Opensource r eportv2

Understanding
Communities
Research and design directions exploring how to effectively work with
communities to develop and vet new ideas.

Design Planning Workshop
Spring 2009

Hintzman :: Knopman :: Mioduszewski :: Vuong

Spring 2009

1

Table of Contents

Report Overview............................................................................................3
What we set out to do and what we found

The Open Source Landscape.........................................................................4 – 6
Secondary research into the evolution of Open Source, the communities
that work on projects and business models around Open Source

Community Creation and Companies. ...........................................................7 – 9
.
The ways companies and communities can work together and our
research direction exploring how communities and Teague can work together

Research Methodology and Community Findings.........................................10–13
.
We talked to community members in the shoe and car industries and
developed understanding about the organization of communities

Design Principles............................................................................................14–19
Key principles when designing for communities

Solution Strategies.........................................................................................20–28
How Teague can address community needs while meeting its own
business objectives

Road Map.......................................................................................................29
Framing solutions opportunity space, time horizon, and certainty

Spring 2009

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THE OPEN SOURCE LANDSCAPE
REPORT OVERVIEW

Report Overview

After conducting research into Open Source and customizing communities and identifying their
needs, we developed a portfolio of solutions that allow Teague to tap into community knowl-
edge and work

Teague is a design consultancy firm that was founded in 1926. Through its history, it has be-
come a leader in aviation design and industrial design in the consumer electronics and life-
style products industry. Realizing the need to stay competitive in an industry that is becoming
commoditized by offshore manufacturing and labor, as well as shorter product lifecycles and
increasing marketing costs, Teague saw potential in the growing popularity of Open Source
Hardware (OSH).

Our goal was to develop a portfolio of options of how Teague could capitalize on OSH development,
and what types of revenue streams were possible. Through our initial research we soon found that
OSH was very similar to Open Source Software development in ideology, but very different because
of the nature of physical production of artifacts. We also identified a typology of OS business models
that Teague could pursue: Traditional OS, Commercial OS, Product Co-Creation, and Platform develop-
ment.

After discussing the strengths and weaknesses with Teague, we were able to focus our research on
what would benefit Teague the most--Product Co-Creation. Co-Creation is a way to identify trends of
users, get rapid feedback during design, and get user validation during development and testing.

To understand Co-Creation, we looked at not just the Open Source Community, but other industries
and communities that support and benefit from the work of members. We were also interested in
how these communities are built and supported through its members because they are not usually
officially formed and sanctioned, but rather built around hobbyists and enthusiasts very much like the
Open Source Community. We also looked at customization, the people who do it and support it to
understand why people modify products and what benefits the get from it.

From our research in areas such as car enthusiasts and sneaker customization, we were able to
identify unmet needs of hobbyists and customizers, and develop design principles for a system that
would develop and support an Open Source Hardware community. Initial concepts were developed
around these principles. We then filtered the concepts based on Teague’s needs, objectives, and
capabilities.

The final concept solutions ranged from Teague creating a blog and web presence among Open
Source Hardware hackers, to creating live events and competition for community members, to creat-
ing physical workshops for tinkerers and hobbyists to join and share work space while socializing. The
concepts were then given an implementation strategy starting with the web presence based on the
need and Teague’s capabilities in interaction design. The final step in the process would be the cre-
ation of the physical workshops, or Hacker Hauses. The entire process should be done within a time
span of less than 2 years however because of the fast paced nature of Open Source.

We believe this portfolio of options will not only make Teague a member, but also a leader in the
Open Source community. This in turn will lead to quicker trend spotting, faster development time,
and better user feedback. This will make Teague a sought after firm for companies wanting to create
products and services that people want to use.

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Open Source + Teague

As the Open Source movement expands, how can Teague utilized these communities within its
development process?

“Open Source” generally refers to a free and open approach to the design, development, and
distribution of a product. The end goal of an open source product is to give the user information about
a product to adapt the product fit their need, whether it is an individual user, or community of users.
New products are shared with the community alongside the underlying code or specs so other users
can continue the cycle of modification.

