Innovation Perspectives - Innovation Industry on Display

Cynthia DuVal, an experienced ethnographer and the Founding Director of the DuVal Ethnographic Research Center & Change Agency, explores the role of social media in innovation. She highlights how it has helped her to build a network of innovators who communicate through social media channels, learn from each other, and compete to create new value. However, innovation remains secret and privileged, and there is little understanding of how practitioners can function outside of the corporate world in emerging industries. She suggests that if innovation workers can openly discuss the dismal shape of the innovation industry using social media channels, we may be able to cause a shift in thinking and innovation outcomes by developing new types of support for innovation in the public domain.