Last winter I upped sticks and moved to a disused malting factory in Berlin to take part in Palomar 5. A global melting pot of 30 young, ambitious, creative, and slightly mad innovators hell bent on investigating new ways of working and innovating.  Admittedly a vague and idealistic concept, but with the backing of sponsors Deutsche Telekom, we had the freedom to work as we please making the six weeks some of the most fun and creative I’ve experienced.

I left the camp convinced that innovation is now the most important factor in creating a competitive business, a subject I spoke about in one of our presentation at the culminating camp summit.

Moreover the cost of innovation is decreasing as the cost of tools to create prototypes become lower, and the knowledge of processes required for creation are more openly and widely distributed due to the wonders of the internet.

Simply put. People are making new innovative things more cheaply than before.  From furniture, to business processes, books, or research projects – more can be done with less.

The spirit Palomar 5 lives most strongly in Open Design City, a Berlin based workshop which brings together makers with the tools they needs to make products, objects and other tangible things.  Jay and Chris, the two members of the P5 camp behind ODC, are firm believers in open design and want this fablab to also be the centre of a community who share their knowledge and processes in an open manner.  The initiative is excellently described in this recent article by Fast Company Design.

Sadly I’m not aware of a similar community in London as I miss the chaotic/creative workspace of P5. Plus my collection of tools are looking for a home.  Any suggestions?