The document summarizes ongoing research and development in social media. It describes the INSCO project which examines collaboration practices and management of innovation-focused relationships. The project uses case studies, development projects, and benchmarking to study practices like crowdsourcing, collaboration with developer communities, and the use of demos and prototypes. The research is a joint effort between universities in Finland, South Africa, Japan, and Thailand and involves industrial partners from various sectors. The project runs from 2010 to 2012.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA - EXAMPLES OF ON-GOING RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

2. SMAT - LinkedIn - Group – Sosiaalinen Media Akateemisessa Tutkimuksessa - Social Media in Academic Research

4. INSCO - Innovation in Sourcing Competencies: Relationships enabling Succesful Innovation Research Project Plan for TEKES Concepts of Operations program June 2010

5. Research themes * Collaboration practices in early phases * Management of innovation focused relationships also with SMEs and microbusinesses

6. * Practices for indirect sourcing

7. * Use of demos, prototypes and pilots * Collaboration with developer communities, innovation networks and living labs * Possibilities of crowdsourcing

8. INSCO -project - some basic info Research Approach - Case studies, development projects and benchmarking of new practices International partners Meraka Institute, CSIR & RLabs South Africa; Tokyo Tech, Japan; Kaserat University, Thailand Industrial partners Teleste, Konecranes, NSN Schedule on-going - > 31.6.2012 Research team Aalto University prof Eero Eloranta +team Oulu University prof Harri Haapasalo +team international partners Contact Minna.Takala (at) aalto.fi, +358 – 50 911 5920

9. Minna Takala www.minnatakala.com - Twitter/@MinLii & @INSCOproject & @LinnaBikeShop SlideShare/MinLii, Delicious/MinLii, SecondLife/ MinLii Hanson