Just an old post on Open Innovation
signing my diploma! feels good!
03/07 Graduation! What a great finish of an intensive year. The ceremony took place in the Martinikerk, which made it all a bit devout. Kind words by the university, soon-be-graduates a bit nervous, friends and family frankly glad it is all over. I was happy to be in front of my parents and my family, on this warm summer day. Now time for that summerbreak!
27/6 – In case you missed my tweets (and facebook updates): I successfully defended my thesis. Realizing that took a few days and cleaning up my office (lots of papers) feel very good. Graduation is next week, I will mail a thank you letter to the interviewees before I post my findings. This all feels very good, I have to admit that!!
19/20-6 Final weekend of preparation for defending my thesis. I have a simple presentation to explain the research subject and my major findings. If all goes well, I will put that presentation on slideshare. Reading my thesis again is somewhat funny. Found a few small errs and annotated a few question marks. –This should go well and I am currently claiming not to be nervous.
3/6 Last Monday I received a message saying I am good to go for the exam. Actually mailed my final version of the thesis today (by snailmail) to the university. As always, it is those last percentages that really take time. And it is not a one-person job. I am happy with the result (so far). In a few days I’ll start preparing for the defense, which will take place on the 21st of June. Last phase of a long process, looking forward to that day! Final update of my literature list !
12-15 / 5 – another step towards finishing my thesis: I now have a complete version of my paper and just mailed that to the U of G. I knew finishing touches take time, so no surprises. But I also encountered an issue, which only my (much) better half could solve. I do have a few questions left for the university. Before June 1st I will know if I can take part of the exams. Updated literature listing!
8/9-5 Thursday last I had a positive conversation with the university: go ahead and finish the thesis. In case it sounds like five-minutes work: it isn’t. There seems to be no correlation between short and long remarks and the time they consume. Sometimes I implement a long remark by deleting a word, sometimes a one word remark takes one hour, to work things out. One more week and counting down.
– I have started on diffusing new knowledge (well, new to me): writing an article and putting some thoughts on a mind map for a presentation.
30/4-1/2 5 I took some four hours per day to finish my thesis. Working out the details can be a time-consuming task. I have now (Sunday evening) mailed a text version to two reviewers, feedback from the U of G expected this Thursday. After that my path should be clear. I have also started work on diffusing my findings: a presentation of the subject and a publication in a magazine. A good thing to work this out in a parallel fashion. The more I get into OI, the more it fascinates me.
25/4. What a day. Whilst the weather is summer-like, I was inside most of the day. Revamping my most recent version of my thesis. I am now wondering about ‘is open a factor for innovation’. I feel most of my paper is in sync with that key question, but who I am to determine that. I am in urgent need for help from a few friends; they are lined up to review the current result.
17/4 I estimate that my framework is now 90% done. A few major issues left, but I did get a ‘go ahead’ last week. This thesis is now headed to a closure. In one month I have to deliver the ‘final draft’, is doable. No idea what I will be doing ‘next’. “let the resocialisation process begin?” btw, Why is taking out text so hard to do?
10/4 Well, I did receive a response from the university. Two pages have no remarks, other as much as 15 (or more). I first just worked with the minor remarks (like moving text or spelling). Then the real questions, they did take a bit more time. I guess I still have a few questions left. Two more days at the U of G next week. After those I should be able to finish this paper. Assuming they let me….btw, my list of ‘what I have learned’ is becoming rather long.
4/5/4 I summerised all interviews into a ‘one page overview per interview’. Labeling the answers is not easy (for me). I was able to write-up a ‘description of my research method’, the outcome of my research and conclusions. Send it all of to the U of G, since I am really longing for some feedback now. BTW I really appreciate the feedback I am getting from ‘unknown’ academics. Hope to do something for them in return.
27/28/3 What can I say? Finished details from the interviews from last week, two more interviews to go this week. Feedback from the U of G is promised for tomorrow. I am always hesitant to open those kind of emails. There should not be too many loose ends in my theoretical framework (I hope). End of this week I will be able to label the keywords, put them in order, interpret the data, and get some answers to my questions!
