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Users as Innovators - Why Open Source Works

Posted by timothy on from the pave-your-path-where-the-grass-is-bent dept.

eaglemoon writes "Many people still have difficulty understanding why open source software projects are successfull. The Boston Globe has an interview with Eric von Hippel, a Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, on users as innovators. In his new book, von Hippel, discusses how open source projects draw on the creativity of ''lead users," who are often ahead of the curve on technology and marketplace trends. Von Hippel shows the trend already is more advanced than is generally known, and users often freely reveal their innovations for the common good. The social efficiency of a system in which individual innovations are developed by individual users is increased if users somehow diffuse what they have developed to others.....he also notes that the transition to user-centered innovation is hard for some companies to swallow.
The online version of the book is available under a Creative Commons license."

6 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Successfull by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Let's use that open source spell checker some time.

  2. lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    first and second post, no one goes to slashdot anymore :( fucking 2 minutes wait to post next, now im like the third post.

  3. Netcraft confirms it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Open Sores are dying!

  4. Re:blah blah blah Microsoft sux blah blah blah by mr_z_beeblebrox · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I live in my mommy's basement and I couldn't get laid if my life depended on it...

    Actually, I have a nice house of my own. I don't often get laid, but when I do... your mommy's a screamer.

  5. ROFL!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    ROFLLOLLOLOMGOMGROFLROFL

    you are teh linux funny man!!11!!!1!

  6. Re:Want to know how? Just ask M$ by Short+Circuit · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Warning: troll.

    Mods, he's just telling you what you want to hear.

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