The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
Time to read
less than
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Published 22 years ago
Last updated 1 year ago
Read so far

Enabling Innovation

0 comments

Author

  • Boru Douthwaite
This report explores practical and philosophical issues concerning the nature of innovation. The report suggests that innovation emerges as different agents learn and select improvements in a process referred to by the author as "learning selection." Examples from agriculture, industry, economy and information technology show that it is not experts who generate knowledge and technology but self-organising networks.

The report proposes that innovation is based on diversity and "grasping opportunities and mobilising creativity among people willing to run with a brilliant idea even if it is still flawed and underdeveloped." The report includes areas such as rice harvesting, wind turbines, local exchange trading systems (LETS) and the LINUX open source computer operating system as ways to show that innovation applies beyond the immediate field of agricultural engineering.

Contents
  1. Introduction: Why innovation approaches matter
  2. The Palaeontology of Innovation: Lessons on Success and Failure from the paddy fields of Asia
  3. Seeing Inside the Black Box: Modelling early adoption (with Darwin's help)
  4. Blowing in the Wind: How 'bottom-up' beat 'top-down' for the billion dollar wind turbine industry
  5. Open and Closed: Linux versus Windows
  6. Uncreative Accounting: Local Exchange Trading Systems
  7. Food for Thought: Aftermath of the Green Revolution
  8. How to Catalyse Innovation: A practical guide to learning selection

Click here for access to a downloadable PDF of this report.