Letsevo now features Basecamp Collaboration Tool

The Letsevo Foundation has just sponsored the implementation of Basecamp application on the backend of the Letsevo network. The idea is to improve the communication between Innovators of the group in order to speed up the development process of each project.
Posted: March 14th, 2008 under Tools, Lets Evo Projects.
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Letsevo TV: Surfer’s Paradise Amazônia
Surf’s up when the two rivers, Rio Negro and Rio Solimões meet each other. Most Def a Letsevo Destination. Enjoy the images.
Posted: March 12th, 2008 under Letsevo TV.
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What do we think about “We Think”
Charles Leadbeater just finished his book We-Think. And for it’s start, he put out this video in youtube questioning the crowd about the challenges of today’s sharing culture.
well, I think that the days of the lonely scientist are gone. Today, initiating conversations and sharing ideas is the a fundamental task in order to solve the complex problems that we face today.
Letsevo was started with the philosophy that there is a great power in open collaboration, and that great products can be achieved through an open interaction between people with different backgrounds. As a product designer, I have the power to visualize products and new uses of technologies. Designers can even go a little bit further and build rough prototypes of them. But in product Design, most of the times you need a lot of help implementing ideas, testing, taking them to production and finally market insertion. I think that sharing ideas and experiences on all of the development stages provide a chance for people who know better to influence and to collaborate in the design of products.
That is one of the very first ideas behind Letsevo, finding people with similar dreams to help bringing them to reality.
Now, how do you earn a living when everybody is sharing their ideas?
Letsevo thinks there has to be a balance on what you share and what sell. For example: Participating on the development of the open source operational system Linux, gives programmers the possibility to show off their skills and gain recognition in their field. Linux was created by a crowd of collaborators and it is free to download and to use it. But if you want to have support on implementing Linux in your company, you pay companies like Redhat to help you setting up everything right.
Sharing ideas in communities like Linux is a way of most people to start their professional life nowadays, gather experience, gain reputation in their field. Often, a lot of the people ho collaborate in projects like Linux are offered great jobs at companies like Microsoft, IBM or Google.
I really don’t know yet if something like that could be applied in product design, everything here at Letsevo is still really experimental. All we know is that sharing is fun and help ourselves achieve higher dreams.
The conversation has started, what do you think?
Posted: March 10th, 2008 under Design Collaboration.
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Book suggestion: Democratizing Innovation

Long before the term “User Generated” became popular, Eric von Hippel, an MIT Professor, has been spreading his thoughts about the role of “Lead users” in product innovation.
He has written a “Must Read” book for everyone interested in the way innovations come about. In Democratizing Innovation he dismantles the myth that most of Innovations come from a couple of top secret research centers inside the headquarters of big companies. The book shows us many examples of innovative products, born at the heart of user communities that are than later adopted by the companies and brought to the market.
The book can be downloaded for free in .PDF format and for those who prefer watching a video than to read a book, MIT World website has a great video of a lecture from Professor von Hippel at MIT. Reading or Watching, Democratizing Innovation is a Lets Evo top 5!
If you want to know more about user driven innovation, I definetely suggest taking a look at this lecture by Charles Leadbeater given at the TED Conference.
Posted: March 7th, 2008 under Design Knowledge.
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