Introducing the Innovation Initiative

Categories: Community, Association, TYPO3 CMS Created by Mathias Bolt Lesniak
Photo: Mika Baumeister / Unsplash.com
With its vibrant professional community, a wide range of innovative ideas are produced by the TYPO3 community every year. The Innovation Initiative will streamline and manage the process of bringing ideas to life.

TYPO3 should always welcome innovative ideas, both from inside the community and from new contributors who can give a fresh perspective.

“Thinking outside the box will help TYPO3 grow as a community product,” says Volker Graubaum, chief product officer (CPO) at the TYPO3 Company. That’s why he brought his idea of an Innovation Initiative to the TYPO3 Association Board, and they loved the idea.

Bringing Ideas Together and to Life

Volker has a clear goal for the initiative: “It is a platform that will help TYPO3 develop and grow as a fully community-driven product.”

Open source communities can be very creative, but without management and coordination, many ideas don’t come to life the way they deserve. At the same time, ideas from outside the project might not find a way in.

Four times a year the Innovation Initiative hosts moderated calls where ideas can be presented and discussed. Three ideas will be presented in each call, and each idea must be pitched to the Innovation Initiative team in advance.

Innovation Management

The presented ideas will be brought into an innovation management process. The implementation of the idea must be done by a dedicated product or project team, but the Innovation Initiative will help streamline the innovation process, change management, and rollout of the innovation in the community. Simple high-level assistance with no micro-management, red tape, or detailed discussions that could suppress innovation.

Picking up new perspectives and grounding them in the community can’t be done with a top-down approach. That’s why the members of the Innovation Initiative team should represent a broad cross-section of the TYPO3 community. Not only people from the TYPO3 Association and Company, but representatives from teams as well.

A Platform for Perspectives

Changing the point of view helps us stay open to new ideas and enables us to see ground-breaking changes before they happen.

We can always learn from others. This is a place for people and ideas from outside the community too! The innovation calls will be a place where everyone is welcome. It is a neutral ground where thinking differently is encouraged. Ideas are judged by their innovativeness and value to the project, and not by their adherence to existing approaches.

The Innovation Initiative is there to motivate and enable. “A managed platform for collecting ideas makes contribution so much more attractive,” says Volker Graubaum.

Join the First Call

Learn more about the Innovation Initiative in our first online call 10 June 2021, 4pm CEST.

 Register for the call

Would you like to present your idea?

Contact the Innovation Initiative

Additional contributors for this article
  • Reviewer : multanifx