Innovation communities are a new and vitally important focal point for innovation in industries where the enterprise has or needs extensive contacts with its supply chain, vendor partners of development communities.

This ecosystem is an important source of practical and implementable ideas and by inviting contributions, the enterprise can also seed acceptance of change in the wider community.

This in-depth-article explains the benefits of targeting the ecosystem rather than the wider public or the company's immediate needs, explaining how to define and manage an innovation community.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Haydn Shaughnessy, senior editor, has worked at the epicentre of innovation in a 25 year career spanning journalism, consultancy and research management. He began his technology career as a manager of application research in broadband, mobile and downstream satellite services and has maintained a continuous production of analysis and intellectual material around innovation since then, having written on Wired Cities, Fibre to the Home, Future Search Engines, and international collaboration. He is an emerging thought leader in systemic innovation building on his PhD research in large scale economic transformations. He was previously a parter at The Conversation Group, the leading global social technologies consultancy where he helped companies such as Alcatel Lucent, Volvo, General Motors, Symbian Foundation, and Unilever adapt to the current transformations in the global digital economy. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, , Harvard Business Review, and many newspapers as well as making documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and RTE. His consultancy and research work encompasses changing enterprise structures, new business models and long-term trends in attitudes. He is in demand as a speaker on the impact of changing attitudes on business and on gearing innovation to new consumer requirements.