Innovation Communities (Spring 2016)

Innovation Communities: How Business Can Harness the DIY Dynamic

COM597F - Masters of Communication in Communities and Networks (MCCN) Elective, Department of Communication

Instructor: Benjamin Mako Hill (University of Washington)

Course Websites:

• We will use Canvas for announcements, turning in assignments, and discussion
• Everything else will be linked on this page.

Course Catalog Description:

Can innovation be crowdsourced? Equipped with a range of new digital communication technologies, “users” innovate every day — creating solutions to their own problems through sharing and collaboration. Disruptive new models of collective innovation are emerging in forums, in “free” and “open source” efforts, and in hacking initiatives. Organizations increasingly want to tap into this community-driven DIY dynamic, but frequently struggle to structure their own innovation processes in relation to these unique communities. This class will explore some of the techniques that firms can use to harness this surge of innovation by introducing a new “democratized” or “user-centric” innovation paradigm. We’ll look at how user communities bolster their ability to innovate through specific technological tools and innovative social routines. Through practical examples, you will learn how to effectively use communities both as sources of inspiration and as collaborators.

Overview and Learning Objectives

I believe that in the twenty-first century innovation will be more likely to be managed — in dramatically different ways than it was in the previous century — by professionals like the students in the Communication Leadership program than by engineering managers in R&D departments.

This course will help prepare you for this future by bringing together several decades of research into the sources of innovation with practical advice and hands-on experience putting this research into action.

I will consider the course a complete success if every student is able to do each of these things at the end of the quarter:

• Distinguish community innovation and user innovation from traditional forms of innovation and recognize examples in their own business and personal lives.
• Describe techniques for finding innovations created by users including lead user search, innovation toolkits, broadcast search and crowdsourcing, and user communities and feel comfortable using each.
• Anticipate challenges associated with community innovation and respond to these challenges effectively.
• Have experience using at least one user innovation method to find a new innovation that solves a problem relevant to the student's employment or personal interests.

Organization

The course is organized into two main components:

Component 1: Community Innovation Methods

In the first half of the class (Weeks 1-5), we will focus on learning practical methods for finding innovations using communities and users. In the first session, I will make a strong case for the importance of user innovation techniques. In each of the next four weeks, we will focus on learning four practical techniques for harnessing community innovation:

• Lead user search
• Innovation toolkits / open source innovation
• Broadcast search / crowdsourcing
• Collaborative / information sharing user communities

Because I want students to start early on their projects — and because the course project will involve applying these methods — the first sessions are organized roughly from what I believe will be the least familiar to the most intuitive. During the first half of the quarter, there will be more reading and less expectation that you will be working on your course project.

Component 2: Community Innovation Applications and Challenges

In the second half of the course, we will dig deeper into examples of community innovation and focus on applications, examples, and challenges associated with their use.

During this half of the quarter, we will rely more heavily on case studies of firms putting community innovation methods into practice and focus on in-class exercises that prompt critical consideration of how community innovation takes place in different domains as well the challenges associated with using these methods (e.g., intellectual property, balancing commercial interests with community interests).

Assignments

The assignments in this class are designed to give you an opportunity to try your hand at community innovation methods. There will be no exams, tests, or quizzes.

Unless otherwise noted, all assignments are due at the end of the day (i.e., 11:59pm on the day they are due).

Participation and Cases

The course relies heavily on participation, discussion, and the case study method. Although they are not used frequently in the Communication Leadership program, case studies are probably the most common model of teaching in business schools. A standard "case" usually involves reading an example — perhaps up to 20-35 pages of background about an organization or group facing an ambiguous or difficult challenge. I will mark certain readings as "[Cases]" in the syllabus and I will expect you to read these particularly closely.

It is important to realize that we will not summarize case material in class and I will not cover it in lecture. I expect you all to have read it and we will jump in and start discussing it.

Cases ask students to put themselves in the positions of managers in the firms described to tease out the tensions and forces at play in the case and to construct — through group discussion — the broader lessons and takeaways. Cases are a wonderful way to connect the sometimes abstract concepts taught in many academic courses to real examples of the type of ambiguous situations that you will likely encounter in your career. Generally speaking, there are not right and wrong answers in cases.

