USERS ARE TRANSFORMING INNOVATION

A great post from Financial Times China:

 

Chinese version: 靠谁创新全球经济?

English version: USERS ARE TRANSFORMING INNOVATION

 

"

Unfortunately, these important initiatives undervalue perhaps the most important transformation now redefining the world's innovation economy. Ingenious leading-edge users – not everyday consumers or profit-focused producers – are becoming the economic engines that drive innovation. In sectors as diverse as software, biotechnology, medical instrumentation, telecommunications and sports equipment, users are spurring growth.

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Basically it says that it's the consumer/user, especially the early adoptor or visionary segment, is driving the innovation in the past few years and will continue as a major force in the near future. How interesting it is? I would also add one thing to this is that because most of those early adoptor or visionary consumer are also very entrepreneurial so that the mature technology can easily allow them to launch their own startup to address the opportunity if current vendors failed to respond to their voice.

 

Considering those initiatives from most innovative north european countries like sweden and denmark:

 

"Denmark has been the first nation to turn this into policy. In 2005, the Danish government established “strengthening user-centred innovation” as a national priority. Sweden's tradition of “participatory design” has positioned several of its industries to take good advantage of this phenomenon. Britain's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts has begun funding policy research in user-driven innovation. These early efforts are important and more will follow."

 

Taking account into Google's recent open bid for wireless spectum to compete with Verizon etc, Open becomes the trend. What if Chinese government re-organize China Mobile and China Unicom to take back the ownership of the GSm and CDMA infrastructure network but lease back to China mobile and China unicom. Then use this state-owned infrastructure network to encourage wireless innovations such as MVNO, WAP, LBS etc etc?

 

Everything here is following the step of Wikipedia. When you have millions of well-educated user that are ready to helping contributing together, the only thing you need is a mechanism. Oh, is Democracy such a thing?

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