1. Collaborative Innovation Networks for the
commercialization of Future Media Technologies
Constantin Thiopoulos
What is Future Media?
Recent developments of enabling technologies trigger a shift in consumer behavior and
impose a dramatic change in the media landscape. In fact the very notion of medium, as a
channel for the transmission of content to a mass audience, is currently under
transformation.
The key characteristics of this paradigm shift are:
1. Content Fragmentation, meaning that the content is repackaged and reused for
different applications. Thereby, although 80% is inspected through a few websites,
there is a long tail phenomenon for the rest 20%. In terms of the attention economy a
decreasing number of visitors leads to an even bigger decrease in advertising
monetization, but because of the fragmentation there is a need to cope with the
increasingly important long tail.
2. Audience Autonomy, meaning that the control in media consumption is moving
towards the end consumer, since it is more and more possible to choose not only the
content but also the time of consumption, something that is supported both through
the migration to the web but also with the increased use of mobile end devices.
3. Prosuming, meaning that the consumer becomes also a content producer. In fact
this is the core format in social media, social networks capitalize on content
generated content. However there is also a need to come up with alternative
monetization models, since too much advertising will have a negative impact on the
prosumers.
4. Social embeddness, meaning that – due to the increasing interlinking of content
consumption to the social capital in networks – the message is no more a one-to-
many transmission but many-to-many information flows, generating buzz.
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2. Additionally there are some technological features that change the overall user experience,
being not only attention capture drivers but introducing also a more intuitive and immersive
use of technology, such as mixed modes including language, video, Augmented Reality,
gesture and motion tracking.
Another important aspect is the increased visual character of communication, the content is
directly captured and presented without a necessary textual annotation or description. Visual
communication is more immediate, the transmission of images delivers much more
information than any textual description, however exhaustive it might be. This information is
also absorbed by the viewer more directly, without the need of a mental reconstruction.
The term Future Media is used to describe applications that enable this new communication
paradigm. So from a communication theory point of view Future Media consists of
applications that create information flows in communication networks. These flows create
events, as the result of out of the network activity emerging attention drivers. The medium is
the message becomes the network
is the event.
Future Media Applications have also a considerable impact on the media value chain. The
combination of apps stores, the continuous improvement of telecommunications and web
infrastructure and the introduction of low cost specialized h/w leads to low entry barriers and
continuously increases the role of technology enablers in the value chain.
Moreover such Future Media applications can be used for innovation diffusion of new
applications, i.e. the same medium serves at the same time as technology platform for a new
application but also as a diffusion medium.
Innovation Management for Technology Commercialisation
The technology commercialisation process has the following phases:
1. Opportunity identification: this is basically the matching between a technology
developed and a perceived market need.
2. Opportunity exploitation: here the initially perceived opportunity will have to be
positioned on a value chain and against direct, indirect or potential competition.
3. Mobilisation of resources: the launching of the identified application requires the
availability of human, technological, methodological, commercial, financial and social
resources.
4. Legitimation: the goal is to secure the adoption of the application, establishing the
support of market players, using change agents and applying network diffusion.
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3. Applying efficient and on-going innovation management mechanisms secures maximum
output from emerging technologies within an organization. The continuous proactive
scanning for opportunities and the embedding of the commercialization process in a
methodological framework enables the arising of learning and re-innovation, leading thus to a
gradual improvement of intra-organisational innovation management.
Optimisation of opportunity identification requires an external and an internal scan. The
external scan monitors market developments and identifies market needs, while the internal
evaluates the potential of ongoing R&D work. If there is a significant match between
technological features and market needs, there is a decision to commit resources for the
further exploitation of the identified opportunity.
Exploitation defines monetization and positioning and calculates required resources and
expected financial value. The development of an adequate business model requires
cooperation with experts from the target market and leads a business plan, that defines the
market entry strategy in qualitative and quantitative terms.
Mobilisation requires a network of associated experts, entrepreneurs, executives and
financial or strategic investors combined with a targeted dissemination of the business
opportunity. The overall success of a market entry depends on the mobilization of a critical
mass of resources.
