I have been following the writings of Jeff Howe. Jeff Howe is a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, where he covers the media and entertainment industry, among other subjects.

What on earth has media and entertainment got to do with fish, I hear you scream?? Exactly!! Read on to see the compelling insight that helps explain why below.

In June of 2006 Jeff published “The Rise of Crowdsourcing” in Wired. He has continued to cover the phenomenon in his blog, crowdsourcing.com, and is currently writing a book on the subject.

In Chapter Six he quotes Caltech Professor Scott E Page and his Diversity Trumps Ability theorem. At its heart is the observation that people of high ability are a homogenous group. They are often trained in the same sorts of institutions, tend to possess similar perspectives and apply similar problem-solving techniques.

Page explains why groups often outperform experts. At the heart of this insight is diversity matters.

Understanding diversity is imperative to understanding collective intelligence, and collective intelligence is an essential ingredient in one of the primary categories of crowdsourcing—the attempt to harness many people’s knowledge in order to solve problems or predict future outcomes or help direct corporate strategy. …..

The emergence of the Internet has given new import to collective intelligence, for the simple reason that the Internet has done more than anything else in history to facilitate it.

Crowdsourcing is one way of thinking about what we are trying to achieve through the Finfish project. By connecting diverse types of people from around the world to focus on a particular problem - the global fish supply gap - we are anticipating a powerful collective creative effort with more capability than the best resourced scientific teams on the planet.

We welcome you and your insights as important contributors to that effort. To find out more about how you can participate view the information located here.

If you would like to read a little more from Jeff on crowdsourcing, you might care to visit his blog.

Please invite your friends to participate in this effort!

We have written elsewhere about the objectives of the finfish.org effort.

Clearly, however, if we are going to be successful in overcoming the fish production gap, then we will need to connect with companies, organisations and individuals globally and have them recognise the value of participating in this. Connecting means actually mobilising then realising valuable outcomes as a result of independent entities world-wide pursuing distributed, collaborative and cumulative aquaculture innovation.

What might motivate such independent entities to contribute their permission, their attention and actually commit resources to this effort?

Part of the answer to this lies in the fact that we are using the approach of open innovation to conduct this effort. The concept of open innovation is logical, presents compelling prospects and its core concepts are widely accepted. However, beyond the few often quoted stories of US mega companies such as Procter & Gamble and Eli Lilly there does not appear to be great deal of publicly available, practical information about successful practice.

Perhaps this might help explain some of the doubts anxieties and confusion over what to do and how to do it? One can imagine the array of fears that might arise would include the usual concerns where collaboration is concerned:

• who else is involved?
• who owns what intellectual property?
• how can we avoid losing control?

However, the benefits that companies, organisations and individuals can gain by participating in this project are absolutely compelling. They include:

• access to free market, industry and technology information and research
• knowledge of benchmarks for the measurement of what constitutes ‘world class’ performance now and in the future for aquaculture products and services
• the opportunity to create new aquaculture knowledge with other highly capable individuals and entities that you would not normally meet
• the ability to engage in dialogues with important organisations concerning market, industry and technology issues
• practical learning by doing mastery of open innovation skills and capabilities
• defining and participating in valuable projects
• acquiring practical experience in open innovation that allows the gap to be closed between potential and actual value
• the opportunity to participate in a best of breed process that will inform the conduct of industry and corporate innovation practice into the future

This suite of benefits should be compelling to those individuals and organisations intent on being part of the aquaculture market in the future.

What’s your take on this? We’d welcome your thoughts as well as your involvement.

We are building a world wide community of innovators to help overcome the massive shortfall in global fish supply. Assist visitors to your site to explore a world wide community of aquaculture innovators.

Like the Aquaculture Council of Western Australia and the European Aquaculture Society you can help us to get the word out about the Finfish Aquaculture Innovation initiative. Include a finfish button and text on your website…..

Please use these buttons:

You may also care to use some of this text to help explain the finfish initiative:

The finfish.org web site provides a communication platform for a significant global effort in aquaculture innovation. The focus of this effort is to produce industrial quantities of premium quality table fish for the world’s most competitive markets. One of the key steps in the process will be the development of a Finfish Innovation Roadmap.

The Roadmap will define productivity-transforming innovations. Through the Roadmap, appropriate entrepreneurial, corporate and innovation capabilities will be assembled to enable the innovations to be developed and applied in the marketplace.

The need has emerged due to a fish supply gap. The FAO project that the gap will be 37 million tonnes per annum by 2030.

