source: www.everydayedisons.com

Abstract: Edison Nation is an online community dedicated to inventors and people with ideas. It aims at helping them to turn their ideas into products and companies discovering those ideas. People can submit their ideas (into the Live Product Search database), learn about invention processes, present their ideas to companies and find other people who are capable of helping them with skills they lack (inventors help inventors). Edison Nation sees itself as an intersection between inventors and business. By a network of retailers and manufacturers new product ideas are brought to store shelves. If an idea is selected by a company, the inventor is paid a $2,500 advance plus a percentage of sales.

Selected innovation ideas and their process from the idea to a real product are documented by the Everyday Edisons show  – broadcasted on TV and DVD.

Driver 

Economic / Industrial

In times of me-too-ism and ever faster innovation and product cycles, companies have to find new products in ever shorter intervals in order to surprise their customers. User-driven innovations bear a large, so far untapped potential of innovations. Companies are happy to get in touch with creative people and commercialize their ideas.

On the other hand, as the economy is about to transits into a creativity economy, the individual is depended on marketing their ideas in order to make money.

Obstacle

Economic / Industrial

If the number of comparable platforms increases, this, after a critical number is exceeded, might lead to less successful innovations, as people might get lost in the oversupply of opportunities and cannot decide to whom to present their ideas.

Indication

Change in current innovation patterns

Edison nation is sort of like a talent show for innovators and inventors. In an entertaining manner the TV show accompanies selected personalities on their way to success. This could be a weak signal that innovation processes will become more tangible for the public and that popularity of innovations are increasing.

Potential “innovation wild card”

A personality cult evolves around innovators: They are the next big stars!

Source

Internet

www.everydayedisons.com/default.aspx