Open Innovation bid delivered
May 14, 2007 – 6:30 amA very short while ago, David Wilcox and Simon Berry decided that the best thing to do would be to develop an “open source bid” to the UK Cabinet Office for a £1.2 million nonprofit innovation exchange.
This was just too good an idea to resist and a bunch of exceptional people and organisations jumped onboard the first open source bid to UK government ever. I offered a small piece on my favourite area (multi-domain knowledge exchange and the development of trust in communities across time), which I hope was of use, and was completely wow-ed by the level of collaboration that all the participants displayed.
From a cold standing start. It was gob-smacking. And public - which I think is the most impressive part - that all of us were happy to share our ideas, pool our knowledge and say ‘anyone can read what we think’ - genuinely turning the pitch process on its head.
Simon Berry of Ruralnet lead the way and has delivered it by hand today:
Here’s the proof. The bid on its way from bike to bid reception. I bumped into John Craig in reception which was nice. I am sure it was a coincidence or maybe it was because we were causing a bit of concern setting up to film outside! But it felt good anyway.
He was friendly and, reading between the lines, I think he’s been really interested in the approach we’ve taken. They are expecting ‘a number’ of bids and I got the impression that it was number about halfway-ish between 15 and 25. So, as we breath a sigh of relief and can get our lives back, the hard work starts for them.
Simon’s final blog post and photo of him outside number 35 with the pitch
You can find everything (apart from the secret money stuff which we’re not allowed to show) about what went on, how it went on, including the final bid itself on the group space, Innovation Exhange.
Absolutely superb. What a gig. Well done all!
