It’s an interesting question: Can open innovation help with this mess? Or maybe a better question to ask is, how could it hurt? BP doesn’t seem to have good answers to the problem, so maybe they should be asking some of our best and brightest designers, engineers, and innovators to take a crack at it.
 
Apparently lots of people have already been doing that. More than 100,000 ideas have been sent to BP from people outside the company and BP has indicated that it is reviewing some of them. But according to one of the biggest idea contributors, InnoCentive’s Dwayne Spradlin (whose work is featured in Glimmer), BP was not particularly receptive to the 900-plus ideas his group sent. As Spradlin explains here, when his well-regarded group offered up its help and its many ideas, he got back some lame excuses as to why BP was too busy to take time to listen.
 
BP may have lots more unsolicited ideas and suggestions coming its way soon if the X Prize group decides to offer a million-dollar prize for the best Gulf cleanup solution. The group is considering making this their next big public challenge (despite some news reports a week ago, this is not official yet).
 
Meanwhile, lots of designers are doing what they can to educate the public and apply pressure to BP and the government. Glimmerati member John Bielenberg (who has been featuring the chillingly powerful oil spill logo shown above, designed by Brian W. Jones, on all of his emails of late) reports that one of his Project M design groups has set up this site, which includes lots of good info and the below video that puts a dark twist on a “day at the beach” scenario.
 

Life's a Beach from Project M South on Vimeo.

Plus, read these interesting, somewhat related GlimmerSite posts:

1. Building a better New York, by design
2. Light-bulb moments from the GE Design Summit
3. A design conversation at the Aldrich