Between innovation and communication - credit and conversation A conversation with Shaun Abrahamson, Organizer at colaboratorie mutopo, New York, USA
What you see in communities, is that where it of course can't exist without the people, it also can't exist without its leaders. An example of a great community leader is Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress. He is a developer, yes, but he is also a very smart communicator. He responds to every comment he gets on his blog, and if he needs to communicate to larger audiences, he posts a video. He has understood both the importance of communication as well as the need to scale the conversation tools you use. Other examples are Craig Newmark from craigslist.com or Tim O'Reilly from oreilly.com.
"Crediting is the key word in leading communities," Shaun says. "It's not if contributions from people are working, it's if they're credited." The value of innovation communities should therefore be measured, not only in economic terms, but also in more social terms like customer relationship and human resources. "Crediting depends on where you want people to pitch in. Apple, for instance, is famous for 'stealing by observing', which is a one-way approach to innovation, but in the case of the app store, they have opened up and give people the full credit for the applications they develop. Sometimes getting inspired by observing and testing products based on understanding user behavior is the right solution, sometimes it's more beneficial to open up and have a dialogue or simply let people build on a platform." Shaun continues. "Of course then you need to find a fair reward system," he 9