Open Web Laboratory for Innovation and Design

The rise of so-called social media shows that when people are provided with simple tools and easy access to online content, they find new ways to utilize the Internet. The VTT Open Web Lab (Owela) is studying how social media tools can also be utilized in innovation and product design processes. Owela serves as a virtual working environment, in which VTT is studying social media as a phenomenon of digital culture, and is testing and developing new social software for computer-mediated communication. In Owela we can improve our understanding of future user needs as well as gathering feedback from a wider audience. Furthermore, Owela is used to study how new social media tools can be utilized to enrich interactive Web-based research methods.