Open Source used to be primarily a tool of computer scientists at academic institutions, but in recent
years has seen its scope expand beyond these communities. Open Source software, with Linux
as the flag bearer, have become businesses unto themselves. Code that has been developed and
refined by the community, is packaged with customer support and sold to outside organizations.
These companies find themselves the beneficiary of not only well-engineered solution, but also with
a new set of end-customers in the developer community.

Open Source exists because of innovations that allowed collaboration to scale across geogra-
phies, companies and industries.

Open Source is a formalization of collaboration. While it used to be that we could only collaborate
with coworkers at work and friends at home, innovations in methods of communication and support
for development of ideas have allowed collaboration to develop into businesses. The internet, the de-
velopment of GPL (General Public Licenses), which protect open/collaborative work from being later
patented, and the advent of companies that provided user support and know-how about Open Source
products have extended the reach of Open Source software. While small batch manufacturing, has
facilitated the evolution of Open Source from software to product development.

Internet Legal Protection User Support Small Batch Manufacturing
Individuals GPL and creative This skin around Increases in global manufacturing
were able to commons licensing the Open Source capacity, have brought down the cost
connect and allowed businesses community, allows to fabricate designs so individuals
share ideas to utilize the advan- community devel- can now design and make their own
across geog- tages of open source opment to be used products.
raphies. without worry of by a non-developer
placing themselves at end market.
a competitive disad- open source hardware
vantage.

open source business models

collaboration across organizations

communities of collaborators

collaboration within your personal network
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Understanding the OS community

Most projects aren’t worked on, those that are aren’t worked on by many.

The idea of open source software is commonly regarded a production of a community of developers,
but open source projects tend to be developed by small groups of individuals. One might also think
that the more complex a project gets the more developers there are involved. In fact, there is no
meaningful correlation between the size of the project and the number of developers. A larger project
doesn’t require more developers.

number of number of
projects projects

active unchanged in last 6 1 2-3 4-10 11- 20 >20
months number of people working on project
Data was taken from an analysis of 400 open source projects from the FreashMeat portal
which was published in IEEE journal in 2003. The data gathered was from 2001 .

For communities to succeed, problems must have distinct modules that can worked
on separately.

In a community of open source contributors, the key is to ensure an architecture that allows for
customers and other self-interested users of the software to easily contribute pieces without having
to sift through the whole project. The architecture of codebase is a critical factor with all open source
software projects. Modularity and option values are important factors within the architecture of open
source software. They allow developers with appropriate skills and training to make early, informed
decisions and encourage the evolution of the open source project.

Modularity allows developers to tweak the code for their own benefit. Developers are “able to make
small extensions without having to upset the balance of the larger project.” It allows code to evolve
incrementally and lowers the barriers of entry by new developers by making it more approachable.
Modularity encourages a community to elicit contributions based on the community’s natural reciproc-
ity, altruism and a wish to be affiliated. It also allows many contributors to be recognized for their

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Open Source business models

There are existing business models that tap into the Open Source community.

the customer the product the value propsition

Aggregate a kit developers component parts Customer gets every-
of parts thing needed to make
a product in one stop.
Customer gets recom-
mended/high quality
parts.

Center of the universe non-developers, espe- advice on how to use Customer gets a
consulting cially larger companies community generated usable version of a
products higher quality product
and help deploying the
changes as they are
developed in the com-
munity.
Prepare for rapid developers and non- Open Source products The company will in-
change developers variably face knock-off
challengers. By being
open at the onset, the
company reduces the
market for knock-off
and benefits from the
innovation within the
communities.

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COMMUNITY CREATION AND COMPANIES

Collaborative business models

Stepping back from our original scope, we looked at the value from and questions about varying
types of user involvement in the creative process

Traditional Open Source example: linksys
Company utilizes open
source technology
developed in communi- open source Other
ties (might be company community Teague Companies
managed but are not
company directed). By
using open source, the
company gains prestige
within the developer/
open source community
paying
and increases sales to consumers
this community. Product (users)

is sold into the mass
free developers
market, but without a (makers/users) How do you monitor and use open
perceived competitive
advantage (open source source technology to create better/
doesn’t matter to these more appealing products for the devel-
people). oper and non-developer community?

