Innovating in the Creative and Knowledge Industries: Not an Open or Closed Case

Abstract

The proliferation and circulation of digital information goods, or digital content in the age of the global Internet, is seen by many as fostering creativity and stimulating innovation in ways not possible in the industrial era. For the traditional distributors of content—the media and entertainment industry, book, journal and newspaper publishers—however, this potential for mass participation and the ability to find or receive information, to interact, to contribute, or to participate without need for the traditional mediators marks an end to business as usual. But, we argue this does not mark an end to business. Openness to collaboration and sharing, and access to all manner of digital content challenge deeply held beliefs about the nature of property and social relations of production. At the same time, they present an opportunity to innovate business processes and to create new services and models for the production, distribution, and consumption of knowledge and other creative artifacts. The authors will present a number of emerging business models and processes, drawing on examples from the creative and publishing industries in particular. Openness, we argue, is a broad strategic framework that fosters new possibilities for economic sustainability, cross-media development, public funding, and above all, innovation in this dynamic and growing sector of the global economy.