New book: "Coolhunting - Chasing Down the Next Big Thing"

Peter Gloor and Scott Cooper have written an excellent book on swarm creativity and coolhunting:

http://www.amanet.org/books/catalog/0814473865.htm

From the publishers Web site:
"What is cool? It’s one of today’s most pervasive and elusive questions. No matter who we are, we all have an innate desire to be cool, cultivate cool, and find cool. Whether it’s the next hot band, this season’s hip new TV show, or the trendy new club that’s attracting all the right people, everyone wants to tap into the power of the latest trends in fashion, music, politics, and entertainment. The enormous popularity of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster are further testament to our collective need to stay on the cutting edge of what’s hot. Now, in Coolhunting, you will discover the practical tools you need to find the hottest trends and the people who set them.

The art of Coolhunting involves zeroing in on the fresh idea that will be the genesis of a hot new trend. It also involves finding the people responsible for the idea the trendsetters who will cause others to jump on board. By recognizing who the trendsetters are, you can actually anticipate the next big trend before it takes off–because cool ideas will grow and expand around these people.

Authors Peter Gloor and Scott Cooper have done extensive research into the fascinating world of Coolhunting and its many applications. Now, they explain what Coolhunting is, how it originated, and how to explore the power of cool for yourself. They explore the many varied– and often surprising– ways that companies like Apple, Continental Airlines, Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, and Google have been using Coolhunting to their advantage in areas such as product development, marketing, and customer relations. Filled with real-world practical advice on how to coolhunt, this innovative guide offers the latest techniques, specialized software, and Internet technology to enable you to hone in on your targets with unerring accuracy. Prospective coolhunters will learn how to:

• Emulate the great coolhunters, from venture capitalist
• John Doerr to Ben Franklin
• Discover new trends by tracking message board discussions and blogs
• Find and recruit the latest trendsetters among sources like Wikinews
• Master the five steps to becoming a "cool farmer"— getting involved in the actual creation of new trends by nurturing your own ideas

A new kind of hip guide for the 21st century, Coolhunting is a revolutionary book that redefines the way we think about the power of cool."

Press Review April -- June 2007

New articles in April, May, and June:

• Sydney Morning Herald: "Critical Mass" [>>]
• Wall Street Journal: "Why Bad Things Happen to Good Technology" by Henry Chesbrough [>>]
• InformationWeek: "Sustained Growth and Profitability Through Lean Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) - A Process Industry Perspective Podcast" [>>]
• Boston Globe: "Crowdsourcing: Mining the masses for the next big thing" [>>]
• Business Week: "Linux vs. Wikipedia" [>>]
• Business Week: "NineSigma: Nurturing 'Open Innovation'" [>>]
• Washington Post: "T-Shirt Maker's Style, Drawn From Web Users" [>>]
• Financial Times: "Reach out in the Era of Open Innovation" [>>]
• Miami Herald: "Web users becoming big resource for firms" [>>]
  

Press Review March 2007

A bunch of interesting articles has been published in March:

• Timothy B. Lee (not to be confused with Tim Berners-Lee!): "Capitalists, Entrepreneurs, and Peer Production" [>>]
• Jed Harris: "Capitalists vs. Entrepreneurs" [>>]
• Mike Masnick: "Does Peer Production Turn Capitalists Against Entrepreneurs?" [>>]
• Nick Wilson: "How Spotplex's 'Trafficracy' Could Beat Digg But Probably Won't" [>>]
• Wall Street Journal: "The Path to Growth" [>>]
• CNN (World Business): "The rapid march of technology" [>>]
• The Guardian, UK: "Read me first" [>>]
• International Herald Tribune: "Humanitarian goals, tech-savvy solutions" [>>]
• Wired: "Citizen Journalism Wants You!" [>>]
• The New York Times: "All the World’s a Story" [>>]
• Chicago Sun-Times: "Boeing embraces 'mass collaboration' to develop 787" [>>]
• Business Week: "The Global Plant Floor" [>>]
• NetworkWorld: "NYT and LAT talk up 'crowdsourcing'" [>>]
• New York Times: "Artificial Intelligence, With Help From the Humans" [>>]
  

Press Review Feb 2007

A selection of recently published articles on Peer Production, Crowdsourcing and Wikinomics:

• Knowledge@Wharton: "Make Room, Wikipedia: Internet-based Collaboration Could Change the Way We Do Business" [>>]
  
• Computing Business: "Processes at the Core" [>>]
• Business 2.0: "Why commercial Wikis don't work" [>>]
• AdWeek: "'Wikify' your brand" [>>]
• Toronto Star: "A new manufacturing mindset needed" [>>]
• CIO Magazine: "Why Are CIOs Not Part of the Innovation Discussion?" [>>]
• Canadian Business: "The wisdom of crowdsourcing" [>>]
• TIME: "Getting Rich off Those Who Work for Free" [>>]
• The Independent: "How to earn money online" [>>]
• Industry Week: "Customer Created" [>>]

Peer Innovation and Production

Business Week features a new article on Peer Innovation and Production. Therein the co-authors of Wikinomics explain how old-school companies like IBM can create value by embracing open-source models. >>

What Other Industries Can Teach Carriers

Insurance Networking News:
Special Report: What Other Industries Can Teach Carriers

It isn't stealing, honest. Insurers are learning from innovations currently in play in manufacturing, banking and other markets. >>

Forbes: 'Productivity Crisis In R&D'

Forbes magazine publishes an article by Henry Chesbrough: Productivity Crisis In R&D
Chesbrough discusses how companies can change their business models to become more open and how they can leveraging external R&D resources to save time and money in the innovation process.