Typically, professors teaching cases cold call on students in rooms of hundred students. Since our class will be smaller than a typical case-based class, cold calling might not be necessary very often although I will sometimes use it and you should always be ready to answer every question. That said, I do expect every student to be in class every week and to be prepared to discuss the cases and the readings. If you have not spoken all class, I may cold call on you.

The "Participation Rubric" section of my detailed page on assessment gives the rubric I will use in evaluating participation. Please read that page carefully.

Projects

There will be three assignments and each will build on the previous toward a final project. The "Writing Rubric" section of my detailed page on assessment gives the rubric I will use to evaluate these projects and your written papers.

Domain/Problem Identification

Maximum Length

600 words (~2 double spaced)

Due Date

FIXME (April 15)

Deliverables

Turn in on Canvas

In this assignment, you should concisely identify an problem or thematic area you are interested in — and that you hope to pursue in your final project. I am hoping that each of you will pick an area or domain that you are intellectually committed to and invested in (e.g., in your business or personal life).

You will be successful if you describe the scope of the problem and explain why you are interested in using community innovation methods to find innovations in this domain and/or solutions to your stated problem.

I will give you feedback on these write-ups and will let you each know if I think you have identified an area that might be too ambitious, too trivial, too broad, too narrow, etc.

Project Proposal

Maximum Length

1500 words (~5 pages)

Due Date

FIXME (May 4)

Deliverables

Turn in on Canvas

Building on your problem identification assignment, you should describe a method for finding innovations or solutions in the innovation or domain problem you have identified.

To do this effectively, you will need to have evaluated each of the four methods introduced in the first half of the quarter. That said, the primarily goal of this assignment is not to test your comprehension but to have you to tell me what you will do in your final project. You will need to understand the course material to construct a relevant and effective proposal. As long as you successfully use the course material to argue for your proposal's appropriateness, it is absolutely fine if your proposal is for a combination of, or even an elaboration or extension of, the methods we cover in the course.

A successful proposal will (a) describe clearly what you plan to do to find innovation and (b) use the course material to make an argument that your proposal is the most effective and appropriate way for you to go about finding innovation given the resources at your disposal.

I will give you feedback on these proposals and suggest changes or modifications that are more likely to make them successful or compelling and to work with you to make sure that you have the resources and support necessary to carry out your project successfully.

Final Project

Presentation Date

FIXME June 3

Maximum presentation length

~10 minutes (to be confirmed)

Presentation deliverables

Turn in slides on Canvas (details to be announced)

Paper Due Date

FIXME June 13

Maximum paper length

4500 words (~18 pages)

Paper deliverables

Turn in on Canvas

For your final project, I expect students to build on the first two assignments to describe what they have done and what they have found. I'll expect every student to give both:

• A short presentation to the class
• A final report that is not more than 4500 words (~18 pages)

I expect that your reports will include text from the first two assignments and reflect comprehensive documentation of your project. Each project should include: (a) the description of the problem or domain you have identified, (b) the community innovation methods you have used to find a solution and, (c) the results.

You will be evaluated on the degree to which you have demonstrated that you understand and have engaged with the course material and not on the quality of the innovations you have found. If you do not find great solutions to your problem in the communities you've identified, that's fine. Whether or not your proposal is successful, I want you to reflect on why the methods worked (or did not work) and how they might have worked better. What did you do right? What would you do differently in the future? What did the course and readings not teach that they should have?

A successful project will tell a compelling story and will engage with, and improve upon, the course material to teach an audience that includes me, your classmates, and MCCN students taking this class in future years, how to take advantage of community innovation more effectively. The very best papers will give us all a new understanding of some aspect of course materal and change the way I teach some portion of this course in the future.

Grading

I have put together a very detailed page that describes the grading rubric we will be using in this course. Please read it carefully I will assign grades for each of following items on the UW 4.0 grade scale according to the weights below:

• Participation: 30%
• Problem Identification: 5%
• Project Proposal: 10%
• Final Presentation: 15%
• Final Paper: 40%