Here's the quote that caught my attention:
We must enhance commercialization of research out of U.S. universities. One way to do this is to adopt a standardized licensing agreement for spinoffs. Another way is to make open-technology licensing a condition for universities to receive federal research dollars. Currently, the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 requires faculty innovators to work through their own university technology licensing offices. This creates significant delays.
It seems as though crowdsourcing is a rough parallel to much of the work happening in academia. Of course, in the business world, such efforts involve money, not just ideas. The trouble facing academic circles is that ideas are cheap, and many are flat-out free.
In public education, things have changed to some extent. Used to be, when a teacher (say, 3rd grade) had a great idea, it would be passed informally around the campus. District meetings would result in sharing among campuses. Soon, "best practice" was in place by word of mouth. At some point, the term best practices became formalized. Suddenly, a good idea was a way to make money, especially if the idea could be linked to test scores in some way. Now we see entire careers launched over a good idea in public education.
It seems higher education is still in the informal stage, regarding new information. Wiki's are not money-making ideas. Collaboration tends to result in better teaching or learning or scholarship; however, it often has no direct monetary value attached to it. Faculty make their salary, and little else. Their work is documented in their dossiers, and it may lead to tenure or promotion. Other than that, this kind of work is expected. Great ideas are supposed to come from campuses.
The business world may change that.
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