User-Led Innovation

Definition

Jose Ramos:

"Sharp and Salomon's (2008) report "User-Led Innovation" (ULI) investigated the potential of these trends, and argued that ULI represents a foundational shift in how our socio-technical systems are innovated. Solomon describes the 'Walled environments of MMOs' as systems fundamentally inflexible to user designs to change. As users began to hack games and onsell their 'goods', this gave rise to a global trade in virtual goods. Second life developed by creating a post-walled environment where users could develop and own the environments they create. In another example the US ‘Teleplace’ system, a health app for creating virtual rooms, was developed by lead users so that medical teams could use these rooms to draw family members together in virtual environments and collaborate on health issues. We now see a similar dynamic with iPhone and Android apps, where lead users may design systems specifically suited to them, or their businesses. In these examples people are able to innovate because of the 'loosening structure' of 'digital life', where propriety technology is open to intervention, alteration and innovation (from consultation with Mandy Solomon 2010). As Eric von Hippell (MIT) argued:

“Historically the assumption has been that manufacturers are the innovators, they go and they look at users, understand what they need, and then develop something in response. We then went and looked at the histories of innovation and found out that very often, very commercially successful products actually had been developed by users at the leading edge of a market based trend first. So it appeared that in fact innovation was user led, which means that the users actually develop prototype products and show their value and use of what they really want.” Hippel, interview, in Sharp, D. (2008)

Darren Sharp argues that these lead users are far ahead of what is available within markets, and that these innovators freely reveal their innovations creating 'apps ecologies', a production process beyond the firm or state organisation. These apps ecologies which user-innovators create are supported by the opening of database via APIs (Application Programing Interface), which enable third-party development, for example the 'At my state' project which opened up government data sets in which user-innovators were asked to 'come up with something interesting and we will reward you'. Companies like Lego, 3M, and Apple have excelled at creating effective policies and platforms for third party ULI (from consultation with Darren Sharp).

Typology

"Sharp characterises the emerging ULI services ecology as composed of four types:

• Social Currency - sharing, aggregation, attention, connection • Collaborative - Self organisation, gift economy, openness, quality • Extractive - Appropriation, Commodification, Free Labour, Ownership • Hybrid - Mutualism, Reciprocity, Symbiosis, Co-creation"

Reference: Sharp, D. and Solomon, M. (2008) "User-Led Innovation: a new framework for co-creating business and social value", Faculty of LIfe and Social Sciences, Smart Services CRC, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne." (http://dev.services2020.net/node/1320)