The finfish project is seeking participants. Please visit http://finfish.org to find out more about the project and how to participate.

It is perfectly logical for anyone considering the value of participating in the finfish aquaculture innovation project to ask the question “what do the organisers contribute?” It is also legitimate to seek a clear understanding of the degree of rigour and credibility the individuals behind the project will bring to the exercise.

The contribution to the project by the organisers consists mainly of four different types of commitment:

• focus
• information
• conectivity
• project resources

Focus

As organisers, the project initiators have set the focus of the project. Focus is important because if it is too broad then it will be difficult to get traction with practical business development objectives to produce real outcomes. If it is too narrow then the ambitious goals set for the project are not likely to be achieved.

The focus for the project is defined from several perspectives. Each of the perspectives must be considered together for the integrity of the project to be maintained.

First, this project is about aquaculture, but not just any aquaculture. The project relates specifically to finfish aquaculture. But again, it is more specific than this since the project is about the sustainable production of high quality table fish for the world’s most discerning markets. If your interests relate to the culture of species other than finfish (for example: moluscs, crustaceans, plant species) then this project is unlikely to fit precisely with your interests. Alternatively if your interests are mainly related to the production of fish as a component of feed products or low value fish for human consumption then you may not find that your needs are at the core of the conversations that take place on this site. Similarly, if your interest is to produce masses of fish while disregarding ecological or societal costs then your needs are unlikely to be fully met.

Second, this project is about producing industrial quantities of fin fish. By industrial quantities we mean amounts of fish relevant to achieving the goal of at least filling the global fish production gap of 37 million tonnes per annum by the year 2030. The focus of this project will therefore be about creating the multiple capabilities across the entire aquaculture value system required to deliver against this objective. If your interests are in tune with creating this type of capability then you will occupy the core opportunity space covered by this project. If, however, your interests are more closely aligned with smaller scale endeavours then you may find that your needs are outside the interests of the majority of participants in this project.

Third, the heart of this project is about significant innovation. To achieve its objectives this project must lead to or catalyse the development of several truely productivity-transforming innovations across the activities that make up the aquaculture value chain. While we fully expect that a number of incremental innovations with be identified through this project, we will be entirely dissatisfied with its outcomes unless there are several innovations that transforms the ability of the aquaculture industry to meet the projected fish supply gap.

Fourth, the project is about delivering high quality table fish to the world’s most discerning markets. This is a world scale problem that will require insights and contributions from around the globe in order to assemble the innovation components into a cohesive world class solution. Therefore, the participants of the project will assemble from various global locations. This web connect platform has the ability to scale to support thousands or indeed tens of thousands of users in their participation in this project.

We do not want to dissuade anyone who believes that they may have insights to gain or contribute from participating but we are absolutely committed to maintaining the focus that we have set for this project.

Information

The second type of contribution is information. The information provided will be that which is most influential in promoting the ability to define significant and productivity transforming innovations for sustainable industrial scale finfish aquaculture. To assist people to organise their thought processes in a coherent fashion we will offer some logic frameworks. The initial frameworks will include a finfish aquaculture value system and a manufacturing paradigm for aquaculture. The organisers will also contribute a study of larger scale aquaculture producers that helps identify the Key Success Factors that have enabled these businesses to grow their production to the present scale. We will also assemble information on innovation priorities in the form of a Finfish Aquaculture Technology Roadmap. The Roadmap will draw on insights from the broad community of participants to identify the most influential changes impacting on the industry, the positioning of major players in the market, the emergence of important new technologies and capabilities that could influence aquaculture as well as capability gaps and performance metrics that need to be met. We expect that the innovation roadmap will assist participants to identify where the productivity transforming innovations are most likely to be derived.

Connectivity

The organisers will play a catalytic role in encouraging people and organisations to participate. This will be achieved by providing a leading edge communication platform that supports the quality of communication and collaboration to enable planning and action on innovation projects. The organisers will also propose a set of guidelines that will act as rules to foster appropriate collaborative innovation practices and outcomes. This will be the subject of a future posting.

This web connect platform has the ability to support a variety of forms of digital communication. We are confident that these forms will support the introduction of people and organisations to one another, encourage rich conversations and the exchange of views and provide support for the creation and performance of cross disciplinary teams.

