Foraging, as we traditionally know it, is basically gathering food, for free! Historically, for our distant ancestors, foraging was a way of life, born from the necessity to survive. Today, it has become the height of culinary fashion, with top chefs taking to coastlines and forests to select unique ingredients to transform into haute cuisine.

But what is innovation foraging? Similarly to the hunter-gatherer process, innovation foraging is the tracking of smart, emerging ideas and technological innovations that already exist. This helps institutions bring various tech puzzle pieces together, find more innovative solutions to projects and discover new products.

Innovation foraging via social media: an emerging phenomenon

There’s no doubt social media has become a big part of our lives. A massive 4.5 billion people use the internet (60% of the world’s population) and of that, a whopping 3.8 billion use social media daily. Through social media we gather ideas, opinions, and research outcomes by interacting and sharing. This is in essence what is known as social foraging and collaborative information sharing, which is another source for innovation foraging.

LinkedIn and Twitter: the most successful social foraging platforms?

For professionals and businesses LinkedIn has become an indispensable forum for communication and a force of nature in sharing sound knowledge and promoting ideas. In this regard it has become a highly valuable foraging resource platform. In the same way, Twitter sparks interests between people and companies, urging them to explore other media sites on the hunt for evolving ideas.

Key sectors using innovation foraging

The top 3sectors who use and rely on innovation and technology foraging for expansion:

  • Department of Homeland Security – to identify, locate and evaluate existing or developing technologies, products, services and emerging trends
  • Department of Defense – their focus is primarily on warfighting and cybersecurity requirements
  • Academic sectors - universities and colleges invest in research and development and have effectively commercialized information security technologies

Innovation foraging has become a means for us to explore and search for fresh, innovative ideas in the public and private sectors. There are hidden gems to be found which bring new products and apps to the marketplace, especially across emerging tech and cybersecurity areas.

Read more on social foraging here.