Open Innovation for Innovation Tools: the Case of Co-Design Platforms

This paper explores the dynamics of openness and enclosure of
innovation activities with IT artifacts on the example of co-design
platforms. While modern information and communication technologies
offer many new possibilities for innovation, they also
subject innovation to the underlying technical structures, which
can misdirect the activities on the platform. In order to avoid this,
we propose an open innovation approach for open innovation
solutions. We perform an empirical study on two co-design platforms
which become subjects of innovation themselves in an open
laboratory in the downtown area of a European city. Visitors to
the laboratory are allowed to engage in innovate activities regarding
the co-design platforms in whatever way they want. The results
show that they do not only address technical improvements
of the platforms, but also look into new directions to make the
platforms more relevant or to replace them by other ways of innovating
in the given contexts.