Medus: Innovation, Design and Collaboration in New Media
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MEDUS: INNOVATION, DESIGN AND COLLABORATION IN NEW MEDIA Project proposal and grant application MEDEA, 2010 CONTENTS Executive summary 3 1. Contextualizing Medus 4 The “Real World” of new media, technology and innovation – The MEDEA KK-environment – The Malmö University new media profile – The co-production project Malmö New Media – Medus: Innovation, design and collaboration in new media 2. Current field of inquiry 8 3. Scientific contexts and challenges 11 Interaction design – Media and communication studies – Co-production, design and innovation – Key contribution areas 4. Co-production partner concerns 23 5. Work packages 25 Media production and consumption structures in transition – Media places – Participatory innovation practices – Collaborative cultural production – Collaborative neighbourhood practices – Collaborative digital manufacturing – Collaboration incubator – Management 6. Strategic plan and quality assurance 46 Current status – Staffing policy – Quality assurance References 50 APPENDICES A. CV and publication lists for key Medus researchers B. Project portfolio C. The Medus consortium D. Letters of intent E. Project budget 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Within the framework of the so called KK-environment, supported by The Knowledge Foundation, we propose a three-year co-production project called Medus: Innovation, design and collaboration in new media. By linking crucial academic research questions concerning innovation, design and collaboration within new media to major “real world” concerns put forward by a large consortium of co-productions partners, the objective is to develop new knowledge, new products and new services within the field of new media. The broad range of research questions addressed include: What do the new media mean for established structures of media production and consumption? How can the collaborative nature of the new media influence innovation models and practices? What possibilities do the new media offer for collaboration and co-creation? What methods, tools and strategies are appropriate for designing new media? These research questions are matched to business concerns like: How can new production and collaboration practices, such as open source and user driven innovation, be understood and appropriated in the corporate world of new media? What new-media products and services are going to be demanded by future markets? How can small, fast-moving entrepreneurs work with the establishment? How does one create and sustain an innova- tive, competitive organization culture? The new media challenge everything in the established structures of the media industries. How do organizations capitalize on professionalism in a mediascape where everyone is a producer? Focusing on an industry area characterized by innovation, high speed technological development and experimentation, the project is based on an equally innovative co-production model; a model based on flexibility and sensitivity for rapidly changing conditions. An important part of the project consists of continuously testing and refining this model. Including both small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) and major companies in the consortium, the project also attends to the crucial – and difficult – challenge of linking such companies to each other. 3 1. CONTEXTUALIZING MEDUS In 2008 The Knowledge Foundation decided to give Malmö University ten years of support for the establishment of a so-called KK-environment, directed towards new media and co-production. The work begun on Janu- ary 1, 2009. In March 2009 the environment was given the name MEDEA Collaborative Media Initiative. The name indicates that work is directed towards collaborative media: media both produced and consumed in col- laborative ways. Initial support from the Knowledge Foundation consisted of means for the setting up of the environment. Those means, according to the contract, could be used from January 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010. Means for the actual work of conducting co-production projects have to be applied for separately, and the deadline for the first round of applications was set to March 31, 2010, for projects to be carried out from January 1, 2010. Malmö University is applying for funding for two projects within the framework of the MEDEA KK-environment. This is one of the applications: Medus: Innovation, design and collaboration in new media. In this first section we will outline the context in which the application is situated. This context consists of, first, the “real world” of new media, technology and innovation; second, the MEDEA KK-environment; third, the new media profile of Malmö University; and fourth, the co-production projectMalmö New Media. The application moves on to a description of the field of in- quiry (section 2), a description and evaluation of relevant scientific contexts (section 3), and a description of the relevant co-production environment (section 4). Those chapters will lead to the formulation of a number of integrated work packages (section 5). Finally, a strategic plan, including questions concerning quality assurance, is presented (section 6). 1.1 The “Real World” of new media, technology and innovation New media play an increasingly important role in everyday life, both on a local and a global level. Of course, mass media have shaped the develop- ment of advanced societies for a long time. However, the new possibilities for citizens to use the media in more creative ways doubtlessly lead to changes in how people live their lives – not the least when it comes to younger generations. New media should perhaps better be called social me- dia, or collaborative media – which is the term we use. In any case, the main point is that we are dealing with a phenomenon playing an increasingly important role in social life. This in itself makes it crucial to pay academic attention to the phenomenon. The new media industry is similarly becoming increasingly important. And it has certain characteristics that single it out from traditional indus- tries. Technological development is faster than within traditional industries, but work within the industries is also to a much greater extent based on experiments. The pace is higher than in traditional industries. The digital material is cheap; the cost of copying something is basically zero (Anderson 2009). Therefore, rather than doing careful studies over longer periods of 4 time before acting, it is more efficient to simply experiment. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t. But the alternative – trying to plan and predict successful products – does not exist. Another characteristic of the new media industry is that the development is largely based on co-operation between companies through the notion of open innovation and that users play an important role in the development, a phenomenon called user-driv- en innovation (Chesbrough, 2003; Moschella, 2003; Goldman and Gabriel, 2005; von Hippel, 2005; Leadbeater, 2008). In other words, the new media industry has its own logic. However, it is important to realize that its currently quite specific production practices and business models are becoming increasingly important also for other indus- tries. Developing business models for new media, as well as experimenting with co-production, is therefore relevant not only for the creation of new products and services within new media, but also for traditional industries; there is a need for the creation of general knowledge around innovation and co-production. A very clear example of the importance of the new media sector can be found in the hugely influential business magazineFast Com- pany’s recently published list over the world’s most innovative companies in 2009. The majority of the companies on the top twenty list are new media/ design companies – including all companies in the top five! Only one Swed- ish company makes the top fifty list. That is the new media company Spotify (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/143). 1.2 The MEDEA KK-environment In the text sent from the MEDEA planning staff to the board of directors for The Knowledge Foundation in November 2008, the vision for the environment was phrased in the following manner: The vision for the KK-environment is that it shall be an internationally leading environment when it comes to co-production and the develop- ment of new forms of knowledge and new innovation models within the field of new media. Focus is put on the development of theories as well as products, services and productions. The environment shall also contribute to the development of a more general co-production compe- tence within Malmö University. It is clear that the MEDEA KK-environment envisions becoming an im- portant actor within the field of new media, not only addressing but also answering questions with relevance for the “real world”, and doing so through the carrying out of concrete co-production projects leading both to new knowledge and to new products and services. It is a grand vision. But it is based on more than ten years of co-produc- tion work on new media at Malmö University. That is also a main reason as to why Malmö University was granted a KK-environment. As of today, the MEDEA environment comprises a wide range of actors. Presently, the core MEDEA group consists of altogether close to 15 full professors, associate professors, post-docs and PhD students. Linked to this group is a large number of researchers from other parts of Malmö Univer- 5 sity, as well as master students doing their thesis work at MEDEA. MEDEA also has a large international network, comprised of both institutions and individual researchers. Key partner institutions include SMARTlab at the University of East London (http://smartlab.uel.ac.uk/new2010/), Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto (http://www.ocad.ca/) and the new Austin Center for Design (http://www.austincenterfordesign.com/). In addi- tion, the environment consists of private companies, state-funded organiza- tions, NGOs, art and culture actor, the city and region of Malmö, and its citizens. All in all in the MEDEA network, we find more than 500 people and about 150 companies.