Interesting interview of Karim Lakhini, co-author of a paper on "The Value of Openness in Scientific Problem Solving,". The study found that broadcasting problems to the wider community, was very effective in scientific problem-solving.

We cite from HBS Working Knowledge, but recommend reading the whole interview.

We have a bunch of interesting interviews with P2P personalities here.

"Broadcasting or introducing problems to outsiders yields effective solutions. Indeed, it was outsiders—those with expertise at the periphery of a problem’s field—who were most likely to find answers and do so quickly.

The study and its findings are described in his paper "The Value of Openness in Scientific Problem Solving," coauthored with Lars Bo Jeppesen, Peter A. Lohse, and Jill A. Panetta. It describes how broadcast search was used with 166 distinct scientific problems from the research laboratories of twenty-six firms from ten countries over a four-and-a-half year period. Problems involved everything from biotech to consumer products and agrochemicals.

Thanks to broadcasting, nearly one-third of the previously unsolved problems found successful solutions.

"Innovations happen at the intersection of disciplines. People have talked about that a lot and I think we’re providing some systematic evidence now with this study.."