Dr. Robert Cherinka is a Senior Principal Information Systems Engineer for the MITRE Corporation, located in Tampa, Fl.  His expertise is in software and process engineering, with a focus toward XML-based web service and agile development technologies.  Bob is currently a Department Head for Agile Engineering and Interoperability, leading a distributed team of IT professionals located at 7 MITRE locations in developing and applying emerging technologies that enable information services and interoperability across several major US Government domains.  Dr. Cherinka earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, leading research in static analysis and testing techniques for component-based systems.  In addition, he earned a B.S. in computer science in 1987 from the University of Pittsburgh.  After 6 years in the US Air Force, he joined MITRE in 1993.
 
Mr.  Joseph Prezzama is the Associate Department Head for MITRE Tampa Operations where he oversees Project Leaders in support of two Unified Commands: the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM).   Prior to this, he acted as the MITRE Project leader for the USSOCOM work program. His over 20 years of expertise is in the areas of tactical communications and strategic enterprise planning. In 1996, Mr. Prezzama earned a Masters of Science in Software Engineering from Monmouth University, Eatontown, New Jersey. Prior to that, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Trenton State College, Ewing, New Jersey. He is a member of and has been published in AFCEA, and is a senior member of the IEEE, IEEE Communications Society.

This presentation presents a study of approaches to foster open innovation, including the use of crowds and social media to leverage and utilize interdisciplinary sources. Crowds are inherently interdisciplinary, and they contain experts. Wisdom can be extracted from these sources. However, the peril of bias and “group think” could be detrimental if not carefully exposed. The process of innovation benefits from a diversity of skills and perspectives. There are technology and communication trends that enable unprecedented access to information, people and even group sentiment, offering new ways to collaborate, connect producers to consumers to investors, and ultimately to innovate.  As an example, we will highlight the potential value of applying crowd-sourcing models to commercial and government environments.