We are not yet willing to claim that the rich communication experience of direct person to person interaction that facilitates the exchange of tacit knowledge in an innovation project work context will be achieved solely through the communication avenues provided by this site. What we are will ing to posit however, is that as the scale of opportunity is made clear people will find a way to get together one on one or in teams so that innovation rich communication and work can take place.

Project Resources

The organisers are contributing significant resources in cash and in kind to make this project happen. It is anticipated that there is likely to be a number of projects defined as a result of the finfish aquaculture innovation roadmap and that resources will need to be assembled in order to allow these proceed.

The leadership shown by the organisers in developing this project and throwing it open to the aquaculture industry and other innovators world wide demonstrates their commitment to the open innovation model and their conviction that collaborative innovation is required in order to create the quality of innovation to meet the fish production gap.

The old truism “you will get out of it what you put into it” is likely to operate with this project. Accordingly we issue an open invitation to people and organisations to get involved!

The opportunity to be involved is open to anyone, globally. The whole world owns the fish production gap and therefore the whole world must be responsible for contributing to the solution.

To get involved you can consider taking any one or all of the following steps:

• read the content on this site
• contribute your responses to specific postings
• tell us about yourself and your finfish innovation interests
• register to be advised of new content immediately it is posted
• request access to contribute content
• draw in your network of colleagues and associates to participate
• contribute your insights to the innovation roadmapping effort
• help get the word out: include a finfish button on your website

Each of these points is discussed in more detail below:

Read the content on this site

The content on this site is either on ‘pages’ or ‘posts’. You can access the pages and posts by clicking on the links in the sidebar on the right hand side under the headings ‘Pages’, ‘Recent Posts’ or ‘Categories’. Categories can be thought of as performing the same function as a Table of Contents. If you would like to understand a little more about pages and posts then please follow this link.

Contribute your comments on specific postings

At the base of each post you will note that there is an invitation to respond. Some of the postings are written to be controversial. Others are prepared and request specific input. Whatever the case we certainly want to encourage you to comment, build on what is said or to put forward a clarifying point. We be happy for you to disagree outright and to offer your own take on the issue.

To see an example of a response you can click through to this post on Innovative Aquaculture Technologies and scroll down towards the base. You will see a response to the original posting from Ian McRobert.

Ian simply typed his response into the box at the base of the post under ‘Leave a Reply’ and clicked on the button just below the box ‘Submit Comment’. You can do precisely the same thing when you visit any of the posts on this site. Just as Ian has done you can also include links in your response.

Tell us about yourself and your finfish innovation interests

If you are looking to communicate through the site without responding to a particular post - say to notify your interest in participating in the finfish project - then you can look under the Pages heading in the sidebar for the ‘Contact’ link. Simply click on this and send us your thoughts by clicking on the ‘Send Message’ button.

Register to be advised of new content immediately it is posted

There are several possible approaches that you can use to instruct the finfish.org site to send you information on each occasion that the site is updated. You can request either blog updates or newsletter updates.

When requesting blog updates, two approaches are possible. You can either arrange for emails to be sent to you, notifying you of the new content or use a news reader. News readers use RSS feeds. If this is a new concept and you would like to understand more then click here to view a very short but very effective video clip. If you are keen to enhance your productivity in using the web, then we heartily recommend that you try using news readers to manage RSS feeds from your favourite sites.

Request access to contribute

We are very happy to offer people the opportunity to use this site to communicate about finfish aquaculture innovation. For those amongst you who would like to write posts and build your own finfish aquaculture identity, this functionality is available through the finfish.org site. In fact, for this site to continue to develop and thrive as an independent community we absolutely want people to develop their own identities in finfish aquaculture innovation.

If you would like to set your own editorial directions, show innovation leadership to help build this community then please click the ‘register’ link in the sidebar or alternatively click on this link.

Draw in your network of colleagues and associates to participate

We positively, absolutely, definitely want you to encourage your friends and contacts to use and interact with this site. Please email them the address and discuss the site’s content with them.

Contribute your insights to the innovation roadmapping effort

We are also about to initiate one of the major themes of this project - the Finfish Innovation Roadmapping effort. In this part of the project we will be engaging with people and organisations around the world who are interested in advancing the practice of finfish aquaculture. We will be publishing papers and information about aquaculture and will be seeking your opinions and feedback. We intend to use something like the aquaculture value system described here (please comment on its suitability) to organise our information and to help people collaborate with others that have related interests.

Finfish Buttons

You can help us to let more people know about the finfish project by including our button and invitation on your home page. Become a finfish project supporter by accessing our suggested text and buttons here.

