Open Innovation? No, thank you!

Hi there, and welcome back to my humble blog! If you saw my first post you'll realize there's been a change in style. Not that dark anymore, we need a dose of optimism here! In this first entry I'll try to clarify some terms that many people misunderstand in these times of fast change. If not mapping reality in all cases, it will serve as a base for putting things in the right place. Let's start by defining Research . The word probably pops images of mad-scientist-like people wearing white coats and talking by themselves through the corridors. However the term's meaning is very simple: " the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions " (source: The New Oxford American Dictionary). Does Research require a lab? No. Does it require a scientist? Not either. Could you do it at home with the drugs below your wash basin? Yes, since the facts and new conclusions do not have to be unkn

Yes, your eyes aren't tricking you. "Open Innovation? No, thank you!" is the purposedly chosen name for this blog and its first entry. But I'm not as mad as the title might suggest. Please carry on reading and enjoy!. Open Innovation is a relatively recent term coined in the popular book by Henry Chessbrough ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_innovation ). It's a short and enjoyable book that can be read in a couple of days, and I recommend you to read it so you can get a better understanding of what we'll be discussing about in this blog. As for myself, I'm a technologist with 25 years of experience in SW and SW development, both amateur and industrial. I wrote my first Database Management system when I was 16. It was a BASIC program running on a pre-PC machine from Fujitsu that my Dad's brother got me. By then I also built my first LAN by interconnecting it with my good ol' ZX Spectrum through a serial cable I built myself. Yeah, things hav