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From software to science and consumer products, open innovation is transforming the world’s approach to invention. But GlaxoSmithKline’s recent open source initiative to end Malaria takes mass collaboration into the mainstream. By sharing proprietary information and working with other organizations using social technologies, GSK hopes it will find new drugs to treat the disease faster than it could on its own.

This model has already been proven by businesses like Innocentive, who match complex problems with people who can solve them for a prize. However, whilst scientists have worked this way for decades, harnessing the collective power of thinkers outside the organization and revealing proprietary research data in the process, marks a significant philosophical shift in a pharmaceutical industry driven by patent protection. Significantly, according to the Wall Street Journal, GSK are not seeking to patent any Malaria drug that arises from the project, which sends a powerful signal to the broader marketplace about changing attitudes to intellectual property. In short, if Linux and Apple can make mutuality work, why can’t everyone? Particularly if it puts an end to suffering more rapidly than less collaborative methods.

And Malaria is a problem that needs urgent attention. Worldwide, it causes almost 250 million illnesses and more than one million deaths annually. Malaria is particularly devastating in Africa, where it kills an African child every 30 seconds. For its own part, FutureBrand is proudly working with Malaria No More to act on a simple insight: that ending malaria’s death grip on Africa is the best humanitarian investment we can make in the world today. Nothing else can have the same impact on as many people’s lives and livelihoods as quickly or cheaply.

Incidentally, GSK’s project also reflects broader humanitarian attempts to harness social media and collaboration. The United Nations ‘Global Pulse’ initiative aims to make information about vulnerable populations available to everyone online in real time so that steps can be taken to help the most needy. Similarly InSTEDD provides community tools and software to improve early detection and response to major health-related events and natural or human-caused disasters.