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Overview
Instilling a culture of easy collaboration across a system of campuses is not an easy thing to do. Yet technology is making it possible for communities like Assembly, Kickstarter and Quirky to gather and inspire like-minded strangers to invest in and then develop new products, services and companies. What is so exciting is that without technology, these micro-communities could never form; and yet these communities come together and effectively execute on new ideas and innovate at an amazing pace.
How do large and traditionally heavy University systems take that same concept and weave it into their own culture? The University of California is made up of over 7,000 IT professionals scattered across 10 campuses, the Office of the President and affiliates. The UC NeXt movement seeks to tap into this enormous network and foster new and innovative collaborations. To enable this, NeXt is building a platform meant to help ideas form and projects to grow.
The UC NeXt Platform allows passionate and inspired technologists grow their "pet" projects and ideas into broader collaborations. People can "like" ideas, offer comments to improve them, and even volunteer their time towards helping them grow. UC NeXt is all about enabling offers of help and volunteerism to evolve into funded and supported efforts that build momentum and ongoing support by showing value and return-on-investment.
In short,
- PITCH ideas
- LIKE others' ideas
- HELP ideas you like
- FIND the right talent
- LEARN something new
- Build your REPUTATION
To do this, the UC NeXt platform is built around several core elements:
- Ideas are the basis of the platform. Anyone can propose one, and everyone is encouraged to review them and vote on the ones they like. They can also comment on ideas, helping them grow beyond the initial seed into something more broadly applicable. If an idea particularly jumps out to someone, and they'd be willing to support it with time and/or money, they can also indicate as such.
- Projects can be created out of ideas in the system, as well as be added directly if they were started via other means. A project profile is a great way to increase the visibility for a project and recruit like-minded people to join in. Rich search and matching interfaces allow individuals to find projects that align with their needs, as well as those they'd be well-suited to participate in given their competencies.
- Events, both in person and remote, can be publicized through the platform. The event calendar is a great way for people to find out about events they might not otherwise have heard about, bringing people with common interest together and generating those informal networks that allow for more collaboration in the future.
- People get to define a professional profile for their work at the UC, highlighting their competencies and linking to the ideas they support, the projects they're involved with, and the events they've attended or led. Badges are also given to highlight particular achievements and contributions they've made. Through the platform's search and matching interface, it's even possible to use the platform to find people who might be interested in an idea or project that you're leading.
NOTE: Some of these features are still in planning and/or development
NeXt is more than software though. It's a movement to foster innovation and collaboration. The needs of the community drive the decisions we make with the platform. To this end, a poll sent out to the UC campuses highlighted several key themes around collaboration:
- More dedicated time
- Better tools
- Support to experiment and fail
- Strong relationships are needed
- Common goals, shared priorities and respect
- Community of Practice meetups
- Asking permission can torpedo good ideas
These observations align with industry practices around innovation as described in books like "Lean Enterprise" and journals like the "Harvard Business Review".
The platform seeks to address some of these. It should provide greater visibility into the wants and needs of the institution, providing guidance about where investment should be made; it should draw out pockets of excellence and make it easier to find people with common goals, forge relationships with those people and build communities of practice; and, once a project is started, it will provide measures to help understand the time spent and the returns achieved from the project. In parallel, NeXt is also seeking to set up training and other events around collaboration, lean innovation, etc., as well as to work with IT leadership to remove some of the barriers around time and permission that have often stalled collaborations before they really get going.
The platform is inspired by:
- Ideation (such as Kickstarter, IdeaScale and BBYIDX)
- Community Building (such as Yammer and Jive)
- Crowdsourcing Work (such as Assembly)
- Gamification (such as Uber and AirBnB)
- Competencies (such as LinkedIn)
We view these as forming the basis of a Connected Innovation Lifecycle.
- Crowdsourcing naturally selects the best ideas
- Gamification engages and inspires
- Increased ability to experiment with pilots
- Projects build communities of excellences
- Measurable increases in collaboration