The Democratization of End User Innovation

Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson wrote an awesome post this morning called "Open Platforms and Innovation," in which he discusses Time magazine's cover story this week about Twitter.

The major take away from the article, in Fred's mind, is a shift in thinking about innovation. While evidence of innovation (or innovation capacity) is usually measured in patents and PhD's, there seems to be a disconnect between those numbers and the sort of consumer innovation that is becoming so seamlessly integrated with the modern internet.

Technology has reached a point where anyone can get involved with innovation. Patents and degrees matter a lot less. Imagining something and then coding it up is what its all about these days.

We are engaged in what Eric von Hippel calls "end user innovation" and it is a fundamental shift in the way society innovates. The Twitter founders are a perfect example. They built a simple tool to share short messages and it has become something entirely different.

Now clearly Fred is focused on the consumer internet, but there is evidence of this thesis all around. My friend Alex at NetSquared posted an awesome interview with Appfrica Founder Jon Gosier. Talking about the genesis for the idea:

So at Barcamp Kampala (or Campala as we called it), about 80 to 100 hungry software developers showed up. They had never done anything like it before. They were mostly students but there were also CEOs, administrators, and leaders from the industry (like Joseph Mucheru from Google East Africa). Unlike most events here, everyone was an equal, it didn't matter if you were a student or millionaire, everyone had equal control. That seemd to really resonate. One of the things the crowd kept mentioning was that there was a lack of mentors and access to capital for software developers. I decided to start Appfrica Labs out of those discussions.

Appfrica just saw the first investment in one of it's developer's companies, Status.ug.

The fascinating thing is that while the tech world has some unique circumstances, it's impact is enabling the democratization of innovation elsewhere, as well. For example, the rural clinics who are beginning to use FrontlineSMS:Medic aren't necessarily hacking the software, but they are building use cases that can be shared across their network and diffuse innovative practical applications.

This is extremely powerful stuff.