FutureWire - futurism and emerging technology

Monday, May 02, 2005

Innovation Book Available for Free Download

Democratizing Innovation, a new book by Eric von Hippel, is available for free download in PDF format via a Creative Commons license. The book can be downloaded in a single file or by chapter.

Von Hippel heads the Innovations and Enterpreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Among the key themes of the book is that innovative organizations must work directly with "lead users," customers who are prone to customizing and hacking their products. In this way, organizations can learn what their customers really want rather than merely assuming and guessing what they want.

One caveat: Democratizing Innovation is dense, academic reading. However, it's not a long book, so if you're accustomed to this style of writing, you can polish it off in short order.

Source: Innovation Weblog