1263 participants, 48 hours, 203 new service designs - the Global Service Jam brought together people and ideas in an exciting new way.

On the evening of Friday 11 March at more than 50 locations around the world, likeminded creative ‘Jammers’ got together for a weekend like no other.

The concept? To come up with a brand new service design, inspired by the keyword ‘superheroes’, in just 48 hours.

“The brief, which was announced in a staged process around the globe at 6pm on Friday, revolved around the world – New Zealand first, then Melbourne, with the USA West Coast last,” said Melbourne participant Mark Watson.

The Melbourne team, consisting of Watson, William Donovan, Michelle Gilmore, Marina C A Paronetto, Harriet Wakelam, Vanja Misic, Liisa Triin Vurma, Fiona Smith, Sara Pateraki and Luke Feast – aka The Duke – joined forces and churned through thousands of Post-Its to create their concept, Kin. 

“The dynamic was like the ‘all night swats’ of uni days, with the team proficiently and professionally milking every last minute of the allocated timeframe,” said Watson.

“The main learning experience for me was the physical embodiment of the service design process in the pressure cooker of the ‘impossible deadline’.”

Kin is a networking tool, bringing community members together by facilitating an exchange between people in need of skills and services, and retired people with the time and knowledge to provide these skills and services. See a video of the Kin concept here.

A simple idea with with the potential for far-reaching effects and positive community building, the Kin prototype has already garnered significant attention.

“This is the exciting part of open innovation – and a test for creative commons – in that the opportunity for co-design and co-creation are out there and available to the community to collaborate with designers,” said Watson.

Global Service Jam
planet.globalservicejam.org