The Open Innovation Exchange consortium who were nominated for The New Statesman New Media Awards, have made it through to the finals taking place on 24th July at Westminster Abbey College Gardens.
This is fantastic news for the group, who developed and submitted an ‘open source’ bid (a first for a government tender) to the Office of the Third Sector to run the Innovation Exchange programme. The bid was shortlisted, but did not win the contract.
However, the ‘open’ approach applied to the bid has been widely recognised as a particularly innovative and refreshing method of engaging with partners and developing an application for funding. The group also got a mention in The Society Guardian as an example of ICT being used to ‘bond, share and aid collaboration’.
Originally nominated in the Modernising Government category, the Open Innovation Exchange is now up for a Contribution to Civic Society award. Other contenders in this category are "politics for adults" Internet TV station 18 Doughty Street; the really useful FixMyStreet site from MySociety; and No. 10 Downing Street Petitions also from MySociety.
Notes
1) The Open Innovation Exchange is still open for comments and discussion here: http://www.innovationexchange.net
2) Details of the New Statesman Awards are available here: http://www.newstatesman.com/nma/nma2007/nma2007about.php
3) The Society Guardian article about collaboration is available to read here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/vukf/reach/story/0,,2101069,00.html
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