Social Innovation

DIS : Critical Reading Assignment

Avnish Mehta 737034

Democratizing Innovation

Sections

by Eric Von Hippel publication year : 2005 publishers: The MIT Press, London

Chapters 1. Introduction and Overview

1 Illustrating the phenomenon and Understanding its Rationale

2. Development of Products by Lead Users

3. Why Many Users Want Custom Products

2 The Process and the Method of Phenomenon

4. Users’ Innovate-or-Buy Decisions

5. Users’ Low-Cost Innovation Niches

3

How it Works and Some Examples 6. Why Users Often Freely Reveal Their Innovations.

7. Innovation Communities.

4 How to Formalize the phenomenon and the Evolution of Theory

8. Adapting Policy to User Innovation.

9. Democratizing Innovation.

5

Search for more examples and Institutionalizing the Hypothesis 10. Application : Searching for Lead User Innovations.

11. Application : Toolkits for User Innovation and Custom Design.

6 Relating and Referencing in cross disciplinary fields

12. Linking User Innovation to Other Phenomena and Fields.

Temporary Urban Spaces

Sections

Chapters

by Florian Haydn, Robert Temel (ed.) publication year : 2006 publishers : Birkhauser, Basel

1 Illustrating the Conceptual Background of the phenomenon 1. Temporary Uses, Deregulation and Urbanity (Politics)

2. Urban Planning and Interim Use

3. From Regulation to Moderation

4. The Temporary in the City

2 Explaining the situation and the ‘practice’ through events (Practice) 5. A Material that Never Comes to Rest

6. Urban Intelligence

7. Spaces for Action and for Laughing Too

3 Unrevealing the nature of phenomenon with iconic examples 8. Tom Waits 4’33” (Desire)

9. Horror Vacui

10. Vacancies and Urban Reserves

The Critical Reading Review comprises the Introduction to the author and his profile (as background) to situate the context of the book. Followed by Book Review, the Critical Reading Review will summarize in order to capture the answers to the posed questions of Understanding and Evaluation of the exercise demonstrated in nutshell with the classification of the contents on the current page.

Note : At places there are references made to the authored work as ‘Hypothesis’, which has been done to assume the proposed concept/phenomenon by the author critically.

And thus it does not attempt to judge or criticize the main theme of the work.

This further assumes the proposed study as fact based, well supported with case studies, derived from reputable sources. Also the fact that the author does not intend to assign himself any position – ‘different’ or ‘indifferent’ from other writers, but acquires a critical stand to explain his studies and observations through this book.

About the Author:

Critical Reading Review:

The author Eric Von Hippel, an economist, is Professor of Management of Innovation, and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. After The Sources of Innovation (1988), this book in the year 2005, was published in the context where the term Innovation had acquired center stage in the economics and the management circles.

For much some time this term Innovation has been adjudged as the ‘driver of economy’ and the spread of its discussion extends from the study of business, technology, sociology and engineering.

Beginning with his first book, he identified end-user innovation as the most important and critical method for innovating and this has further been the theme of the second book.

Specializing in the nature and economics of distributed and open innovation, he has been best regarded to develop the concept of User Innovation.(Wikipedia)

The author with his background of Economics and Management with this seminal work frames the context and the related hypothesis of democratization of Innovations. His topic of study is the observed phenomenon of user participation in the process of innovation of either of information or physical products. Whereby he illustrates with examples and significant case studies towards proposing his hypothesis that, with the shift in arena of manufacturing, a shift in governmental policies should be brought to facilitate this phenomenon.

He argues that this will entail the manufacturers to redesign their innovation processes and thus they will depend now on the users for innovation unlike the conventional pattern in run for past two centuries.

The proposed hypothesis is not only illustrated with case studies but also make a convincing attempt towards the rationalization of the occurrence of this phenomenon. Illustrating the benefits of the system, he successfully invents/defines the terms like ‘Lead User’ to help reader co-relate with the spirit of innovating through his understanding while reading!

Keywords and Phrases : User Centered Design/Innovation, End-User Innovation, User Participation, Lead Users, User developed Innovation v/s Manufacturer developed Innovation.

Distributed Innovation, Open Innovation, Diffusion of Innovation, Custom Design, Sticky Information, Innovation Communities.

The general topic thus has been further analyzed to illustrate the problem of not having the essential infrastructure available for such phenomenon.

Though there have been cases of success but with this hypothesis, the author asks for recognition of this phenomenon and its need for facilitation from both, the manufacturer and the user end.

