The social networking site Linked In has launched a series of business applications which could be useful in fostering collaboration with the enterprise.

Linked In says the initial roll out "features productivity applications that range from gathering information that professionals around you are generating to enhancing your abilities to collaborate and communicate more effectively. You'll be able to work much more closely with your contacts on LinkedIn with tools such as file sharing, project management, business trips and many more." (Business trips? That was presumably before business trips became a victim of the credit crench!)

You can find the applications here

It seems like Company Buzz is the most likely to capture the imagination. Company Buzz shows you the twitter activity associated with your company. You can view tweets, trends, customise topics and share buzz with colleagues.

You can see a review of Company Buzz here on SocialTNT 

Linked In's own video announcing the business applications: 

I spotted an interesting story this week about collaboration and innovation: carmaker BMW is seeking collaborative support to create an open-source car computing platform.

BMW apparently wants to have an open source platform in one of its forthcoming vehicles and hopes it will be selling over 200,000 units over the next five to seven years.

Although at this stage the announcement is only about the planned collaborative creation of the open-source platform, the work will no doubt require the use of a string of collaborative technologies.

There's more detail on the story here

If this collaborative model can apply to a motor industry where previously fierce competition would have prevented any such collaboration, then it's reasonable to assume other industries may go the same way. In challenging economic times, with costs and efficiency at a premium, such collaboration may be a good idea. How many other organisations may be thinking the unthinkable? 

One collaborative area that is intriguing is the advent of collaborative innovation networks (COINS). Procter & Gamble is an organisation that has seen significant success by collaborating externally to drive innovation. P&G is the world's biggest maker of household goods, and it decided in 2001 to source half of all new innovations from outside of the company. Its programme, 'Connect + Develop', is an initiative that allows people to submit new innovations online. The venture has been a success, with 42 percent of all P&G's new technologies from outside sources, according to this CNN article.

I wonder if the COIN concept has evolved and been updated? Or whether other organisations like P&G are seeing similar innovation?

Depending on what you read, the current economic climate will either spur innovation, or the lack of available cash will hinder it. O'Reilly Radar and Techbudda have widely diverging views.

My inclination is towards the former. If there are great, innovative ideas, necessarily created on the back of effective collaboration, they will come to the fore. I'd agree that VC companies like Sequoia pulling their financial horns in isn't great news, but just because there's a downturn doesn't mean that no-one's thinking, innovating, spotting an opportunity, and then collaborating to achieve it.

I read last week about the Russian co-winner of a recently announced innovation prize. Anna Gossen, a student at Karlsruhe University, came up with a new system for energy consumption and distribution that will make power lines safer and more energy efficient. So inspired by the need to innovate was Gossen that she submitted 14 ideas for the contest.

There's an interesting BusinessWeek article about innovation and contests here which reminds me of the British government plan in 1714 to offer £20,000 to the person who could devise a method for determining a ship's longitude. (They did manage it - but the prize took 59 years to be awarded!) 

With collaboration and innovation in mind, I enjoyed these thoughts on aiding collaboration from Paul Williams'  Think for a Change blog.