I’ve written previously about the power of recombination, and that perhaps we need to redefine innovation away from the invention of something completely new towards something that builds upon things that have been deployed elsewhere.
Despite this, it’s nevertheless rare for copying to be quite so openly promoted, so it’s pleasing to see the launch of a new platform that is designed specifically for that.
The promotion of plagiarism
A group of NGOs have recently launched a platform, called Sphaera (pronounced s’faira), which they hope will encourage the copying of successful initiatives from around the world.
The platform will provide a facility for organizations to share what has worked for them. This information will then be turned into tools, processes and frameworks by the platform, in order for other users to make use of them.
“Where governments and corporations fail to address the urgent problems of the 21st century, social entrepreneurs step in to develop innovative solutions. Collectively, we are sitting on a wealth of practical solutions and the know-how for adapting them to new places and problems,” the developers say.
“Sphaera makes it easy to discover, share and remix solutions. We put the collective, practical knowledge of what works – in health, finance, conservation, education, in every sector relevant to wellbeing – at the fingertips of practitioners everywhere. Our hope is that together we are better, faster, and more effective in tackling the urgent problems of our time,” they continue.
The aim is to try and facilitate the breaking out of knowledge that may have been siloed within individuals or project teams and make those insights more accessible for others to build upon.
The early solutions submitted to the platform during beta testing are currently being processed by Sphaera, and the initial lessons from the platform are due to be shared at the SOCAP conference later this month in San Francisco.
It’s certainly an interesting site that has tapped into the growing zeitgeist around recombination and the immense value it provides to innovation. It will be one to follow with interest.
I like that, although I hope it's done differently to so many public sector projects that build a nice tool and then don't bother to promote it so it ends up not getting used.
That's often the challenge with these things. Hopefully they'll be rather more successful than previous ventures of this kind.