DIS : Critical Reading Assignment : Democratizing Innovation Avnish Mehta 737034

Book Review : The author studies the phenomenon of the Users, who are in the present scenario seen as the originator of Innovation for Innovation related activities. Through this book he illustrates by using methods in range of basic factual data to sociology, that the users are the source of innovation and thus the backbone of the User-Centered Design approach for our economies. He studies various facets of this phenomenon eloquently described by forming the titles of each chapter of the book, in much convincing manner to explain his area of study to the reader.

The format of the authored work is interesting as it follows after each section of the book with a discussion or a summary to recapitulate what has been so far discussed and explained. This could be understood to be a desirable need from such work where the content is about newer understanding of the above mentioned faculties and where the nature of all these share an inter-linking across themselves.

The author begins to analyze from the aspect of the Products developed by Users (Lead Users) (Chapter 2: Development of Products by Lead Users) to rationalize the need for such custom products demanded by users (Chapter 3: Why Many Users Want Custom Products).

Understanding the nature of User lead Innovation he explains with the help of studied examples ranging from IT to physical products, here specifically with the example of Mountain Biking and the heterogeneity of various needs and thus sub-specialties required by such users, he states that the users are ready to pay more for such specialized customization.

This has been the significant part of the first section of the study/book with which he finishes the presentation of the context of his research.

This further leads towards the critical analyses of the fact that what do users do to help themselves in such heterogeneous needs and situations? They themselves get down innovating or do they rely on the market for solutions, i.e. they buy decisions? (Chapter 4: Users’ Innovate-or-Buy Decisions) Thus with the second section, he summarizes that the heterogeneous and sticky need and solution information, the users usually find a low-cost innovation niche, which is essentially a positive asset of this approach towards Innovation!

The third section understands the working pattern of the phenomenon – the free revealing of innovations, further analyzing its benefits attained with the diffusion benefits and the self propagating beneficial goals that this system inherits (Chapter 6: Why Users Often Freely Reveal Innovations) by illustrating with the case study of the Open Source Software (Chapter 7: Innovation Communities).

With the fourth section, the author takes an authoritative stand by proposing its benefits across social welfare, intellectual property issues, R&D subsidies and other such technical parameters which when defined could lead to formalize the hypothesis. (Chapter 8: Adapting Policy to User Innovation) This further arrives at the titled chapter, where the claim towards democratization of Innovations is recognized as a trend and where the model in the two cases of Manufactured Innovation and Userdeveloped Innovation is produced. (Chapter 9: Democratizing Innovation) The

last sections of the book considers to elaborate on the hypothesis by illustrating the 3M example

(Chapter 10: Application- Searching for Lead User Innovations), while the other part emphasizing on equipping the user with a toolkit, helping the hypothesis realize. (Chapter 11: Application – Toolkits for User Innovation and Custom Design)

To close with an overall relationship and referencing demonstration, the author concludes in the context of other relevant fields, namely, Information Technology (The Information Communities), Economics (The Economics of Knowledge), Business (National Competitive Advantage) and Sociology (The Sociology of Technical Communities), where he concludes by acknowledging the shift with major changes in user and manufacturer

innovation practices, which will guide the need for change in the governmental policies, ascribing the phenomenon lastly as, ‘Democratizing Innovation’.

DIS : Critical Reading Assignment : Democratizing Innovation Avnish Mehta 737034

About the Authors and the Book:

Critical Reading Review:

A variety of authors/editors background from the varied fields of sociology, arts, film-making, architecture, urbanism, cultural theory to art history, make the panorama of the subjects also vary between Culture, Social, Commercial uses of Public Spaces.

The book dwelves into the need for alternative planning based on realization of the fact that the conventioanl method of urban planning has resulted into some failures which could be corrected with such alternative planning methods. Thereby making the case for institutionalization of such urban occurences, which have taken shape as phenomena over a period of time, agreeing on the fact of the failures of Urban Planning methods.

The book begins with a Glossary which features all the Keywords and definitions of the used terminology over the length of the book. The conceptual background is made first classifying it into the three headings of Politics, Practice and Desire, the book begins to define the essential question of understanding ‘Temporality’ or ‘Temporary’ nature in concern to Urbanism, which emerges as the main theme of the book. The selection of case studies (Projects) in the later part of the book make an effort to demonstrate convincingly of the observed occurences in the Urban situaations of European cities.

Keywords and Phrases : Temporary and Temporality of Urbanity, Temporary Spaces and Uses, Appropriation of Spaces, Public v/s Private Spaces, Public Private Partnerships, Urban Interventions, Community Spaces, Cultural/Social Uses of Spaces, Spaces for action, Change in the Culture of Planning, Tactical Urban Planning, Guerrilla / Squatting interventions, Institutionalizing of Temporality.

