Original source: United States Government Accountability Office
The term “open innovation” was first widely used around 2003 to describe efforts by companies to solicit external ideas, product designs, and solutions. Since then, it has been used extensively in academia and the private sector. In addition, the Executive Branch has used this term since at least 2011 to characterize efforts to access the skills and contributions of citizens and other external stakeholders.
In recent years, the Executive Branch and Congress have taken actions aimed at encouraging and enhancing federal agency use of open innovation. For example, the Presidential Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government and the Office of Management and Budget’s(OMB) Open Government Directive directed agencies to describe how they would use new feedback mechanisms, technology platforms, and other innovative methods to obtain ideas from, and increase collaboration with, those outside the federal government.
As part of the federal performance management framework originally put into place by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), and updated and expanded by the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA), agencies are to identify the various strategies and resources they will use to achieve their goals. GPRAMA also includes a provision for the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) to periodically review how implementation of its requirements is affecting agency performance. This report is part of GAO response to that mandate. This report identify and illustrate through selected agency examples, practices that promote the effective implementation of open innovation strategies and the effects, if any, the use of those strategies had on agency performance and opportunities for citizen engagement.
Read the GAO Report “Open innovation. Practices to Engage Citizens and Effectively Implement Federal Initiatives“