Von Hippel, T. Wilson Professor of Management and Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT, and I discuss the community of researchers emerging in the world of open and distributed innovation. We podcast after our remarkable gathering of researchers at invitation-only Harvard-MIT conference on the topic. Eric offers insights into growth of the community and why this is a hot topic in innovation studies.  Thanks Eric for the invite to the conference and for making time for the conversation.

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Very interesting podcast with Peter Semmelhack founder and CEO at Bug Labs. Peter and I discuss exciting developments underway with open source hardware and insights from his experiences attending and presenting at ETech 2008 Conference.

Bug Labs Podcast

Bug Labs BUGbase
Bug Labs: Build your own dream gadget CNET CES Award Winner 2008

“What we are really trying to do is turn the consumer-electronics industry on its ear,” says Bug Labs founder Peter Semmelhack. “Why can’t anyone build whatever electronics they want? Anybody can snap together the hardware. My six-year-old should be able to do it.”

It was fun to be back in Seattle and presenting at the annual American Distance Education Consortium conference in downtown Seattle. My plenary presentation focused on Web 2.0 services providing greater access to tools for innovating and sharing my dissertation research around learning networks and “user innovation 2.0.” Speaking of the world of user innovation, I interviewed the legend in user innovation research Dr. Eric Von Hippel. Eric is Professor and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. We discuss his book Democratizing Innovation (download here) and what’s on his mind these days. I’m a fan of Dr. Hippel’s work … it’s an influence on my research. I’m working with Dr. Hippel, Dr. Lars Bo Jeppesen, Patty Seybold and others to create a user innovation podcast learning channel that will be a go-to place for podcasting on the topic. I’ll blog more about the channel this fall… stay tuned.

Listen to our podcast:

Dr. Eric Von Hippel

How to Improve It? Ask Those Who Use It