Thereby it is important to clarify and present the attributes of the innovation that determine
the rate of adoption:
 relative advantage,
 compatibility,
 ease of use,
 trialability
 observability.
Legitimation requires the establishment of cooperation with change agents that will introduce
market acceptance. Their capability is based either on an authority position, being major
market players, or on their expert position as intermediaries to such companies or as having
an influent position in a certain market. In Future Media there is an increasing role of social
media in the diffusion process, meaning that buzz generation from influencers functions as
attention driver.
Although these phases are separate there is a strong interference between them. A
convincing exploitation and a first legitimation will lead to a more effective recourse
mobilization. A good team with a strong business case and identified interest of established
market players is attractive to investors. On the other hand, expression of interest by
investors leads to increased mobilization of human and other resources.
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4. Collaborative Innovation Networks
A collaborative innovation network (COIN) is a social network outside organizational
boundaries and across conventional hierarchies. Networked teams assemble around a
common goal and create swarm creativity.
The embedding of innovation management processes in a COIN produces maximum output
with minimum costs:
 During opportunity identification the radar of the external scan can amplified to
include the market insights of all network members.
 Opportunity exploitation can profit from synergies and accumulated experience.
 Mobilisation of resources not only benefits from the extended network, but also in
generating awareness for future applications.
 Legitimation, finally, is more easily achieved, since information diffusion on new
applications starts within the network but is multiplied by the social capital of the
networked team.
If, for example, an early stage investor is aware not only of the business case and the
management team, as it is the case in presentations, but also of the other resources that
have a declared interest in the specific business case, it will increase his motivation. On the
other hand, if an investor declares his interest in the project but demands an increased
acquisition of resources, this interest serves as a mobilization driver for further resources.
The embedding, therefore, of a business case in a COIN uncovers the “social capital” of the
business case, i.e. the network of interested actors and their connections. Moreover, the
accumulation of interested actors serves as a multiplier in resource mobilization, i.e.
expression of interest of a resource triggers the expression of interest of further resources.
The overall process leads to increased support of “winning” business cases and the abandon
of not promising ones at an early stage, leading thus to the most effective use of resources
by “self-organisation”. The winning cases will be able to accumulate the critical mass of
resources required to enter the market. Some abandoned ones could also become attractors
of resources at a later stage, due to market changes or revised exploitation strategy.
In order for COINs to be sustainable and operate effectively they need to be based on
internal trust and transparency. It is for this reason that COINs can only be small world
networks, i.e. networks in which every member can reach any other member over a small
number of connections.
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5. COINS for Future Media
The specific characteristics of Future Media applications enable to tune COINs in a way that
they are optimized for the commercialization of related applications.
This includes:
1. The selection of executives from the media industry, media consultants, early stage
investors with a focus on media, R&D experts in new media, etc.
2. Focusing on the identification and monitoring of specific market needs arising from
the value chain transformation
3. Targeting new business models that enable monetization beyond ads
4. The set up of innovation diffusion mechanisms that take advantage of social media
5. The creation of synergies between applications (apps within apps), that promote a
mutual market penetration
6. The use of visualization of new applications through video and AR apps
7. The leverage of financing through syndication
References
Manuel Castells: Communication Power. Oxfrod University Press, 2009.
Thomas H. Davenport, John C. Beck: The Attention Economy. Harvard Business School
Press, 2001.
Tom Elfring, Willem Hulsink: Networks in Entrepreneurship: The Case of High-technology
Firms. In Small Business Economics 21: 409–422, Kluwer Academic Publishers 2003.
Peter A. Gloor: Swarm Creativity. Oxford University Press 2006.
Peter Monge, Noshir Contractor: Theories of Communication Networks.
Philip M. Napoli: Audience Evolution. Columbia University Press 2011.
Everett M. Rogers: Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press 2003
Joe Tidd, John Bessant, Keith Pavitt: Managing Innovation. John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
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