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How does innovation take place? Is it planned
and linear or is it a complex and unpredictable process?
In this strikingly original book, Tuomi shows how innovations
are adopted when users integrate them in meaningful ways
into existing social practices. Histories of major technological
innovations show that often the creative initiative of users
and user communities becomes the determining factor in the
evolution of particular innovations. The evolutionary routes
of the telephone, the Internet, the World Wide Web, email,
and the Linux operating system all took their developers
by surprise.
Iterative and interactive models have replaced
the traditional linear model of innovation during the last
decade. Yet, heroic innovators and entrepreneurs, unambiguous
functionality of products, and a focus on the up-stream
aspects of innovation still underlie much discussion on
innovation, intellectual property rights, technology policy,
and product development. Coherent conceptual, theoretical,
and practical insights from research on knowledge creation,
theory of learning, history of technology, and the social
basis of innovative change have rarely been used to enrich
our understanding of innovation.
This book argues that innovation is about
creating meaning; that it is inherently social; and is grounded
in existing social practices. To understand the social basis
of innovation and technology development we have to move
beyond the traditional product-centric view on innovations.
Integrating concepts from several disciplinary perspectives
and detailed analyses of the evolution of Internet-related
innovations, the book develops foundations for a new theoretical
and practical understanding of innovation. For example,
it shows that innovative development can occur in two quantitatively
different ways, one based on evolving specialization and
the other based on recombination of existing socially produced
resources. The expanding communication and collaboration
networks have increased the importance of the recombinatory
mode, making mobility of resources, sociotechnical translation
mechanisms, and meaning creation in communities of practice
increasingly important for innovation research and product
development.
Ilkka Tuomi is currently Visiting Scientist
at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Institute
for Prospective Technological Studies, Seville. From 1987
to 2001 he worked at the Nokia Research Center in various
positions, most recently as Principal Scientist, Information
Society and Knowledge Management. From June 1999 to December
2000, he was Visiting Scholar at the University of California,
Berkeley.
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