12) The Way Forwards

Part 12 of the 12-part series - 'A Grand Machine to Beat Covid-19' - suggests a possible approach to building the Machine and ushering in the Global Open Innovation Revolution.

Throughout this blog-series, the MMM has been described as it could be once it’s fully up and running… and playing a central role in the fight against C-19. But, obviously it couldn’t start out like that. So, how could something as enormous as the Machine grow from nothing, in a speedy enough timeframe to help us deal with the pandemic?

Where to begin?

One potential path, could involve acquiring governmental funding to get the project off the ground. This isn’t likely to be offered, but even if it were, there would be significant problems with accepting such assistance. Crucially, most people don’t really trust governments with their data, whereas the Machine requires a substantial amount of personal information (and trust) in order to operate effectively. So, although the engagement and cooperation of governments is vital in the long-term, the MMM needs to get going, independent of their influence.

If the Machine were developed by big businesses and tech companies, then it would be discredited by association with the profit motive and the fundamental data/ trust problems would not be assuaged. An alliance of crowdsourcing companies could provide an interesting starting platform (and all sorts of useful technologies). However, the interests of private actors would not always align with the common good, so it’s important that the Machine starts off with (and maintains) an uncorrupted focus on the global public interest. Business assistance and involvement is essential in the long-term, but the MMM must find its feet independently.

An alliance of non-profit organisations (universities, charities, scientific bodies, philanthropic organisations, etc.) could potentially establish and launch the Machine. This could be a credible option, because such a consortium should avoid many of the distrust problems associated with giving data to governments and corporations. It would be good to get non-profits involved from the outset, even if they weren’t the primary driving force.

Perhaps ideally, the Machine would grow directly from the grassroots – with an online crowd of innovators coming together to collaborate on the project. It’s important to enculturate the right mindset from the beginning, so the MMM should initially develop as a co-operation of scientists, healthcare professionals, academics, innovators, innovation experts and software developers. This way, the system could evolve into a new type of organisation – totally transparent, with no ‘inside’… genuinely led by the Citizens of the World.

Building the Machine

So, how could this actually happen in reality? It would obviously have to start with the MMM idea getting ‘out there’ into the world and generating some kind of interest. Perhaps, people might be interested enough to share the idea with others… or to engage in discussion around it?

Maybe it could come to attract the attention of a journalist, thought-leader, or some other influential figure and they might help to spread the word further afield? If the MMM concept could garner the interest of a relevant institution, such as a university or scientific body, then they could really help to galvanise engagement with the proposed project.

If a group of people came together around the idea, then debate and discussion (through social media channels) could lead to planning… and then building. The online crowd could begin to flesh out the design of the Machine in detail, and develop strategies for how to take the project forwards. Perhaps, a few enthusiastic techies might start constructing the site – establishing the foundations of a basic platform. The MMM software architecture would need to be Lego-style, to enable maximum future flexibility for improvement and redesign.

Once the core platform is established, founding members can move discussion over to the new website and the pace of construction cranks up a gear. There are many opportunities for the MMM to rapidly begin making useful contributions to the fight against the Coronavirus. Could start with information collation – finding public datasets that need tidying up, and then processing them through the Machine. There’s plenty of scope to connect with existing C-19 initiatives and ask whether they’d like some sort of help from the MMM crowd… assisting with open data projects and then building from there.

It would be great to develop a multi-purpose, crowdsourced-data-processing game early on, as that could really help to get the ball rolling. People spend a lot of time playing simple, addictive games on their phones, but often feel guilty about wasting their time on such trivialities. Imagine the attraction of an addictive game where time spent playing actually assisted the fight against C-19. This would make a good early Competitive Innovation Challenge.

Wiki-style resources that give an overview of current Coronavirus research and innovation projects could be useful. And of course, Challenge Definition efforts can also get underway pretty quickly – beginning to frame a comprehensive, strategic approach to tackling the pandemic. If enough engagement is galvanised, then the platform can expand rapidly, continuously adding new pages, templates, mechanisms and software to the system. All of this could be done without any money… although the donation of server space would soon be necessary.

