Andrew Lippman, MIT Media Lab

lip@mit.eduOctober, 2005

Open Innovation

Two Parts

Open Trends

Viral Ideas

Innovation today happens at the edgesIt happens surprisingly fast: Faster than IP!Ideas that you can see and breakthroughs you can’t predict

Organization Elements

Process Control

Communications Information

Open Organization

Open Source

Open Comms Open Knowledge

Linux

Skype?

Brazil, today

Open architecture

and marketing

Closed architecture

open marketing

Skype

Peer-to-peer VoIP application

First released October 2003

7 million users after one year, 25 million today

IM, Conferencing, voice-mail, etc

Open API; viral operation

Skype-out, 2004; Skype-in, 2005, …

$2.5/4.1 Billion acquisition by Ebay (9/05)

X50

Viral, but closed

Open Organization

Open Source

Open Comms Open Knowledge

Linux

WikiSkype?

Open architecture

Open application

Wiki

• Contributory encyclopedia, Jimmy Wales, 2001• 726K articles in English, 2.3million globally• 180 languages, 75 with > 1000 entries• Wiktionary, news, etc.• Hierarchical yet open• non-profit

Mashups

Kosher Food in Boston

NYTimes

Oct 21, 2005

Wiki updates

Open Hardware

Looking deeper

Open Source

Open Comms Open Knowledge

Linux

WikiSkype

Open Organization

Open Source

Open Comms Open Knowledge

Linux

WikiSkype

Open Organization

Scalable

Incremental

Contributory

Viral Innovation

Viral systems are innovative through modularity and distribution of capability -- the intelligence is at the ends

e.g.: Internet, (fax machines)

Viral Growth

CapacityBandwidth/Noden

CapacityBandwidth/Node

~nn

Viral radio is scalable, incremental, and value-adding.

Intelligence is at the edges, costs are low, systems are agile.

Spreadsheet: More users => more applications

Napster: More users => more music

Skype: More users => bigger exchange

Viral Examples

Education: The learners are the innovators, infrastructure makes the system rigid

Communications: The intelligence is now in the phones, will the carriers be marginalized?

Healthcare: Patients as a group already are more up-to-date than their physician; the average psychologist reads no more than one journal per month

Viral Possibilities

Radio communication normally usesone transmitter and one receiver.Throughput is understood.New systems use multiple transmitand/or receive antennas, E.g., Blast,COFDM

AB

ABA

BA

BA

BCreates Cells on-the-fly

Cells Without Towers

How far can we go with no infrastructure?

Past Mesh

Inherent Broadcast

Access

M3

M2

M4

M1

R2

R3

R1

??

!

Propagation

The world is not free space

Cooperative Propagation

Access

M3

M2

M4

M1

R2

??

Digital Radio = Intelligent Radio

Interference is a legal idea, not a physical oneMore radios means more communications, not lessMore radios mean less power, not moreBuildings and barriers help, rather than hurt

Transmitting costs less than receivingFunction costs is near-zero

Digital radio reverses 85 years of engineering

Viral Growth

CapacityBandwidth/Noden

CapacityBandwidth/Node

~nn

Viral radio is scalable, incremental, and value-adding.

Intelligence is at the edges, costs are low, systems are agile.

Radio Magic

Radio Magic

Podcasting

2004: Peers Protocol

2005: Expat TV

Lippman, Reed, Bletsas, Christakos, Vyzovitis, Cooley, Li

Vid-Torrent

Vid-Torrent

Same Things

Better

vs

Utterly New

Being Digital (1995)

HDTVDigital BroadcastDBS

TiVoScalable VideoMetadata

Open Arch breeds changes

Being Wireless (2002)

PCSSatellite Radio802.11

M2MOpen ServicesP2P

Pentland, Maes

Same Things

Better

vs

Utterly New

Being Viral (2005)

CentralizedVertical (Rigid)Slow

ScalableIncrementalValue-adding

Transparent

Same Things

Better

vs

Utterly New

Legitimate:EconomicCentralized(Scalable)

Viral:Optimized for innovationLow riskAgility

Charles Fine, 2001

Going Legitimate

Viral:Optimized for innovationLow riskAgility

When?Base Techs

The magic is when technology is in sync with society

Going Legitimate

Legitimate:EconomicCentralized(Scalable)

Licensed v Unlicensed

Golf courses rather than beachfront

Favors property owner over license holder

Comes online quickly

Grows organically

We could do it right!

Growth of the Tail

Number of programs

Number of

Viewers

HBO

Food

Whitman

Bionics

10-X: making you ten times faster, smarter…

QuickTime™ and aYUV420 codec decompressor

are needed to see this picture.