Eric Von Hippel - Future Works

Future Works

Professor Von Hippel's hopes to measure how many users innovate and what types of people do this type of work. Then he would like to show that most innovation is still user innovation. He finds it interesting that in the UK, 8% (3-4 million people) of consumers modify the product that they use. He also noted that hospitals have the right to develop and use ideas as long as they do not sell them and he would like to get the institutional review board to approve development in hospital use. In this way, doctors would do innovation first, and then companies would harness this innovation in order to develop. He stressed the fact that the number of consumers modifying products and thereby innovating outweighs the number of people doing this in companies.