| Name, City/Country: | George Dafermos, Greece |
| E-Mail: | georgedafermos lycos.co.uk ('@' removed -- spam-avoidance!) |
| Vita: | George N. Dafermos is a business graduate from the Hertfordshire Business School,UK and holds two master's degrees in Management and E-Commerce Applications from Durham Business School,UK and Sunderland University, UK (School of Computing, Engineering and Technology) where he specialised in Innovation & Technology Management and Online Communities respectively. In addition, he holds a degree in English from Cambridge University, UK. From next autumn, he will be contemplating doctorate assignments. George's academic interests are centred on novel organisational entities and how the linkages among strategy, structure and decision-making are managed in turbulent market environments that manifest network inter-dependencies and galvanised by technological uncertainty. Apart from academic research, he has undertaken full-time placements and consultancy work for several organizations, the most demanding being the two years he spent with the Scorpion International Services Group. His involvement was focused on restructuring the Fire Brigade Service in Greece, as well as designing and delivering a Cause Related/ Social marketing initiative which aimed at re-mapping Greek citizen's perceptions as to their impact on their surrounding natural habitat. At the moment, he is consulting the CEO of Websystem Network Applications in the formulation of a strategic framework for product development and marketing of an Internet–enabled learning environment, and has embarked on the 'Organis Project' together with Professor Carl Vilbrandt (Aizu University, Japan), an ambitious, nonetheless pragmatic, effort to create and support a sustainable business plan and virtual networked organisation based on the Greater Good Public License (www.ggpl.org). In all, George feels that interacting online with others who share the same interest is quite an exciting journey and is convinced that Libre Software communities hold lessons that extend well beyond the limited scope of software engineering. On these premises, he is exploring the viability of Libre Software development models in other industries and whether their implementation is likely to be fruitful and bring innovative forms of organisational designs into life. |
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| Presentation : |
Open Sourcing Innovation A roadmap to socially-responsible, sustainable economic and technological growth |
| Date/Time/Duration/Room: | Nov, 1st / 16:00 / 2 hrs. / Room MA005 |
| Abstract: | In a time where economic and social prosperity are dependent upon society’s capacity to deliver, commercialise and fairly distribute the fruits of innovation, the imbalance between the pace of technical change and institutional innovation poses an obstacle that ought to be overcome if we are not to feel endangered by a world dreadfully out of control, in which technology is increasingly pervading our lives. Furthermore, evidence of widespread financial engineering malpractices and mounting dissatisfaction with the free market capitalist system have spread as a media virus overwhelming global financial markets and asking for a major restructuring in corporate governance. As a result, in the face of a global, networked economy where commercial exploitation of scientific knowledge gives rise to products and services which have a far-reaching social and environmental impact, such as in the case of genetically modified food and ‘zero-emission’ cars; the need to enforce upon companies obligations to communities is undeniable. To ease these tensions, a dramatically different approach towards social and economic organisation has to be enforced. For that approach to flourish, technological progress should not be viewed as an end in itself but as a means to tackle real human needs and societal concerns. The most prominent example of such community – centred organisation of distributed intelligence takes shape in the sphere of Libre Software development, most cited 'success' of which is the Linux OS, the brainchild of Net-savvy software developers sharing the hacker ideology – a digital artifact emanating from the Internet – enabled collaborative endeavour of thousands of volunteers under no central planning. On these premises, Libre Software communities and development models hold lessons that extend well beyond the limited realm of software engineering, and replication of a robust framework might lead to invaluable advance regarding deploying network resources to enhance the efficiency of distributed development practices and trigger radical innovation whilst extending its reach to include human rights, community - accountability and environmental sustainability. |