Although blogs and online journals are much faster to report on the latest developments, books can provide an interesting synthesis of overall trends and visionary insights. As some books on the subject definitely qualify as must reads, I’ve put together a list of the 12 most compelling books about crowdsourcing and open innovation.

1. Outside Innovation: How Your Customers Will Co-Design Your Company’s Future
   - by Patricia B. Seybold
   In Outside Innovation, bestselling author Seybold taps her close relationship with dozens of high–innovation companies to reveal the untold strategy behind the trendsetters and the next HUGE leap forward in customer strategy. Seybold shows that companies that are dominating their category and staying ahead of the pack are collaborating at every level of their business with their customers.
   —
2. Motivation in Open Innovation
   - by Robert Motzek
   Robert Motzek’s study investigates the motivational profiles of user innovators from a manufacturer’s point of view, focusing on lead users and tool kit users. The insightful analysis is supported by two exploratory case studies of Spreadshirt and Threadless.
   —
3. Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology
   -by Henry Chesbrough
   A new paradigm for managing corporate research and bringing new technologies to market. Chesbrough’s sophisticated but highly readable discussion of these complex issues will give managers much food for thought.
   —
4. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
   - by Chris Anderson
   In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson offers a visionary look at the future of business and common culture. The long-tail phenomenon, he argues, will “re-shape our understanding of what people actually want to watch” (or read, etc.).

The other books will be listed in parts 2 and 3 of this post. When I can find the time, I’ll discuss some books in greater detail.

Interested in Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing? Subscribe to RSS!

This is the first edition of the new Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing carnival. You can read more about the carnival, future editions, and past editions, on the carnival home page.

Open Innovation

Carl Lens presents a brief introduction on open innovation. He explains both the outside-in flow (’not all smart people work for you’) and the inside-out flow of open innovation (’80% of all patents in companies is never used’). He also introduces Eric von Hippel’s user-centric innovation approach, which basically states that by involving (lead) users in the process of innovation, companies can develop products and services that have an inherent fit with needs in the market. The article provides a good introduction for people not familiar with both concepts.

I would like to add that user-centric innovation or crowdsourcing innovation could be integrated in a broader view on the outside-in flow of open innovation, in which companies look for external ideas and competences from universities, research institutes, lead users, competitors, suppliers, large crowds and others. It should be mentioned though that Henry Chesbrough (the founding father of open innovation) didn’t pay much attention to this role of users and large crowds in his original open innovation model. Nonetheless, I think this integration contributes to a better understanding of both concepts.

Crowdsourcing

Kiss 5000 Frogs is a follow-up analysis about Cambrian House. Carl Lens explains how Cambrian House shifted from a company that commercialised ideas from the crowds into a company that allowed the crowds to commercialise their own ideas.

When crowdsourcing is defined, open source software is often mentioned as a leading example. How entertaining is your 3D software explains how most open source programmers program for exactly the reason most artists paint. Because it’s fun. The greatest dis-service done to developers and programmers is to relegate them to the realm of well-oiled automatons. Samir Bharadwaj postulates that in order to have enthusiastic spokespeople and a motivated community of developers, your code base should be entertaining and fun to work with. Do all crowdsourcing initiatives require this ‘element of fun’ to be successful?

Applying crowdsourcing to public and development sector

Giulio Quaggiotto wrote two excellent articles about how crowdsourcing can add value in the public and the development sector. The first article, Crowdsourcing development data, discusses innovative business models for the public sector, based on the principles of the long tail and wisdom of the crowd. Public institutions should embrace the vision that “citizens can create, re-use and distribute [data] in ways that add maximum value.” In other words, the best collective knowledge may reside outside, not within the organizations themselves. The article is based on an interesting report sponsored by the Cabinet Office, calling for the UK government to embrace a new strategy for producing and disseminating public information.

The second article deals with the question how web 2.0 and crowdsourcing can change and improve development initiatives. Giulio Quaggiotto provides an inspiring post about how the Development 2.0 world could look like. Imagine, for instance, combining Google maps with crime data, just like Chicago Crime does, to help police authorities and citizens in developing countries.

The last article of this carnival edition gives an overview of three important influences that have contributed to the development of the OER movement (Open Educational Resources): open source sofware, open content, and learning objects. These influences help to understand how projects like Connexions, MIT OpenCourseWare, and Merlot, have developed.

To end, I want to thank all writers who submitted their articles. Reactions, thoughts, and other interesting articles can be shared through the comment section below.

Next edition

As of now you can submit your blog article(s) to the next edition of Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing! Use the carnival submission form, or send us the link to your article(s) through carnival@openinnovators.net.

Carnival Home Page: Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing
Submit your articles to the next edition: carnival submission form