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April 25, 2005
New von Hippel book, Democratizing Innovation, available for download
Posted by Renee Hopkins Callahan
MIT's Eric von Hippel, most widely known for his research on customer-driven innovation and his lead-user theories, has a new book out that is available for free download via a Creative Commons license. The book, Democratizing Innovation, describes "how the emerging proccess of user-centered, democratized innovation works...[and about] how innovation by users provides a very necessary complement to and feedstock for manufacturer innovation."
The whole idea of using customers as a source as well as a driver of innovation is turning up everywhere these days. Look at blogs themselves -- there's a great example of customers innovating the news-gathering and news-disseminating process itself.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from von Hippel's academic work, the idea is gaining traction as a bona-fide trend, according to Trendwatching.com, which recently featured "Customer-Made" as an "emerging trend."
Comments (1)
| Category: Innovation Drivers
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Renee Hopkins Callahan started IdeaFlow and serves as chief blog-wrangler. She is 
1. jp on April 30, 2005 1:16 PM writes...
Whilst having not fully read the book, I highly recommend it.
The use of case studies (referenced case studies as well) is ingenious. For example the study on the persons who developed the Apache web server showed great light on user innovation and communities.
Although not free, i recommend - Architectures of Knowledge: Firms, Capabilities, and Communities by Cohendet and Amin.
Permalink to CommentIt takes the logic of innovation communities a step further. I find the interactions between the two highly enlightening... in my studies on open biotechnology and the www.bios.net initiative