Recognizing among such methods, Participation, Co-operation between public and private actors, the book explores the arena of Urbanity with the use of spaces with activities of temporary nature. The spectrum of such activities range from art projects to cultural, entertainment and a few commercial events.

Thus through this book the authors intend to investigate and call for inclusion of process-oriented methodology in Urban planning over the conventional rigid Urban planning.

The book presents in its range, facts which have been observed over some time and thus they are not entitled to be tagged as ‘opinions’. The cases are though from restricted geographical territories owing to the mention made in the introduction, they are nonetheless, significant examples which further portray the need for Strategc Design efforts from both ends - the user and the planning agencies. The authors take an unbiased stand with this exploration demonstrating the present day Urban Reality.

DIS : Critical Reading Assignment : Temporary Urban Spaces Avnish Mehta 737034

Book Review :

first section, Politics, questions the notion of ‘Temporary Use’ and investigates into the idea of ‘Use’ with the politically inclined German example. Further contemplating this Temporary use as ‘Programme’ for Urban Planning, the book understands the failure of Modern Planning coupled with the disintegration and dissolution of the bond between the buildings, the residents and the ‘uses’ through the intervention of the Real Estate Market.

The

Further explaining the analogy between an Interim User and the Guerrilla tactician, he emphasizes on the Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as the alternative method for planning.

Beginning to describe historically, the terminology of ‘Temporary Use’, he elaborates with the German adaptation of Social City programme, the authors argue between the long life of a City versus the Temporality / Ephemerality. They describe the allocation of temporality with the perceived nature irrespective of ‘place’ or ‘time’.

The second section, Practice, analyzes the Concepts and Potentials of Temporary Spaces with the idea of Community, Public Space and Planning. This is intended to bring about the nature of Temporary Spaces described with the acts of Negotiation, Boundary and (urban) Programme, explained through three examples.

The distinctive examples of Residual Spaces cited from Berlin and Vienna further help to underline facts of turning such spaces into economic instruments in the city. They elaborate on the political nature of temporary uses due to their self-organizing inherent nature and thus is the phenomenon regarded under Urban Intelligence.

The third section, Desire, begins to recognize the value of such experimental case studies owing to the fact that they were temporary in nature. With the exemplary mention of the Permanent Breakfast case study from Austria, they study it through politics to its practice, elaborating through the desires of people for such an activity. The Wish Consultant example is another mentionable project analyzed.

The fourth section, Projects, present a catalogue of observed events categorized under the headings of its type, typical use, location, time, initiators, role of the city, status, goals with the explanation of the project undertaking with images to portray them at their best.

DIS : Critical Reading Assignment : Temporary Urban Spaces Avnish Mehta 737034

Step 2:

Connections between the two books Both books are the result of observed phenomena in the contemporary world, enabling the recognition of the change or the shift occuring in our time. One focussing on the urban scenario while the other on the product culture which occupy those urban spaces. Thus the link between the two studies is made when seen from a distance that both essentially talk about the emergence of social changes. Social changes, where the shift is happening from the assigned and the conventional system to the emerging user participative system. In both the cases, the involvement of the user is observed to be prominant and in dominance over the conventional system and its partakers.

It underlies the fact of paradigm shift usually referred as, ‘power of numbers’.

One demonstrates this Reality in manufacturing sector while the other in spatial planning sector.

Both discusses critically the emergent change in the knowledge of the fact of their historicalorigins. Both are common being examples of unbiased works, but, are convincing with the range and the depth of illustrated examples and case studies they employ towards the reader.

Both signal towards the Social change that is usually coupled with cultural events. Though the later restrictingly studying the Physical culture associated with Urbanism, the former dwelves into the array of connected and related fields of Business, Sociology etc. But noticeably both recognize the inter-linked nature of its components, which forms the essential feature of the present networked community, as their inherent nature.

Comparison between the two books The idea of comparison between the two books will lie in acknowledging the fact that both point towards the simliar phenomenon of the emerging significance of Social nature to our cultures.The active role that the users of such services are taking, the power that is shifting from regulating agencies to the user groups or user communities, the reclaim that the user communities are making towards their social and cultural well being, by Participatory attempts. Then it is immaterial that if it includes innovating products or occupying urban spaces for user specific needs.

The turn around has been initiated by users and the ultimate benefactor are also the users. Thus these changes are seemed to be self organizing, self regulating and mutually beneficial to the exisitng systems.

DIS : Critical Reading Assignment Avnish Mehta 737034