Innovation in Community (Bookshelf Part 2)

Many of us imagine that innovation happens because of solitary geniuses - the mythic images of Edison, Ford, or Einstein toiling in isolation are modern icons. The truth is often quite different - Edison was part of a team of sophisticated thinkers, one of whom, Charles Batchelor, was Edison's 50-50 partner in profits and stock in spin-off companies. This argument is made quite cogently by Andrew Hargadon in his book How Breakthroughs Happen.

Hargadon uses this concept to propose that innovators who are successful rely on connections to succeed - it's networks of people and ideas that enable innovations to emerge, because it is through such networks that change becomes possible. Ideas, products, and services that take hold do so because communities form around whatever that idea, product, or service means, and whatever value it provides.

In today's world, the character of these networks is largely being shaped by the internet. Web 2.0 companies such as MySpace, YouTube, and Second Life are examples of networks that are also communities, communities in and through which innovation happens and spreads.

An archetypical example of this is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. From the wiki idea and the amazing success of Wikipedia comes the concept of Wikinomics, the title of Don Tapscott's most recent book. Wikinomics examines the emerging principles of online communities and charts their impact on the business world and society at large. This impact is already great, and it promises to become even more significant as the principles of internet communities are further developed and embodied in new software tools and new ventures.

For would-be innovators, then, mashing Hargadon's work with Tapscott's yields a hybrid that may become, for the astute, a compelling set of guidelines to the emerging markets.