Hi All:
My interview with Eric von Hippel is posted at http://zero.newassignment.net/filed/got_great_idea_maybe_you_should_give_it_away Give it a read. Here is what I am hoping we can do with these interviews, but it can only happen if people who know the topic jump into the discussion.
If we want more depth we have to stop thinking about this in traditional MSM terms. Here is the process as I see
it:
Step 1: I do what I want to do...which is an IM Interview in Q&A format with Eric von Hippel.
Nothing more. I treasure this comment by Glenn
Reynolds of Instapundit: "...the secret to getting ahead in the 21st century is capitalizing on people doing
what they want to do, rather than trying to get them to do what you want to do."
Step 2: This step comes right out of Jay Rosen's PressThink success. Your team or volunteers or whoever
posts my final Q&A; they do so as a kernel of an idea. A beginning of a conversation. Then just as Jay did at
PressThink you reach out and try to get smart people, who know something about von Hippel or democratizing innovation
to react to it. You post their reactions. You also watch trackbacks and Technorati for the blogosphere comments. You
bring them to the conversation. You take excerpts, make links, you push the conversation as far as you can.
Step 3: Then once you get that going, get back in touch with von Hippel and get him to comment more.
Then after all that plays itself out, you as the editor or the professional part of this project incorporate my
Q&A and all the outside contributions into a more traditional story or into a well designed package.
I'm happy, you are happy and most of all the audience, who really could join the conversation and mold the final
product is happy.
The result and I am using a von Hippel concept: We have a group of people freely revealing new or not well known
insights that can then be used by a wider audience. That's the secret of success.
By the way this plays off a post and a letter
I wrote to Romenesko in November, 2005.
We can, together, make this experiment successful. Thanks to the folks at Assignment Zero for all the hard work they are doing.
website limitation - where to respond to the Q&A?
it's hard to know where to respond since there's no "reply" link on the IM Q&A reporting, and there's no "talk through reporting with others" tab on the "interview Eric von Hippel" page.
(20-20 hindsight: a wiki...)
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As for what's in it for the lead users - IMO it's the 1% inspiration - 99% perspiration thing; the core competency of lead users is inspiration, the core competency of companies is perspiration. How many lead users will want to switch gears as it were and become entrepreneurs? How many will be suited to running a small business?
Although it does seem like the best strategy for a Lead User would be to patent the idea, especially if they have a lawyer spouse.
although to the extent that the L.U.s do this, the optimal approach for a company will shift, and will be to seek out the lead would-be users, who haven't yet moved beyond the stage of whining about what products/features they want but can't get .
(and Google will have the goods on who they are and what they're looking for.)
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"[EvH]: Intellectual Property is going away in most fields"
Is this true? I was under the (quite likely mistaken) impression that it was getting worse not better (and as of this writing Wikipedia seems to agree)
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"But I was surprised as the interview started to be a little testy"
Maybe this had something to do with the questions you were asking...
:-}
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(btw I loved that last interview question, even if it was a longshot.)