ABSTRACT
How can firms make use of online communities as part of an innovation strategy aimed at leveraging resources and ideas outside the four walls of the enterprise? Online communities are today a widespread phenomenon that takes a variety of forms. Free and open source software is probably the most well-known case, where geographically dispersed individuals collectively develop new software and produce innovation. In 1991 Linus Torvalds founded the Linux kernel, the heart of an operating system with the ability to have a real impact on Microsoft’s market share. Torvalds’ initial ideas led to the building of a community that collectively developed the Linux kernel. From the original incorporation of some 10,000 lines of source code, by 2005 the community had developed more than 6,000,000 lines of code. But online communities are more than simply free and open source software. For instance, social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, which have memberships of millions, have grown rapidly, allowing individuals to share experiences and socialize with each other. From initially being exclusively for participation by Harvard students, Facebook, according to recent estimates, now has more than 60 million users worldwide. The popular press has been swift to document these successes, and it is tempting to conclude that online communities have great potential. Yet, their diversity, in terms of objectives, typology of organization, production and reasons behind individuals’ use of them, is becoming obvious.