We welcome you to the finfish community and look forward to working with you to create significant innovation.

Finfish Aquaculture Value Chain

This document proposes a ‘straw man’ finfish aquaculture value system. Its purpose is to act as the focus for discussion and refinement.

The value chain highlights each major component of the finfish aquaculture industry. The components determine how value is created by the industry. By identifying each of these value system components and understanding their role, we can be sure that we have a structured framework for identifying which innovation investments are most likely to create the best Return on Innovation Investment (ROII).

Framework Structure

Figure 1: Finfish Aquaculture Value System



Each of the value system components to the diagram are described in more detail below. As identified in Figure 1, The Value System is an end to end representation of the Finfish Aquaculture Industry from egg to consumption by end users and includes ten components:

• Siting
• Licensing, regulation and compliance
• Raising juvenile fish (genetics, spawning, fingerlings)
• Aquaculture growth environment including systems, monitoring control and remediation
• Inputs required to grow fish (clean water, feed, air/oxygen, probiotics, supplements, treatments/drugs)
• Logistics (harvest, process, package, labeling, storage, transport, tracking)
• Value added food products
• Market
• End users
• Addressing environmental and social challenges associated with the industry
• Maximising the aesthetics of the product

The intent of the Value System is to provide a comprehensive structured approach to thinking about each of the value chain elements that should be addressed by a world class finfish aquaculture enterprise. Each of these Framework Elements will be considered during the Innovation Roadmapping Process to identify the ones that are likely to make the greatest contribution to the ability to produce elite quality finfish at industrial scale.

Value Systems and Networks

The value chain, is a concept from business management that was first described and popularised by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller, Competitive Advantage.
A value chain is a chain of activities. Products pass all activities of the chain in order and at each activity the product gains some value.

The concept has been extended beyond individual organisations. It can apply to whole supply chains and distribution networks. The delivery of a mix of products and services to the end customer will mobilise different economic factors, each managing its own value chain. The industry wide synchronised interactions of those local value chains create an extended value chain, sometimes global in extent, called a value system. A value system includes the value chains of a firm’s supplier (and their suppliers etc), the firm itself, the firm distribution channels, and the firm’s buyers.

The importance of this concept for the Finfish project is that by understanding the value chain that is relevant to the production and marketing of industrial quantities of elite quality table fish in the future will allow us to gain a feel for the types of innovation that is likely to create a sustainable competitive advantage for our future finfish companies.

The concept of a Value Network is also useful to our work. Value networks are complex sets of social and technical resources. They work together via relationships to create economic value. This value takes the form of knowledge. Value networks exhibit interdependence. They account for the overall worth of products and services. Companies have both internal and external value networks. External facing networks include customers or recipients, intermediaries, stakeholders, complementors, open innovation networks and suppliers. Internal value networks focus on key activities, processes and relationships that cut across internal boundaries, such as order fulfillment, innovation, lead processing, or customer support. Value is created through exchange and the relationships between roles. Value network operate in public agencies, civil society, in the enterprise, institutional settings, and all forms of organization. Value networks advance innovation, wealth, social good and environmental well-being.

Value System/Network Components

Siting (biological, weather, physical conditions)
additional information will be added here
Licensing, regulation and compliance
additional information will be added here
Raising juvenile fish (genetics, spawning, fingerlings)
additional information will be added here
Aquaculture growth environment including systems, monitoring control and remediation
additional information will be added here
Inputs required to grow fish (clean water, feed, air/oxygen, probiotics, supplements, treatments/drugs)
additional information will be added here
Logistics (harvest, process, package, labeling, storage, transport, tracking)
additional information will be added here
Value added food products
additional information will be added here
Market
additional information will be added here
End users
additional information will be added here
Addressing environmental and social challenges associated with the industry
additional information will be added here
Maximising the aesthetics of the product
additional information will be added here

Addressing environmental and social challenges
Establish priorities for solution-oriented research and technological innovation that support economically viable aquaculture within an environmentally sustainable framework. This growing aquaculture industry is associated with a number of environmental and social challenges, including:

• Aquaculture at inappropriate sites can lead to habitat conversion and on-going operational impacts
• Aquaculture potentially has several adverse effects on wild species, including disease transmission, escape, and capture for brood stock or rearing among others
• Production of nutrient-loaded effluent can lead to eutrophication of nearby waters
• Prophylactic use of chemicals, including antibiotics can harm wildlife and the environment, and may lead to antibiotic resistance
• Massive water use can result in water shortages as well as salt water intrusion and other hydrological changes or waste disposal issues
• Reliance on high protein, fishmeal-based feed for carnivorous species often requires many kilos of wild fish to produce one kilo of edible aquaculture product
• The conflict over the use and conversion of natural resources as well as access to remaining resources and the privatization of public commons has resulted in physical conflict and even murder in some countries
• Inflation in the cost of key local goods (e.g. food, labor, land or other inputs) disproportionately affects those not associated with the industry, particularly the poor
• The decline in fisheries in some areas is due to direct environmental impacts of aquaculture or its indirect impacts on the market price of local catch.

