Open Innovation Communities...or should it be “Networks”?

Open innovation appears now as an effective strategy to provide organizations with access to a wider range of ideas in the worldwide market of ideas, thus reduc-ing the costs associated with R&D. In the context of open innovation, the concepts of both community and network have been introduced to describe the Solvers (creative people and organizations that propose solutions), the Seekers (organizations seeking solutions for their specific innovation problems) and the Brokers (organizations that mediate the interaction between Solvers and Seekers. The objectives of this chapter are twofold: (1) to explore the assumptions and practices supporting the concepts of community and network;(2) to provide a description of the open innovation phenomenon, and in particular, its expression on the web. The chapter describes the concept, the dynamics and the technology associated open innovation strategies and business models.