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Innovation Models

Open Innovation (Crowdsourcing)

Related Links
Open, or distributed, innovation is a relatively new innovation model that InnoCentive
sources innovation resources from outside an institution. It allows Changemakers
companies/institutions to capture the distributed knowledge within a wide IDEO
network of actors to solve a problem. It is a way of increasing the flow of ideas Positive Deviance
into the innovation process. Crowdsourcing is one example of the open Rural Innovations Network
innovation model, exemplified by InnoCentive. Prolinnova

Collaborative Competition
This is a unique approach in that it combines two seemingly contradictory approaches – competition with open collaboration – to
identifying and enhancing innovations. Changemakers (an Ashoka program) conducts open social innovation 'collaborative
competitions' on behalf of sponsors. These Collaborative Competitions “open source” innovative, workable solutions to the world’s
most entrenched social problems and allow for best practice sharing, learning and further collaboration.

User/Customer-Centered Innovation
User or customer-centered innovation incorporates the needs and input of the customer or user into the innovation process.
Human-centered approaches to design can help organizations and companies design better products and services. The Rockefeller
Foundation is exploring how the design industry can systematically apply these approaches to serve the social sector.

Design for Social Impact

The design company IDEO offers consulting services to other companies and institutions that are looking to
enhance product design through ethnographic and anthropological research. This How-to Guide and the
accompanying Workbook are written for design firms that are interested in joining in the conversation.
IDEO + Rockefeller Workbook
IDEO + Rockefeller Guide

In June 2008, the Rockefeller Foundation invited a group of leading design professionals to explore fresh
business models for systematically engaging with the social sector. This report, produced by innovation and
design firm Continuum who also facilitated the two day workshop, describes the action steps and
commitments emerging from the meeting.
Continuum + Rockefeller Workshop Report

Building on the momentum of its June 2008 design summit, the Rockefeller Foundation has engaged
Winterhouse, a leading design firm focused on NGO projects and leadership in the design world, to develop
collective action and collaboration for social impact across the design industry -- and encompassing a range
of other institutions that work on the needs of poor or vulnerable people. The Foundation has also awarded
Zago LLC a grant to explore new business models for smaller design firms to engage in these same issues.

User-Generated or User-Driven Innovation

User-Generated or User-Driven Innovation (UDI) originates from end-users themselves and is therefore likely to be culturally and
socially well-suited to their particular problems and needs. This model recognizes that poor people are resourceful and innovative
and often solve their own problems through their own means. To have greater impact, UDI must be recognized and replicated or
disseminated to other users.

We currently focus on the following non-profit approaches to user-driven innovation:

Positive Deviance
Positive Deviance (PD) is a non-profit innovation model with a growing network of users. The Positive Deviance
approach unearths user-generated social and behavioral innovations and enables their diffusion and dissemination.
PD is a social and behavioral change approach, based on the observation that in every community or organization
there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon practices enable them to find better solutions to prevalent

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Accelerating Innovation for Development http://www.rockfound.org/initiatives/innovation/inno_jump.shtml

problems than their neighbors or colleagues who have access to the same resources.

Rural Innovations Network

Rural Innovations Network (RIN) is a not-for-profit entity based in South India, supported by Lemelson Foundation.
Its mission is to identify and incubate grassroots technological innovations developed largely by rural users that can
have a significant impact on rural lives and to enable these innovations to reach rural markets. RIN identifies these
innovations and helps to develop and retail the innovations that have commercial potential.

Prolinnova
Prolinnova is a network of organizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America that promotes and disseminates local
innovation in ecologically-oriented agriculture and natural resource management. Prolinnova’s work builds on the
farmer participatory approaches, and it pushes the approach to truly unearth and support innovations coming from
farmers. They have recently piloted Local Innovation Support Funds in several countries to support farmers in their
experimentation with new innovative practices in the field.

International Development Design Summit

The International Development Design Summit is a month-long collaboration amongst an international and
multidisciplinary group of students, university faculty and other professionals to design and prototype technologies
conceived by local innovators in the developing world. An annual event, IDDS focuses on a new set of projects every
year that address a variety of challenges in agriculture, energy, health and water. The Summit aims to not only
produce technologies with significant impact for the developing world, but also encourage the international
development community, academia and local communities to more systematically utilize novel models of innovation
- including co-creation, cross-disciplinary innovation, and crowd-sourcing - when problem solving.

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