Google will soon allow citizens to develop new electronics that work together with mobile devices (phones and tablets) as easily as creating an app. In addition, there is the expected growth of easily obtainable (bio)sensors that can be placed in and around mobile phones. In the future, citizens will have increasingly powerful options to develop products and take measurements themselves with a low threshold.
LEGO blocks
If the Dutch top sectors want to be ready for the future, they need to start experimenting guatemala phone number list with the 'wisdom of crowds' on a serious scale. They could do this very well by starting projects and setting up an online platform where companies, scientists and citizens can collaborate on new innovations. Where new tools are developed with which citizens can contribute. Such as the serious games to sort photos at Galaxy Zoo, the social media to exchange health profiles from PatientsLikeMe and the sensors from Geluidsnet, with which they can measure themselves. In other words: a LEGO box with which the crowd can participate.
Such a platform would also create connections between sectors. The interfaces between disciplines and where new ideas are exchanged are the ideal breeding grounds for new innovations. Innovations that strengthen the business community and that our society urgently needs given the challenges in the field of health and sustainability. If the sectors wait any longer, they run the risk of being overtaken by foreign competitors or perhaps even by the crowd itself.