22 and 22/3 worked on my thesis in the morning, had an interview in the afternoon. Doing fine with the interviews, hope my chapter 1 and 2 are going in the right direction. spend a few days in a rather closed environment, researching about open innovation. now that’s a paradigm shift!
20/3 Checked the last interview and reviewed it (did I get all questions, did I miss words – writing down what was said). Doing that yourself has a few advantages: you live through the conversation again but with a different focus. Time consuming: 1 hours interview can take 2-3 hours to work out the details (only in the first phase of the research). Worth it so far. Next week three interviews!!
Checked the response from 2nd reviewer, content wise (spelling, order of words etc). The real tough questions I will get to later. Trying the finish my chapter on ‘outside conditions for OI’. Not that easy but it will come to me. Off topic: took a break for great Spanish lessons from Livemocha. Really a great site.
14/3 – Another full innovation weekend!! Result: almost done with the theory part of the thesis (minus the part on how to connect to the outside world of OI). Finished a reasonable draft version (I hope) and will mail that to the U of G tonight. My mindmap is getting more complete and stable (sorry for the Dutch). Five interviews in the coming two weeks.
7/3- A full open innovation weekend! Started with changing my interview script (making sure I do get the right answers, I mean the right questions), updated my interview mind map. Then to the mind map of the thesis, I am stuck a bit on that. Positive: getting to the bottom of my real research question now: what are the conditions for successful open innovation? Review on thesis this Tuesday afternoon at the U of G. I must really this puzzle, this the weather has been really great and I am stuck inside in between books, a computer screen and loads of scientific papers…
1/3 interview fase has started. Hope to be able to do at least eight interviews with innovation execs. so far enough confirmations. the structure of my paper is not yet 100%, I am overlapping the fases of my research here. Great: on March 23 I will give a presentation on OI to the Geo Business community in the Netherlands.
12/13 feb. did work on my thesis, but forgot to update this page…
30-1 while the landscape is greatly covered with snow and sunrays, I stayed inside to dive into a few more articles. There must be a passion for puzzles involved.
Took some hours to go through some 10 maybe articles. Then made a summery from the articles I will use. On Sunday I went through these abstracts again and incorporated them into my draft paper. My mindmap is tooo big now, might new to insert an extra level. Need feedback from the U of G!. Updated my literature page.
23/01 read “the total economic impact of Innocentive Challenges”, “Why ‘Open Innovation’ is old wine in new bottles” and used both. Had a move a few papers to the ‘not this time’ binder.
21/01 read “The Market for Innovation” from RWTH, “Embracing Open Innovation, a BT whitepaper. Started on “modelling a paradigm shift: From Producer innovation to User and Collaborative Innovation” Baldwin/von Hippel, november 2009. Cleaned up the mindmap.
16/01. received Paul Trott’s article (thank you) and reading it today. Update the mindmap.
09/01 kinda forgot about this.. so a short update: I was at the U of Groningen thursday (qualitative research methods and language philosophy), friday thesis reporting time. I have redone my mindmap completely (available on request ). I do see an end to the theory part of OI, now I need to find closure on the research question. I will update the literature list tomorrow.
27/12 – Read four articles. Decided to make an image lib and a definition lib. Updated my references. Was pleased to find that 112 peer-reviewed articles can be found after the publication of the Vinnnova report. I intend to check whether they stem from different journals then the ones mentioned on page 4, which would indicate a diffusion of the subject.
26/12 – Made a page for literature; reading articles, summerising, shifting. working om my mindmap.
20/12 – Not much content yet, but I decided to add a section on the subject of Open Innovation. It will also be the subject of my thesis. See this as a shared journal.
What I did so far:
– found relevant books and scientific articles (see Linkedin for a list of the books).
– read through several of them.
– ordered my thoughts in an -ever changing- mindmap.
More to follow! Best picture so far is below. I prefer a “kindly crediting Chesbrough” over “stolen with pride”.