If a scientific body or a university wants to help with the project, then they could set up and run one of the major testing programmes – experimentally testing innovations submitted as Challenge solutions. For example, a scientific society might offer to oversee and organise the systematic evaluation of diagnostic devices… and invite their global counterparts to establish similar experiments in other areas. Or a collaboration of universities could take action, perhaps? With this help, the MMM could get Challenge initiatives up and running, at pace.

The great crowdsourcing Machine will, of course, need to be crowdsourced itself – with an initial ad hoc approach, soon making way for more systematic efforts. Naturally, the MMM will use combinations of cooperative and competitive OI in order to coordinate its own construction. Perhaps, some imaginative and eye-catching Challenges to attract the attention of innovators and bring them into the growing collaboration.

Ultimately, the plan is to build the biggest and most sophisticated web platform that there’s ever been, from scratch, with no money and no traditional organisational structure. And to do it very quickly, relying purely on the sweat-investment of online volunteers. Obviously, this has never been done before. I bet it could be done, though… in these unusual circumstances.

And once it works up momentum, the MMM can keep growing bigger and bigger. Attracting technology donations from private enterprise, prize-sponsorships from philanthropists, datasets from public agencies, etc. The platform beginning to exert a gravitational pull, information attracting more information, engagement encouraging further engagement. New Challenges and Programmes launching all the time.

MMM coordination of humanity’s clinical Mega-Trials could possibly begin by asking the UN’s Solidarity Trial if they need any kind of help from the crowd… and then expand involvement from there. The Drug Discovery Challenge could launch and begin crowdsourcing ideas and designs from the world, whilst a consortium of collaborating institutions takes on the task of overseeing the Mega-Trial. There’s room for significant flexibility regarding how the Machine builds itself into the existing dynamics – hopefully, it can come ‘over the top’ in a supportive way, adapting to fit and merge into the evolving system.

It’s difficult to estimate a timescale, but if the MMM manages to inspire a high level of engagement, then maybe we could build something with basic capabilities that could start becoming useful within 4-6 months (by the end of 2020). And then get the new innovation system semi-operational, within the second half of 2021. Depending on how things play out, this could be good strategic timing, enabling the MMM to come sweeping in at just the right moment. Like the ‘New Model Army’ arriving to reinforce a frontline that had thus far been held by off-the-cuff heroics – decisively turning the tides and putting us on the front foot.

The Grand Plan swinging into action on every front, helping us test-and-trace, treat and prevent. And the Machine making ready to turn our defence into attack – expanding the platform to face other viruses and infectious diseases, Cancers and all manner of horrors. Nothing less than a full victory is enough – we must save two+ lives for each life we lose.

This Paper

Obviously, the ideas and plans presented in this paper are very incomplete – there’s much to be done in terms of putting flesh on the bones and defining the details. Generally, my inclination is to do plenty of research and planning, prior to writing… and then to spend a long time editing my words before showing them to anyone else. Normally, I’d spend months interviewing scientists, doctors and experts before coming up with a plan for a Challenge Programme or crowdsourcing project.

However, in this instance, the rigorous approach has not been possible. Due to work commitments, I wasn’t able to start working on the MMM until recently… and I felt I should get the idea out there ASAP, given the urgency of the C-19 situation. So, I’ve rushed this paper out as fast as I could, without doing nearly enough research into anything. I’m embarrassed that it must be filled with numerous errors and mistakes.

But, perhaps that’s not so bad – because the ideas presented here are general, rather than specific… and where examples have been given, they’re intended as illustrative, rather than prescriptive. There are many different ways to apply the principles of integrated crowdsourcing and Challenge-structured OI. And fundamentally, the MMM model is not exclusive to C-19, at all… although, it does fit especially well within this context.

Anyway, I’ve hurried out these ideas in a highly-imperfect and unfinished form, but my excuse for this is that I’m trying to take an OI approach. Rather than write a polished article, full of specific details, I’ve quickly sketched out a number of interconnected ideas and tried to hack them into order, so that the general thrust of what I’m saying can (hopefully) be communicated. If anyone’s interested, then I’d love to discuss things further… and if enough engagement is generated then we can begin fleshing out the idea as a collaborative endeavour. I suppose that’s a bit of a long shot...

