This is Haydn Shaughnessy’s first Guest Blog on the wikinomics site, focusing on the issue of design in relation to wikinomics. You can check out his gallery of Innovative Contemporary Artists here.

Artists and designers live by the wikinomics code, always have done. Well, perhaps not strictly so, but the competition model that launched Goldcorp to mega success in mining, and that is improving Netflix recommendation engine, are a way of life if you are an artist, designer or architect. For example, take a look at architecture room, a place where architects and designers go for intelligence on open competitions globally: thearchitectureroom.

It is normal for developers commissioning large new buildings to shout out for architects. Right now you can pitch for inclusion in a short list to design the new Munch Museum in Norway, be shortlisted to design the Olympic Village for Madrid’s 2016 Olympic bid, respond to Orlando, Florida’s competition to design the re-use of the American Federal Building… and there are many hundreds more.

So who is doing what right now in the corporate world? Nokia is calling for furniture designers to promote design that either removes obstacles to mobility or creates movable furniture. Lifestyle products company Muji is running its third annual Found Muji design award, and Peugeot is running its fifth concept car design award. The Peugeot competition has attracted around 3 million hits to the Peugeot website.

What does this mean for the wikinomics era? It’s possibly the best example of professions organising themselves, and the training of professionals, to work in under wikinomics conditions. It’s tempting to criticise the drift towards contests as a way for corporates to secure cheap ideas, and when you think Peugeot pays only Euro 10,000 to the concept car winner, you have to say there’s more than a grain of truth in the criticism.

Platforms that organise ideagoras, such as Innocentive, can similarly stray into the creativity-on-the-cheap territory. What’s missing that would make these contests more practical in the long term is obvious if you look again at architecture and design – the commission. Architects who win contests get commissioned to work on the building. That makes continuous competition bearable and indeed fruitful. It seems to me the Innocentive model is in its early stages and that what follows are deals that enrich winners. A P&G in future might not just shout over the walls for a few ideas but might use the ideagora award to fund the start-up and development of new suppliers who’ve proven their worth with the brighteset ideas.