriers and created global platforms for debate and ideas sharing. Traditional notions of hierarchy and senior/subordinate relationships are being challenged by a new generation who expect to contribute to and influence the discussions that are relevant to their lives.

Collective invention is second nature to our younger generations. They will only get better at harnessing their skills and networks to ride the next wave of the knowledge economy.

- Pip Shea, 2008