Inspiration rarely happens in a vacuum it requires interaction with other non-like minded individuals.  Communcation with those in your line of work might trigger innovations but since they come from the same mindset the innovations can be limited.

Creating a Creative community to share views and thoughts on thier specialty can stimulate new concepts.  Face to face will work better than the online experience. There is simply no way to replace human interaction online. Text like this is limited to a stale  one-way representation of thoughts. Naunces can be misunderstood while a simple facial expression can communcate unspoken volumes.   Search for meetings with creative individuals on local basis. It may require an immersion into the online social networking to find local contacts. Perhaps an advertisement at yourlocal watering hole can yield results. It won’t set itself up. Get proactive and create your own creative community. Everyone will get an advantage from the inchange of thoughts and views.

By all means continue the online experince but realize that much of the unsaid implied concepts can be easliy missed.

Most of the time we keep up to speed within our chosen field. Reading information from other professions gives a broader viewpoint that can be exploited. Combinatorial ideas can then cross the boundaries between the two fields. It does not require you to become an expert in the other field. Brushing though the new area will enable you to pick up new viewpoints. Twisting the idea into your own area of expertise can yield a brand new usage.

The larger functional distance between the two related fields the more likely you are to see something of use. Understanding the other professions unique terminology is key.

Dabble around, read into new areas, expand your views and let the unexpected have a chance to surface.

Open innovation is described as the ability for innovative concepts to cross company boundaries to become effective. The 90′s norm was to have all of the research done by a company and then directly reap the rewards through product creation. When companies used that norm they discarded valid ideas created internally that did not match their long range focus. Result many of the ideas departed with the skilled employees that came up with them and sparked new companies.

The new norm is to license ideas not doable by the parent company and the new entrepreneurs take the go to market risk. This outsourcing of ideas should let ideas get to market faster and avoid the not invented here company bottleneck.

Taken from site.