North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
December 5, 2013
The Innovation Hub: Join the Conversation
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Adam Bennett, NATO ACT Public Affairs
Do you have an idea that could revolutionise the way NATO conducts business? Do you have a need that only NATO can fill? Or, are you an expert that wants to lend a helping hand toward transforming NATOs future capabilities? Then the Innovation Hub is the right tool for you.
The Innovation Hub is a community of experts collaborating on designing innovative solution to NATO issues. The experts come from NATO, Academia, Industry, think tanks, and non-governmental organisations – and will welcome anyone willing to address NATO challenges.
A member can initiate a discussion at any time through the Collaboration Platform found at http://innovationhub.sogeti.com/drupal/ which is used as the main online tool. This is where the community interacts through forums, open and private groups and brainstorming to collectively draft possible solutions for products on the Innovation Hub. During the process of designing solutions the community can interact through video conferencing, physical meetings, live streaming, chatting and tweeting.
There are many products currently under development from the Innovation Hub, such as the improvement of NATO use of Social Media, 11 Science & Technology objectives, and the further development of the Medical Assessment and Collaboration Tool.
To date, the Innovation Hub delivered the Human Environment Capability conceptual framework, the NATO Social Media user training concept, and has launched the Extended Hand Program.
The Extended Hand Program is a cross-cultural skills development tool that organises video conversations between NATO cadets and people from areas of interest such as; Iran, China and Afghanistan. Each conversation is coached by an expert facilitator who ensures that cadets maximise the interaction to develop cross-cultural skills. This program is about to deploy a vast network over Afghanistan to allow NATO personnel to keep contact with the Afghans in support of the ISAF transition. One node of this network is located in Norfolk (ACT Innovation Hub at Old Dominion University) where ODU ROTC cadets can be put in contact with students in Afghanistan on a daily basis.
The Innovation Hub has already proven be a useful tool for NATO and its partner countries. For more information or to sign-up please see the following links:
Registration on the online platform at http://InnovationHub-act.org
More information at http://www.act.nato.int/innovationhub
Follow at
http://www.facebook.com/Innovation.Hub.act
http://www.linkedin.com/company/innovation-hub
@Innov8Hub
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