Maximising the Aesthetics

• Nutrition
• Health
• Taste
• Aroma
• Texture/Mouth feel
• Appearance
• Colour
• others

By 2030 an additional 37 million tonnes of fish per year will be needed to maintain current levels of fish consumption for an expanded world population. Because traditional capture fisheries have reached their maximum production levels, fish farming represents the only way to fill the gap. But it will only do so if it is promoted and managed in a responsible fashion.

According to the FAO, for a quarter century, fish farming has been the world’s fastest growing food production sector, sustaining an annual growth rate of 8.8% since 1970. By way of comparison, livestock production, also considered a growth sector, increased at a rate of just 2.8% a year during the same period.

Today, some 45% of all fish consumed by humans — 48 millions tonnes in all — is raised on farms.

By 2030, the addition of 2 billion more people to the world population will mean that aquaculture will need to produce nearly double that, 85 million tonnes of fish per year, just to maintain current per capita consumption levels.

Citing these trends, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told a Rome meeting that further development of the aquaculture sector should be a priority for the international development agenda.

The full news item is available here.

The quality of a business opportunity is linked to a small number of factors. Amongst the most important of these is the size of the market opportunity.

Recently, the European Union Fisheries Commissioner, Joe Borg mapped out the future for aquaculture in the EU. In his address he quoted FAO data:

“With wild fish capture facing a number of severe constraints, aquaculture appears to be the only viable option to meet this growing demand. According to the FAO, global aquaculture production will have to double by 2030 to keep pace with the demand. This represents, in absolute terms, an increase of almost 40 million tons.”

Given this massive increase in demand there is a major opportunity for business to create the supply.

Mr Borg also noted that the EU itself represents a major export destination with current net imports of almost three million tons of seafood and, according to Eurostat forecasts, this figure is set to increase to 12 million tons by 2025.

Mr Borg went on to observe:

“There is also a widely-shared view that the EU aquaculture sector should develop by combining high volume products with niche production to satisfy more specific and high quality market demands.”

“We concur with this view. It is market and local prevailing conditions that will determine which type of production can withstand competition from imported products and can meet the needs of consumers and/or processors. Public authorities can help by providing an effective, fair and transparent legislative framework or guidelines for product differentiation, based on initiatives such as quality assurance schemes, regional branding, sustainability labelling or organic labelling. This can provide the added value that the sector needs. It can also help meet the challenge of competition coming from emerging economies with lower costs and standards.”

A full transcript of the Borg address is available here.

Welcome to finfish.org a new web resource for people who want to find out more about and participate in creating and developing an aquaculture growth business. This blog is important for you if you own, are developing or are assisting aquaculture businesses to develop.

There are many types of aquaculture businesses. This site will focus on activities related to building a fin fish business. It will cover finding major aquaculture opportunities and how to go about assembling the knowledge and resources necessary to build and grow a business capable of competing in global markets. Consequently, we will be engaging with all the issues involved in developing aquaculture undertakings at industrial scale while also being concerned about progressing only those solutions that are sustainable.

Due to the nature of the topics we cover, we anticipate that the community of users that grows around this site will include people in aquaculture business, people who transport and process aquaculture product, marketers of fish and food products as well as purveyors and consumers of fine food. Researchers and officers of government departments may also derive valuable insights from this site.

What’s In It For You?

• a competitive advantage is essential for building and sustaining business success in global markets. We will share insights on how to use innovation to purposefully craft a sustainable competitive advantage.
• understand what innovation techniques to apply and how to apply them
• understand what an innovation roadmap is and how this will help support decisions about the future of aquaculture
• learn from others who will share their insights through the posts and comments on this site

Please do take the opportunity to make comments and offer your opinion or draw our attention to key issues and resources. I look forward to working with this aquaculture community and assisting communication amongst its many and varied members. Welcome!