People have many creative ideas, but only a few of these ideas are realized and lead to innovation. Good ideas often fail because they are not shared between innovators and stakeholders, hence are unlikely to be realized. Consequently, many opportunities are missed to excite customers and to gain a competitive advantage. This paper proposes an innovation process that uses online social networks to lower the hurdle to sharing ideas. The process leverages diffusion effects of social networks while supporting the generation, evaluation, consolidation, and implementation of innovative ideas with lightweight activities. The process is illustrated and discussed using an application example. Although we are focusing on innovation regarding software-intensive systems, we foresee that the discussed process has the potential to be applied to other domains as well.

1. Online Social Networks
as a Catalyst for
Software and IT Innovation
Leif Singer | leif.singer@inf.uni-hannover.de | @lsinger
Norbert Seyff | seyff@ifi.uzh.ch
Samuel A. Fricker | samuel.fricker@bth.se | @samuelfricker
September 5th 2011
S O F T W A R E
E N G I N E E R I N G
4th International Workshop on Social Software Engineering

2. Agenda
Platforms for Innovation
Requirements for an Innovation Process
Literature Review
An Innovation Process for
Online Social Networks
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3. Platforms for Innovation
“the average U.S. employee's ideas, big or small,
are implemented only once every six years”
“more innovative companies typically
implement far more employee ideas”
– Rachel Emma Silverman,WSJ
http://j.mp/sse11-wsj
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4. Platforms for Innovation
• Platforms for Open Innovation, Crowd Sourcing of
Innovation, ...
– mostly for companies looking to fill a specific gap
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5. Requirements for an Innovation Process
• Do these platforms work? How? Why?
• What about innovation not tied to a specific business need?
– What kind of innovation process could work for these?
➡ Requirements for an Innovation Process
– from work on Star Search process
– aimed at innovation in software
– no problem statement, no pitch!
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6. Requirements for an Innovation Process
R1
Quality
R1: Ideas need to be good
• judging an idea is hardest for the inventor
• an innovation process should evaluate idea quality
• only the best ideas should persist
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7. Requirements for an Innovation Process
R2
Share
R2: Ideas need to be shared
• ideas need to reach the right people who can ...
– add valuable feedback
– pass it on
– join forces
– support realization
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8. Requirements for an Innovation Process
R3
Combine
R3: Ideas need to be combined
• different perspectives add value to ideas
– developer vs. user
– management vs. marketing vs. engineering
➡ connect related ideas, reveal synergies
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9. Requirements for an Innovation Process
R4
Understand
R4: Ideas need to be well understood
• trade-off: long-term innovation vs. reactive development
• ideas at relative disadvantage compared to customer
requirements
➡ invest in & enhance ideas that are really understood to lower
risks
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10. Requirements for an Innovation Process
R5
Select
R5: Ideas need to be selected
• realization requires scarce resources
– people, time, financing
• ideas are abundant
➡ choose which ideas to fund and implement
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11. Literature Review
Information Diffusion
Literature Effect on Idea Process
Platform Requirements
Kwak2010: ideas may reach very far reach
RT reach (not distant people R2
count) independent Share
of followers
Sun2009: idea from only one user social filtering
“viral” posts will not spread R1
originate from Quality
multiple users R5
Select
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12. Literature Review
Behavior Adoption
Literature Effect on Idea Process
Platform Requirements
Burke2009, influence behavior of motivate
Centola2010: innovators and sharing,
social reinforcement commenters commenting,
makes others do
the same as their voting
friends (to a certain R2
degree) Share
see also: Sinan Aral R3
Combine
R5
Select
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13. Literature Review
Community Composition
Literature Effect on Idea Process
Platform Requirements
Roger2005: heterogenous different
Ideas spread faster communities with perspectives
in diverse groups thought leaders
desirable R3
thought leaders Combine
crucial for adoption
Kwak2010, helps in bringing similar similar
Thelwall2009: people together perspectives
homophily exists in
R4
OSNs Understand
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14. Literature Review
Literature on ...
Information Behavior Community
Diffusion Adoption Composition
R1
Quality
R2
Share
R3
Combine
R4
Understand
R5
Select
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15. An Innovation Process for Online Social Networks
Idea Conception • Have an idea and scribble it
down!
Idea Publication
... then post it online.
Initial Feedback
Idea Communication
Community Building
Idea Refinement
Realization Options
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16. An Innovation Process for Online Social Networks
Idea Conception • Share your idea with your social
network!
Idea Publication
Initial Feedback
Idea Communication
Community Building
Idea Refinement
Realization Options
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17. An Innovation Process for Online Social Networks
Idea Conception • I like your idea!
Idea Publication
Initial Feedback
Idea Communication
Community Building
Idea Refinement
Realization Options
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18. An Innovation Process for Online Social Networks
Idea Conception • Repost! Reshare! Retweet!
Idea Publication • Sounds interesting, let’s discuss
this ...
Initial Feedback
Idea Communication
Community Building
Idea Refinement
Realization Options
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19. An Innovation Process for Online Social Networks
Idea Conception • You don’t know me, but I found
your idea and I’d like to talk
Idea Publication about this ...
Initial Feedback • A friend told me about your
idea, may I join you?
Idea Communication
Community Building
Idea Refinement
Realization Options
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20. An Innovation Process for Online Social Networks
Idea Conception • What are our options?
Idea Publication • But what about ...?
Initial Feedback
• Can we resolve this problem?
Idea Communication
Community Building
Idea Refinement
Realization Options
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21. An Innovation Process for Online Social Networks
Idea Conception • Let’s post this to Kickstarter!
Idea Publication • I know someone who works
there ...!
Initial Feedback
Idea Communication • I was looking for an idea for a
startup anyway, may I use this?
Community Building
Idea Refinement
Realization Options
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22. Summary
• understand existing platforms for crowd sourcing of ideas
• innovation platform without concrete business needs?
• requirements for an innovation prozess from Star Search
– initial literature review: can be supported in OSNs
• initial draft process
• Outlook
– experiments in public OSNs
– systematic literature review
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