Anders Hjalmarsson

Is the Public Motivated to Engage in Open Data Innovation

Governments aim to increase democracy by engaging the public in using open data to develop mobile apps and citizen services. They make information available (open data) and organize innovation contests to stimulate innovation with the goal to make new services available for the public to use. But will the public take on the challenge to both develop and provide services to each other? In this paper we use a case study from public transportation to investigate the motivation for individuals and teams to participate in innovation contests. The results show that the motivation for participating is primarily related to fun and enjoyment. We argue that in order to better meet the goals of open data innovation, governments need to follow through the full service innovation cycle and also care for making citizen coproduction in the execution and monitoring phases fun and enjoyable. Currently there is little chance for participants to make profit on a competitive market so governments need to provide other mechanisms to ensure service provisioning. For future research it is suggested to investigate how the later stages of open data innovation can be supported in order to meet the overall goals of open data innovation.

Contests as innovation intermediaries in open data markets

Innovation contests are becoming popular instruments for stimulating development of digital services using open data. However, experience indicates that only a limited number of the results developed during these events become viable digital services attracting a significant user base. To further deepen our understanding of the role, design and function of innovation contests in open data markets, we conducted a survey of the websites of 33 digital innovation contests. The results of the survey show that organizers design digital innovation contests to function as intermediaries for open data innovation. By analyzing the activities performed by organizers we found several examples of how innovation contests support the participants in designing, implementing and providing services after the contests are concluded. We contribute with a key design element and attributes for the post-contest process of digital innovation contests, which adds to existing key design elements. For future research we suggest to further study open data markets and the intermediary role of digital innovation contests. Moreover we propose to develop guidelines and tools for organizers of digital innovation contests to design contests that better meet the needs of a particular open data market.

When designers are not in control – experiences from using action research to improve researcher-developer collaboration in design science research

Design science research (DSR) has received much attention in the past few years from the field of information systems This paper argues that control in researcher-developer collaboration during artefact development has not yet received enough attention in design science research even though control is necessary for successful artefact instantiation.Experiences are presented from improving researcher-developer collaboration during DSR by using action research (AR) as means These experiences are driven from the need to achieve meta-design control throughout the development of artefacts by non-researching system developers when DSR is performed in an authentic setting The paper shows that the use of AR to both diagnose uncertainty and actively improve building activities may lead to sustainable improvements in researcher-developer collaboration, and hence achieve meta-design control in DSR performed in authentic development environments, as well as enhance progress in DSR methodology development.

Manage Contest Operations

This chapter provides a description of how to manage contest operations. It starts by presenting common problems encountered during contest operations. Then proactive and reactive measures to deal with these problems are suggested. The activity Manage operations is described in sub-activities and followed by guidelines. The chapter concludes with several examples.

Open Digital Innovation Contest

This chapter introduces open digital innovation contests that aim to develop digital services. Key stakeholders in such contests are identified: organisers, participants, resource providers, and beneficiaries. A classification of digital innovation contests is proposed based on the length of a contest and its inclusiveness. Other design elements of contests are also discussed, including media, target group and evaluation. It is argued that innovation contests can be viewed as innovation intermediaries that help to connect actors in an innovation system. Advantages and disadvantages of innovation contests are discussed. Finally, six contests are introduced, which serve as running examples throughout the book.

Organising Open Digital Innovation Contests

This chapter introduces a structured approach to support organisers of open digital innovation contests. It supports organisers to design and operate contests to achieve intended outcomes and effects. First, the logic of the model is presented. Then each phase in the model is described and key activities are highlighted. The following chapters describe each activity in detail.

Develop Contest Platform

This chapter explains how a contest platform can support different stakeholders, prior, during and after the contest. First, the notion of a contest platform is described. This is followed by a description of the activity, followed by running examples that guide the organizer to select and develop a suitable contest platform. Develop contest platform is affected by the contest design, but also affect which stakeholders to engage in the pre-contest phase. The notion of a platform has several meanings as we explore in the Read More section concluding this chapter.

Manage Innovation Barriers

This chapter deals with how innovation barriers after a contest can be managed if the organizer of the contest has decided to provide support also after the contest itself has ended. As starting point, a survey of such barriers to innovation is presented together with approaches for managing such barriers. The management approach is described from a contest organizers perspective, and includes an activity description followed by a running example. Finally, a read more section presents the theoretical base for the innovation barrier approach. Manage Innovation Barriers is the second activity in the post contest phase. After the contest, the deployment of a digital service will be structured according to a decided post contest strategy. See Chap. 12, Develop strategy, for managing the relationship between the organisers and the former participants. Different barriers can hinder a post contest deployment project to transform a prototype to an operational digital service ready for market entry.

Set Contest Goals

This chapter deals with contest goals. First, different types of goals are presented together with examples from different contests. Then the activity Set goals is described with guidelines and a running example. This important activity in the pre-contest phase affects and is itself affected by several of the other activities in the approach, such as Engage stakeholders and Design contest. Finally, we suggest further reading on the use of goals to support management.

Engage Contest Stakeholders

This chapter address the stakeholders that should be identified and engaged in the contest process. First, different types of stakeholders are presented along with their characteristics and support to the contest organizers. This is followed by a description of the activity Engage contest stakeholders and a running example. Engaging contest stakeholders is affected by the activity Set goals and itself affects activities such as Motivate developers and Design contest. Often, iterations are made between engaging stakeholders and the process to design the contest, as the structure of the competition is evolving during the pre-contest phase. Finally, we suggest further reading on engaging stakeholders in open digital innovation.