Unusual Circumstances

I do think there’s a glimmer of hope for the idea, though – at this unique moment in history. In normal circumstances, it would be very difficult to draw attention to a new innovation platform. And because online networks must rely on attaining a high level of critical mass before they become effective, it would usually be impossible to crowdsource the development of something on the scale of the MMM.

But, these are not normal circumstances. The whole world is fanatically focused on C-19, the atmosphere is wartime, it’s all hands on deck and we’re resisting and fighting in every way we can. Yet most of us feel utterly helpless, because there’s no way for individuals to confront the problem head-on. Hundreds of millions have been locked-down at home, as it seemed the only useful thing most could do, was to hide from the besieging enemy. Many people take damage-mitigation actions, such as supporting socially-shielding neighbours, but it’s hard to see how these individual actions fit into the overall Grand Plan – because there doesn’t seem to be a Grand Plan.

In this peculiar context, it’s easy to imagine how an online platform, that enabled everyone to personally fight against the pandemic, could conceivably garner enough attention to get itself off the ground. And because there’s so much potential for integrated crowdsourcing to make useful contributions, the project should be able to build up snowballing momentum. Perhaps, ultimately generating a gravitational force large enough, to pull our entire global innovation system into a revolutionary new age.

As it stands, the Coronavirus really has us on the ropes. It’s slaughtering us by the hundreds of thousands – brutally scything down the most vulnerable members of our species. It’s triggered a self-destructive overreaction, like nothing else in living memory, provoking us into countermeasures that have devastated whole sectors of our economies, societies and communities. It’s killing us… taking our lives, our loved ones, our livelihoods, our lifestyles… our sacred lifelines of social contact. Closing down our freedoms and choices, putting barriers between us, striking at the deepest core of our humanity – our existence as social beings.

Our reaction has been very ‘human’ – very mixed. Shock and disbelief, confusion and chaos, insecurity and hopelessness… fear and mistrust, anger and accusations, bluster and blame… forces driving us apart. But at the same time, there are powerful forces drawing us together… we’re finding solidarity, rallying to the cause, standing shoulder-to-shoulder – an outpouring of compassion and care, love and altruism, friendship and community-spirit. We’ve truly focused our hearts and minds – legions of scientists getting to work within days of C-19’s discovery, armies of health and care workers heroically holding the frontline, every organisation in the world pivoting to face the Crisis as best they can.

In many ways, we humans are weak and fragile creatures – prone to over-emotionality, self-destructive defensiveness and tragic comedies of errors. But, in other ways, we are strong and exceptionally-capable beings. The human mind is the most incredible thing in the known universe – an unfathomable fathoming machine with infinite versatility and potential. And we’ve got billions of them! BILLIONS!

But we don’t yet have a system that allows us to bring the full might of our collective brainpower to bear against the Coronavirus… and our traditional modes of organisation seem cumbersome and blundering in the face of this mysterious and fast-moving new enemy. This is where the MMM can rise up to make a significant difference – providing an interface that enables every individual to take on C-19, as part of a coherent Global Grand Plan.

Think of all the knowledge and talent out there in our world… all those versatile abilities we could be deploying and making use of. Every kind of character and personality, coming from every perspective and viewpoint, with all the skills and intelligences ever learned. Problem-solvers, puzzlers, innovators… carers, supporters, helpers… debaters, speakers, deal-makers… teachers, learners, researchers... organisers, administrators, managers… networkers, connecters, promoters… leaders, team-workers, loners… creators, developers, builders… critics, evaluators, rationalisers… thinkers, planners, doers… movers, makers, shakers.

All these skills and intelligences at our fingertips (and many more besides). All these minds ready to be deployed – unprecedented legions waiting to sign up and be called to the front. The Citizens of the World, truly getting the opportunity to work together as a whole species… for the first time in history. The Coronavirus won’t have a chance. And neither will any of the other diseases that have plagued us over the millennia.

A ‘New World’ is being forged in the all-consuming fires of the Coronavirus Crisis – the Global Open Innovation Revolution will make it a better one.