Crowd Accelerated Innovation with Web Video

In the recently posted TED talk, career journalist and publisher, Chris Anderson, discusses how the rise of web video is driving the worldwide phenomenon he refers to as "Crowd Accelerated Innovation." This cycle of learning, self-fueled by web communities and its participants, is to face-to-face communication as Gutenberg's printing press was to reading and writing.



Crowd Accelerated Innovation is driven by what Anderson referred to as "cycles of improvement" which are based on three main principals--the crowd, light and desire. Although portions of these principals can be applied to other media or collaborative forum, as Anderson goes to describe, web video provides the ability to demonstrate hobbies, actions or interests that don't entirely translate into written or verbal conversation.

Cycles of Improvement Principals:

1. The Crowd: The crowd is comprised of those with a vested interest in a topic, effort, or concept. Although the participants in the crowd can fill many different roles, and even many at the same time (commenter, trend spotter, cheerleader, skeptic, maverick, etc.) All, as Anderson says, are innovators in some regard who contribute to an ecosystem to which innovation emerges.
   
2. Light: The light is the visibility of the people in the crowd. If the crowd's visibility is as open as possible, the focus of the light will shift to concentrate on those in the group that are innovating, setting trends or making interesting commentary.
   
3. Desire: The element that drives people and their want and/or need to be the best at something or make it better.
   

Although Anderson uses web video to demonstrate crowd accelerated innovation and cycles of improvement, this example points to broader concepts that have been synonymous with driving innovation and learning on any level, such as openness, access to information and a forum for effective collaboration and communication.

So how can innovation be driven further? Although some of the typical hot beds of innovation, (colleges and universities, corporations and organizations) have embraced the notion of openness, many still operate on a traditional model that could be viewed as exclusive in some circles of thought.

Which institutions, companies or organizations do you think have embraced openness and to what extent have they driven innovation?

Let us know in the comments below.

For more information about non-profit organization TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), visit www.ted.com.