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.