Business

Robobees, swarms, and the power of the collective

Like something out of a SyFy original movie (but much, much better), researchers at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have been working on the development of an automated bee. In fact, they’ve been working on the development of swarms of them, hoping to not only replicate the honeybee's invaluable role in our food chain but to also advance technology in the areas of agriculture, surveillance, and mapping. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 16 Apr 2012 by John Adams (Red Hat)

Priming open source startups

You've been thinking about starting an open source company. Or maybe you've got an idea but don't know how to take it to the next level. You need something to accelerate your idea. Maybe you need to pitch it to investors? Perhaps you're looking for a co-founder with skills that compliment yours? Startup Weekend could be the event that gets you moving.

We caught up with some of the organizers from a local Start-up Weekend in the Research Triangle, North Carolina. We wanted to find out what Start-up Weekend is looking to accomplish. And while we were investigating, something unique caught our attention—a track specifically designed for open source. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 11 Apr 2012 by Jason Hibbets (Red Hat)

Innovation is a process

Innovation can happen by chance, without a determined effort or specific methodology. But when it does, it's more like luck than strategic progress. While there is a role for serendipity in strategy – being able to take advantage of pleasant surprises -- too often, that's the only way companies approach innovation: with fingers crossed. The same organizations that diligently recruit to fill their ranks with clever and creative people often fail to put in place a process that seeks to get the best out of those people. These teams will, given the chance, create new products, new services, and new ways of getting things done. But relying on random efforts is like risking an organization's future success to a straight up roulette bet – or at the velocity of change today, maybe keno is a better analogy.

» Read more

1 CommentPosted 9 Apr 2012 by Jim Stikeleather

Should we pay more money to bureaucracy to make it less appealing?

People used it in one way or another, from the gold rush to false bourgeois, from posh style to politics. Whether by force or law, the real name of the game in human attending to avoid responsibility and slow the process of decision, is bureaucracy. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 3 Apr 2012 by Alexandru Bodislav

A distributed social workforce drives profit and performance

LiveOps is the only contact center (call center) leader focused on providing the full platform, applications, and talent in the cloud. Consumers increasingly expect on-demand information and constant contact with the companies with whom they do business. These needs have prompted the co-evolution of the contact center and fundamentally challenged its traditional hierarchical organization and branding paradigms. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 30 Mar 2012 by Sanjay Mathur

A billion thanks to the open source community from Red Hat

Sixteen years ago, few imagined that a handful of people at a Linux start-up in North Carolina were laying the groundwork for an open source business with more than a billion dollars in annual revenue. Yet as we stand at that milestone, and as we take the opportunity to reflect, we believe our success speaks volumes about the power of community.

This billion dollar milestone is not only a win for Red Hat—it is a victory for open source advocates everywhere. Our fight has always been about » Read more

21 CommentsPosted 29 Mar 2012 by Jim Whitehurst (Red Hat)

Inspiring the future of work by unlocking innovation through chaos, creativity, and collaboration

Gangplank was created by two entrpreneurs in Chandler, AZ who loved their city, but felt that it lacked the culture to make creative ventures successful. It was started just before the recession 4 years ago. It started by trying to help technical entrepeneurs through seed funding and incubation, but quickly found the community needed so much more. In the last four years the space has increased from 2,500sqft to 14,000sqft and has opened three new locations. It has partnered with two cities (Avondale, AZ and Chandler, AZ) and is activating creatives to get involved in government and their community. Bringing fresh ideas and the concept of iterating through ideas to find success. Gangplank has started a collaborative workspace movement that was highlight this year as one of Entrepreneur Magazines 100 Most Innovative Companies. » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 26 Mar 2012 by Derek Neighbors

Reimagining capitalism—as principled, patient, and truly social

While the global financial meltdown and its aftershocks have unleashed a flood of indignation, condemnation, and protest upon Wall Street, the crisis has exposed a deeper distrust and implacable resentment of capitalism itself. » Read more

19 CommentsPosted 20 Mar 2012 by Gary Hamel

TopCoder and InnoCentive making open innovation work for companies and contributors

"We've chronicled innovation since forever," said Jacob Ward, Popular Science's west coast bureau chief, moderating a SXSW panel on the promise of open innovation. "But in every case, the innovations that we were chronicling--even though we champion the garage inventor--most of them happened in seclusion or in the confines of an organization." » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 14 Mar 2012 by Ruth Suehle (Red Hat)

Managing beyond the organizational hierarchy with communities and social networks at Electronic Arts

How do you manage a very large, very complex organization that is geographically disbursed in many different countries around the world? You already know that the outdated hierarchal organizational structure won’t work and if you are like many companies you are probably beginning to realize that the matrix type structure (where each employee reports to both a task manager and a resource manager) has its own limitations. Electronic Arts (EA) established cross-company virtual communities that provide the benefits of coordinated decision making while preserving the independence required for creativity and innovation. These communities are supported by a unique governance structure and a fun and engaging technology platform. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 8 Mar 2012 by Michael Cuthrell