Times Online: 'Come on, take a side: it’s nerds v the Luddites'

Richard Susskind discusses what peer production and mass collaboration may mean for the law.
Times Online, Jan 23: 'Come on, take a side: it’s nerds v the Luddites'.

Buiness Week: Tapping the Wisdom of the Crowd

Buiness Week (January 18,2007):
"Tapping the Wisdom of the Crowd"
While not a new phenomenon, crowdsourcing is really growing as a business trend. Here are five successful collaborative communities [>>]

Wikinomics: 7-Part Series in the Toronto Globe and Mail

1. Part 1: Peer Pioneers
2. Part 2: Ideagoras
3. Part 3: Prosumers
4. Part 4: The New Alexandrians
5. Part 5: Platforms for Innovation
6. Part 6: The Global Plant Floor
7. Part 7: 'Us' power

Also interesting: Suffer the Children

Chesbrough: 'Embracing Open Business Models'

TechWeb published an interesting article by Henry Chesbrough: 'Embracing Open Business Models':

"Companies that keep their intellectual property too close to the vest risk missing out on critical business innovations that idea-sharing could generate. Open business models foster collaboration with customers and suppliers to everyone's benefit." [>>]

USA Today: 'Mass collaboration could change way companies operate'

USA Today features an article on Wikinomics and Mass Collaboration:
Mass collaboration could change way companies operate

Several new articles

Several new articles covering wikinomics, peer production, crowdsourcing and open innovation have been published this week:


Crowdsourcing:

• CBS News: Blogger Tom DeLay Drops Hammer On Liberals
• Los Angeles Times: Reporting's mass appeal
• The Globe and Mail: Crowdsourcing: Where you, too, can have your say

Open Innovation:

• Financial Express: Rockefeller revolutionary
• Industry Week: Consumer Products Companies Best Practices -- A Team Effort
• Boston Business Journal: InnoCentive launches nonprofit unit
  

Peer Production:

• The Indianapolis Star: Education revolution for the 21st century
• Re-public: The promise of the commons
  

Wikinomics:

• Chicago Tribune: Tech titles cover the gamut of learning
  

Business Week: Innovation & Design Books 2006

Wikinomics (by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams) and Open Business Models (by Henry Chesbrough) are among the Best Innovation and Design Books for 2006 (nominated by BusinessWeek)

"Roadmap for Open ICT Ecosystems"

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School has published a Roadmap for Open ICT Ecosystems:
They describe it as

"a user-friendly guide for policymakers and technologists offerings tools for understanding, creating, and sustaining open information and communication technologies ecosystems."

Interview: Dan Farber talks to Don Tapscott

Wikinomics and mass collaboration by ZDNet's Dan Farber -- During a presentation at the Web 2.0 Summit, author and consultant Don Tapscott previewed some the highlights from his forthcoming book, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. He views the next phase of the Web as about mass collaboration and harnessing the power of self organization. It will have a profound change in way companies innovate, [...]

New articles on Yochai Benkler and Peer Production

(1) Times Online: "Mind maps for those who prefer a picture"
Yochai Benkler, a professor of law at Yale, whose new book, The Wealth of Networks, is a monumental contribution to our thinking about the future (www.benkler.org).
It is not an easy book. It is not a short book. But it is profoundly important. Premised on fundamental changes in the way in which information is created and shared in society, Benkler’s research and arguments anticipate a networked information economy that is increasingly underpinned by peer production and non-market collaboration, and a society in which we should be able to reshape our principles of state, justice, freedom and law.

(2) Benkler's WIKI:
his Wiki is an invitation to collaborate on building a learning and research environment based on Yochai Benkler's book, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom.

(3) OpenBusiness interview with Yochai Benkler.

(4) Book review (German Law Journal): Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (2006)

New Article: "Thriving in the New Innovation Landscape"

Business Week Article: Thriving in the New Innovation Landscape
Open innovation advocate Henry Chesbrough tells how companies can successfully rethink their business models

Two interesting Blogs on Peer Production

• P2P Foundation
• Open Innovation

Some articles on InnoCentive

Chemical & Engineering News: A publication of the American Chemical Society: InnoCentive Opens Research Doors

Der Spiegel: Using the Internet to Solve R&D Problems
"In the past, R&D departments worked more or less on their own, while today the so-called Open Innovation concept is becoming increasingly widespread," says Frank Piller, a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston who has set up a team of scientists dedicated exclusively to this issue. Companies are thus able to cost- effectively "outsource" highly specialized tasks to a large pool of inventors around the world when they lack the in-house expertise." "Innocentive's site, which is essentially a marketplace for inventors, has expanded considerably since pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly started it in 2001. Now even some of Lilly's competitors use the site, including BASF, Novartis, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble, which has increased the share of product ideas accepted from outside inventors from 20 to 35 percent over the last three years."

Harvard Business Review: Connect and Develop: Inside Procter and Gamble's New Model for Innovation

BusinessWeek: Businesses Must Learn to let Go