Commercial Open Source example: red hat

The company manages
an open source com-
munity, taking an ac- open source Other
tive role in presenting community Teague Companies
projects and guiding
the community. These
projects are packaged
(with service offerings,
or increased usability)
to be sold into a mass
paying
audience. consumers
(users)

free developers
(makers/users) How do you manage a community to
get useful insights and components of
products relevant to a non-developer
community?

Spring 2009

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COMMUNITY CREATION AND COMPANIES

Collaborative business models

Co-creation example: Lego

A dynamic relationship
between producer
and consumer where Teague
a company engages
consumer and produc-
tion and/or distribution ideas
of goods services and
values.

paying consumers
How do you involve your end users (users)
and/or business partners to contribute
to the development of products?

Platform example: iPhone

Company creates
usable product that is
sold into the market. other
Teague
Information about this companies
product is released to
allow other individu-
als and companies to
develop complimen-
tary products. Product
brand is enhanced by
the ability to custom-
ize with these external free developers
products. (makers/users) paying consumers
(users)

How do you create products that allow individuals and
companies to add on to the offering, creating a richer
brand and product experience through developments
external to the company?

Spring 2009

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Co-Creation + Teague

Teague is interested in how to tap into the knowledge, work and trends in the
developer/tinkering community

Each of the collaborative business models has an area of intersection between Teague and the
developer/tinkering community. In talks with Teague, it was clear that it was the nature of these
intersections, not the specifics of Open Source, which were of the greatest value to the firm. Rather
than providing specifics of a business model, our research looks at the nature of how companies can
locate, work with and utilize the knowledge of communities and individuals.

community Teague

free developers
(makers/users)

Spring 2009

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND COMMUNITY FINDINGS

New Research Direction

Examining Open Source as Customization and Co-Creation

After talking with Teague and reframing Open Source as a form of co-creation, we decided to focus
our research on the biggest and most well-known form which is customization. We wanted to know
who customizers were, who they customized things for, and what motivated them to customize
things.

We also saw that it was important to understand the communities that get behind customization of
products, as they were the people who made large open source projects not only possible, but kept
the projects going throughout different communities. It was necessary to research what motivated
these communities and not just individual customizers, and understand how they functioned as a
group with common goals as well as individual goals.

Spring 2009

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Understanding the Community

Research Methodology Focusing on the Entire Spectrum
of Community Participants

In order to understand not just the community and how it interacts within, and how it represents
itself to the outside world, we wanted to talk to people at all points of the spectrum. This lead us to
those who were at the center of their group, or the hardcore participants, to the people who are on
the fringes, those who liked the community but didn’t necessarily associate with it entirely. This lead
us to create a model of community interaction that helped us understand the members and the roles
they played within the community. It also helped us identify those we wanted to interview for our
primary research.

Members’ Roles and Participation Structure the Community Architecture

The Hero

These are individuals who stand out within their groups. Their
work is not only representative of the community, but is also
influential and emulated by the subcommunity.

The Subcommunity

These are active members within the community who help
support it and make it grow. They specialize in their specific
group and often socialize (both physical and virtual) in order for
the group to sustain itself and gain new members.

The Lifestyle Ecosystem

Although these are not integral members of the group, they are
an essential part of the community. They serve as a gateway of
information and education for those without existing resources
to join the community and provide a wider audience for mem-
bers to show off their work.

Spring 2009

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Research Participants

Miguel: Hero

Sneaker customizer, former graffiti artist

Ben: Subcommunity Member

Car enthusiast / customizer

Nikhil: Subcommunity Member

Car enthusiast / customizer / designer

Marilee: Lifestyle Ecosystem Member

Worked for car enthusiast magazine

Spring 2009

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Understanding the Community

Community Overlaps and Intersections Spread Knowledge and Influence

From our research, we were able to see how ideas and trends flow from one community to another.
As influence from the Heroes spreads out to the Lifestyle members, these Lifestyle members also
belong to different Lifestyle communities. As trends rise and fall, these members pass the trends
along their individual communities as well, spreading influence up to those with Hero status. We
believe this intersection is where innovations happen as communities influence each other and pass
trends along to different communities.

