1) The Grand Machine

Part 1 of the 12-part series - 'A Grand Machine to Beat Covid-19' - introduces the concept of 'The Machine' as an integrated crowdsourcing platform and summarises the upcoming series.

This 12-part blog-series outlines an ambitious plan to radically transform the global innovation system, so that humanity is better able to confront Covid-19 and the many other challenges that we face. What is proposed, is the development of the ‘Grand Machine’ – an online science, innovation and technology platform of such epic scope, that its full-scale institutionalisation would amount to an Open Innovation Revolution.

In these pages, we will explore how the Machine seeks to tackle the pandemic – through the evolution and execution of a detailed Coronavirus Grand Plan and the integrated application of multiple open innovation (OI) and crowdsourcing mechanisms. Then, venturing further, we will discover how the platform aims to counter each death attributed to C-19, by saving at least two lives in return (from other diseases and disasters).

In describing how the Machine can help us deal with the Coronavirus, this paper effectively uses the pandemic as a hypothetical test-case – an example of how ‘Wide Open Innovation’ can be applied to solve many of the Grand Challenges confronting our species… from Cancer to Climate Change.

The Innovation Emergency

Our only way out of the Coronavirus Crisis is through innovation. We need to invent a number of new technologies extremely rapidly, including: contact-tracing systems and forecasting models, diagnostic tests and medical treatments, vaccines and associated mass-production processes. And we need to develop a broad range of strategies, policies and systems in order to cope with the diverse impacts of this hydra-headed catastrophe.

The novelty of the problem requires us to innovate continuously on all levels: with doctors improving their ability to treat patients; care-workers sharing best-practice approaches; every individual and organisation on the planet, evolving and adapting in order to function within this historically-unique environment.

Unfortunately, our traditional innovation system can’t hope to deliver the rapid rate of progress suddenly demanded. Standard pharmaceutical-development regulations actively prevent speedy innovation, corporate secrecy and inwardness suffocate the flow of information, institutionalised academic practices slow down the dissemination of research findings… and the incentives provided by the intellectual property regime become perilously uncertain, in cases where IP is too valuable to be defensible.

Governments across the world have taken drastic action – enacting wartime-style economies, spending enormous sums of money, and demanding that private enterprise fall in line to meet the urgent needs of the state. Alongside these heavy-handed interventions, a number of interesting reforms have been applied to the innovation system – with drug-testing regulations made more flexible, research strategies modified, and information-sharing practices revolutionised. Many of these changes moving us towards a more open approach.

In fact, the trend towards OI has been accelerating ever since the rise of the World Wide Web – like a tidal wave building momentum as it rolls over the ocean. Now the Coronavirus Crisis is driving the movement forwards at great speed… and the wave is about to break.

Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing

There are varying approaches to open innovation – in the purest versions: information and data are shared openly, ideas and innovations are sought from the world at large, cooperation and collaboration are systematically emphasised… with all resulting knowledge, technology and IP made universally accessible. Some OI programmes rely on unpaid volunteers, whilst others seek to incentivise innovators through financial rewards and prizes.

Crowdsourcing is a closely-related concept – it involves asking the crowd (online volunteers) to help with a project or to undertake specific tasks. Crowdsourcing innovation constitutes a form of OI. Other types of crowdsourcing include crowdfunding, crowd-labour, and crowd-wisdom. The word ‘crowd’, might conjure the image of an amateur rabble, but in reality, they are often highly-qualified and competent experts (as the ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019’ Wikipedia page attests). And in the case of OI programmes, the crowd frequently includes established businesses and professional workforces. Essentially, the ‘crowd’ means the ‘world’ – perhaps, ‘world-sourcing’ would be a more accurate term.

The world as a whole, must necessarily possess superior intellectual, knowledge and talent resources, compared to any of its constituent parts alone. Therefore, asking the world to assist with innovation, is always preferable to asking a specific expert or staff team (except where secrecy is paramount). Another advantage of OI is that protecting core IP with public patents enables better dissemination (and more rapid improvement) of useful technologies and systems.

Manifesto for the Machine

This paper traces the skeleton of a Manifesto for the Open Innovation Revolution. The core proposal is the establishment of the Machine – a sophisticated online platform/ network, through which the entire global innovation system can be connected, coordinated and concentrated on the fightback against C-19. It’s perfectly calibrated to help us deal with the Coronavirus, but is essentially a multi-purpose tool that can be applied across every scientific field and technological sector. The Machine is so enormous that in describing its features and functions, we sketch the outline of a far-reaching, holistic plan for radically reforming the international innovation system.

