innovation

Download paper: Designing a national innovation system to allow the creative industries to add value

Acknowledging and celebrating new energy around critiques of Australia’s National Innovation System, this paper explores the design of an innovation system that would harness energy from the Creative Industries. The notion that the Creative Industries are an important element of Australia’s innovation system has not, it seems, been self-evident.

Founded by Prof Lawrence Lessig in 2001 and publishing its initial licences in December 2002, to counter “a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful or of creators of the past”, Creative Commons (CC – creativecommons.org) is now a global phenomenon. Creative Commons Australia (CCau – creativecommons.org.au) is one of forty-three countries involved in the initiative, with another nineteen potential member nations currently being developed.

Almost all creative ventures fail, but the successful ventures can be spectacular write Stuart Cunningham and Paul Ormerod.

Creativity as the prerequisite for innovation is a core competitive factor in contemporary organizations. When creativity happens this involves creative persons who produce creative products in a process of imagination. We introduce the concept of Pockets of Creativity for those sections of a business process where creativity occurs. These sections are characterised by a high demand for flexibility and knowledge of the involved creative persons. In Pockets of Creativity previous knowledge is retrieved, transformed and combined into new procedures or artefacts – in short – innovations.