News and Media

Published: Sep 1, 2009

SAVANNAH, Ga. - The Savannah College of Art and Design will host the first-ever conference on Collaborative Innovative Networks (COINs), Oct. 8-11, Arnold Hall, 1810 Bull St., Savannah, Ga., bringing together a multi-disciplinary, international group of practitioners, researchers and students of the emerging science of collaboration.

"We know that innovation doesn't happen without collaboration. Today, technology enables us to actually visualize collaborative innovation networks in real time," said Christine Miller, SCAD design management professor. "COINs 2009 will bring together cutting-edge research and real world examples that help us to better understand how collaborative innovation networks emerge, grow and change (COINS), knowledge that allows us world around us."

Faculty and students from SCAD's design management program, MIT, and Wayne State University are engaged in ongoing systems research and design. The program's goal is to accelerate the diffusion of innovation in complex global organizations. The research, partially supported by the National Science Foundation, has resulted in the design of prototype tools for global managers at Ford Motor Company and the Visteon Corporation. Other applications of the research can be used for addressing global challenges, such as diffusing innovations in medical research, product development, and corporate marketing and management.

COINs are cyber teams of self-motivated people who, enabled by technology and a collective vision to collaborate in innovating, share ideas, information and work. COINs are powered by swarm creativity, wherein people work together in a structure that enables a fluid creation and exchange of ideas.

"Coolhunting"-discovering, analyzing and measuring trends and trendsetters-puts COINs to productive use. Patterns of collaborative innovation frequently follow an identical path, from creator to COIN to collaborative learning network to collaborative interest network.