I’ve been working and studying in the areas of OI and crowdsourcing for many years. My academic specialisation is in the economics of innovation and my professional work has involved designing and implementing innovation prize programmes, entrepreneurship contests, open-data projects, research competitions and technology-information platform-services. I’ve undertaken projects across a colourful range of fields and sectors, including: pharmaceuticals, medical technology, data science, AI, robotics, emergency management, transport, security, environmental technology, etc.

Most recently I compiled a literature review for the Royal Society, comprehensively analysing the empirical evidence evaluating incentives, systems and policies designed to promote climate change innovation.

I’ve been musing on the concept of the Machine for over a decade, but haven’t had time to work on it until now. I’m not the only one thinking along these lines – people have been discussing the establishment of an all-purpose, open innovation platform for ages, although nothing on a serious scale has yet materialised. The concept of an emergency management platform to help deal with pandemics, natural disasters and human-made crises has also been widely discussed within certain circles. As it happens, these two platform concepts link together synergistically, in the context of C-19.

The platform discussed in this blog-series is essentially a ‘Global Innovation Network’, but I’ve decided to call it the ‘Machine’, because the term works well on a number of levels. The idea is to integrate multiple tools and systems so that they fit together exactly – cogs that slot into place like clockwork, conveyer belts moving things around automatically, processes carefully sequenced and systematised with mechanical precision. Yes, it’s a system… but further than that: it’s a machine.

The term also holds a certain satisfying irony, because the Machine is powered by crowdsourcing work from living beings. However, when observed on a grand scale, the collective endeavours of the human workforce will look automated – with information, data and innovations mass-produced as part of a continuous industrial process, that never sleeps. And using this analogy, the people providing the cognitive brainpower can logically be referred to as ‘cogs’. The sinister undertones evoked by the idea of ‘The Machine’, also seems appropriate to context.

Throughout this paper, I refer to the Machine as the ‘MMM’. It could stand for ‘Marvellous Magical Machine’ – which perhaps, conjures the image of an eccentric, industrial-era, fairground attraction, laden with technology ahead of its time. Or it could stand for ‘Myriad Mind Machine’… or ‘Mega Meta Machine’, ‘Massive Memory Machine’, ‘Machiavellian Monster Machine’, ‘Macro Micro Machine’… whatever seems most fitting.

Overview of the Machine

An overview of the MMM can be summarised as follows… it:

1. Develops into a large online innovation platform and network, with a wide range of advanced features and capabilities

2. Builds up a vast repository of Coronavirus-focused information and data, ideas and designs, technologies and systems, innovations and intellectual property

3. Breaks down the Grand Challenge of solving C-19 into numerous component Programmes and Challenges… and ultimately, millions (even billions) of individual tasks and sub-tasks

4. Combines multiple crowdsourcing strategies within an integrated system (crowd data-collection, crowd data-processing, innovation crowdsourcing, etc.)

5. Employs a carefully-calibrated mixture of competitive and co-operative open innovation to engage a broad diversity of innovators

6. Comprehensively tests all technologies and innovations related to the Coronavirus, using a scientific, objective, rigorous and transparent approach

7. Represents an international alliance of individuals and collaborations, businesses and non-profits, public bodies and governments – led by the Citizens of the World

8. Helps us tackle the problem of C-19… and expands, to take on the rest of humanity’s most important innovation challenges

Summary of this Paper

This paper aims to give a rough outline of the how the Machine will work and how it could be developed. The text has been divided into 12 sections:

1. The Grand Machine – Introduction and brief summary

2. The Opening – Considers the present situation in regards to crowdsourcing, open innovation and the response to the pandemic

3. The Knowledge Refinery – Explores how the MMM accumulates, processes and utilises data and information… systematically refining raw inputs into valuable knowledge outputs

4. The Innovation Factory – Describes how the Machine uses open innovation and crowdsourcing to develop new technologies and systems

5. Challenge Programmes – Zeroes in on an example Challenge Programme, focussing on innovating new medical treatments for C-19

6. Action Network – Details how the networking and project management elements of the MMM facilitate a new type of social and economic organisation

7. Cog Circles – Investigates the governance processes of the Machine and how the system could be managed and financed

8. Integration and Interface – Looks at the user-interface and how the different elements of the MMM integrate together to form a coherent system

9. Revolutionary Implications – Ventures deeper to explore the radical impacts that the MMM will have on science, innovation, economics and society

10. The Coronavirus Terror – Discusses the threat posed by C-19 and our initial response to the pandemic

11. The Grand Plan – Outlines an overarching strategy for beating the Coronavirus and proposes ambitious ‘success criteria’ to evaluate our efforts

12. The Way Forwards – Suggests a possible approach to building the MMM and ushering in the Global Open Innovation Revolution

Read the next blog in the series - Part 2 - The Opening