Book Cover, MIT Press. source
In his book 'Democratizing Innovation' (February 2005, html 
) Eric von Hippel explains how emerging process of user-centric, democratized innovation works. He also describes how innovation by users themselves provides a very necessary complement to and feedstock for manufacturer innovation. Democratizing innovation according to von Hippel means:
that users of products and services—both firms and individual consumers—are increasingly able to innovate for themselves. It gives more power to users and these user-centered innovation processes offer great advantages over the manufacturer-centric innovation development systems. Those have been the norm for hundreds of years. Now innovation can happen in a much more decentralized way from the bottom up. wiki
# Features Democratizing Innovation entails: - open and distributed innovation "at the cutting edge of social and commercial demands" - that innovators can focus on what they really want an are beeing recognized by their peers - the integration of users by businesses in the innovation process - new business models and - a major restructuring of the social division of labor
I think in the first place motivations are non-commercial. wiki
Eric von Hippel in 2009. source
Democratizing Innovation challenges: - manufacturer innovation - conventional business models - the intellectual property system, when asked if Intellectual Property laws as they are block innovation?, Eric von Hippel answers:
Certainly. Property owners will try to control the process and block everything that threatens their business models. But free materials will increasingly become an effective competitor for non-free materials and content. wiki
# Conditions
- an education system that is curiosity-led, creates self-motivation and promotes collaborative problem-solving - sophisticated design tools are wide spread, inexpensive and easy to use
# Blind Spot Von Hippel ignores the issue of inalienability and how money queers the integrity of community relationships.
# See also
# Sources