Mobile Python: Rapid Prototyping of Applications on the Mobile Platform

1.6. Democratizing Innovation on the Mobile Platform

Eric von Hippel, Professor and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, discusses in his book ([von Hippel 2005]) the phenomenon that users can generate innovation if a toolkit – based on a platform product – is provided, that allows them to create user-developed modifications that suit their own needs. He calls this 'distributed innovation' by 'lead users'. Lead users have the following characteristics:

• They are ahead of most users in their population with respect to an important market trend and so are experiencing needs today that will later be experienced by many other users.

• They know and understand their own needs well.

• They are close to 'real situations', so the products they develop will appeal to others too.

• They may innovate if they want something that is not available on the market.

Although his empirical data is collected from other fields, his arguments around his lead-user theory matches well with what we practically experience from outcomes of workshops with creative students learning Python for S60. We see that they innovate instantly, creating unusual and novel applications based on their own ideas, fulfilling their own needs and enabling them to share their innovations.

Can Python for S60 democratize innovation on the mobile platform? We have the vision of a big garden full of beautiful flowers, each representing a novel mobile application created by a lead user ...