Guest blogger Ilkka Kakko is the managing director of Karostech, a Finnish firm that designs and implements worldwide a new concept of collaborative innovation environment.

Experts and entrepreneurs from around the world discuss what governments can do to promote high-tech entrepreneurship and what the shape of technology entrepreneurship will be in the future.

Being a pioneer deep in my heart and entrepreneur in my soul, I love to discover emerging signals and follow them to see their potential to make a large-scale impact in the business world and society. Currently, I am excited about future changes in the global innovation landscape.

The near future of innovation environments and supportive organizations is suggested by the increasing power of individuals and collaborative networked organisations (CNOs) to enhance creativity and support action to innovate. [CNOs are digital networks used to search for information and to share knowledge between peers to solve problems and create services and products.] The complexity of traditional organizational structures and increased market requirements for flexibility call for better usage of resources and connectivity to global competence pools.

This will set a new stage for regional and national business development organizations in general, and science and technology parks in particular. Instead of focusing on local resources and established groups, these organizations should really test those resources and groups’ attractiveness in the global arena. The key players in a new innovation landscape are truly nomadic and well inter-connected: they work and live in a world powered and inspired by CNOs. More and more vital innovation activities happen outside science parks as their traditional model is not fulfilling the needs of “freelance” entrepreneurs.

So a new approach is needed. It calls for a third generation of science parks. Main elements of the new approach include a network oasis, [a collaborative environment designed to inspire spontaneous and guided interactions of individuals and groups] a hybrid of different elements such as social media and professional virtual communities. In a network oasis, the digital platforms, which enable community building, are embedded in the physical environment in a similar way as GLOW screens in the Global Oasis Network site in Joensuu Science Park in Finland. [GLOW is a blend of real and virtual worlds designed to expand possibilities for communication, knowledge storage and exchange of ideas.] Such an environment encourages diversity at all levels and surely respects serendipity. In fact a new management paradigm – serendipity management [facilitation of talent aimed at finding unexpected, emergent and tacit competencies] – is emerging.

To be competitive nowadays, a science park has to attract nomadic talent and at the same time be able to create sustainable professional communities and “sticky knowledge” [locally produced knowledge that circulates and diffuses easily within its community, but is not easily transferrable outside.]