We feel that if Teague can help build and maintain a community of Open Source Hardware hackers
and tinkerers, they will also be able to spot rising trends from across different industries, communi-
ties, and cultures. Teague will then have an advantage as a trend spotter, but would also have the
ability to tap into these different communities through their own influence within the Open Source
Hardware community.

Example of trend and information flows across different communities with shared
members

Skateboard
Community Sneaker
Community

Graffiti
Community

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Design Principles

Our primary and secondary research identified needs, objectives, activities and breakdowns that
clustered into nine principles when designing for a community.

• Provide a place for community members to display work

• Provide ease of entry for different skill levels

• Provide people with acess to resources and tools

• Offer opportunities for education and growth

• Offer compensation to members for work used

• Appeal to wider ecosystem

• Have a way of showing membership ad identity

• Have transparent process

• Value the community and past accomplishments

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Provide a place for community
members to display work
A solution should allow customizes to showcase their work and exhibit contributions along side the
contributors. Members add value to the community through their specials skills, knowledge and abili-
ties. The platform to display work should be both virtual and physical forums and should allow the cre-
ator to interact with the audience during the process. Providing a way for people to exchange ideas
and to validate each others ideas helps the community build their skills and continue learning.

For our research:
• ommunity members want to be famous. “....not that they wouldn’t want recognition for them-
C
selves. i think they’d all want to be famous...just like painting and works of art get known” – Marilee

• dentifying the good people through the community and learning from them. ”Through the com-
I
munity...you figure out who’s the good mechanic...like anyone does in a social network you figure
out who the good people are and learn from them...now that there’s the internet it’s a lot easier...
specialty publications...doing whatever you do to learn about your car and keep it operating...it’s
informal.” – Marilee

• embers need the community to validate and appreciate their work “i don’t think you can do car
M
stuff by yourself. If you don’t have a community around you that appreciates the inordinate amount
of time you spend on your vehicle...” –Marilee

Provide ease of entry for different skill levels
A solution should allow members of different skill levels to enter into community activities and
educate all levels of contributors. Exploring different possibilities and ideas are important to the skill
development of a community. The solution should provide a way for people to find out about new
things and build on existing knowledge whether they are a novice or an expert. It should have no or
low cost of entry.

For our research:
• xperimenting and exploring involved in customizations, especially when there is little previous
E
knowledge “trial and error and a lot of error”- Nikhil

• ustomizing begins with casual exploration. People don’t always start out customizing with the goal
C
of customizing, it’s more of an ends to a mean. He got started by making a pair for his brother, then
his kids. It snowballed after that –Miguel

• kill and ability limitations make it difficult for anybody to customize things, people without technical
S
skills and craftsmanship may not participate- Miguel

• eed to offer different levels of involvement to draw in those who might not have the resources or
N
knowledge to be a core community member. –Marilee

Spring 2009

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Provide people with acess to
resources and tools
A solution should provide access to tinker-friendly things. With new technologies stifling the ability to
tinker, it is important for the community to have access to new technologies and tools. This enables
members to discover new skills and build on there previous knowledge. Providing a wide range of
options, from the low tech tools to tools for the highly skilled tinkerer also helps community member
to develop skills and learn from each other.

For our research:
• ompanies bringing resources to the community. ”Nike provided materials, stipends” - Miguel
C

• he knowledge necessary to tinker needs to be easily available” ...they [old cars] are cars that
T
people can work on...it’s specialied knowledge but it’s not inaccessible”-Marilee

• he car industry is evolving in a way that prevents access by a tinkering community- “they taught
T
[auto repair] in my high school...but where do you go to learn that? the cars that they build are all
computerized...there’s no connection...you really have to have a level of expertise that is uncom-
mon”- Marilee

• You would have to invest in more equipment. You have to buy all the computer, the equipment to
“
diagnose... Can’t do as much with a new car these days”- Ben

Offer opportunities for
education and growth
A solution should provide members with opportunities for educational growth to achieve profes-
sional and personal goals. Emerging talent often arises out of creative communities and those talents
should be recognized and given opportunities for professional growth. Communities value learning
and skill development, therefore a solution should provide resources and tools that help members
grow as an individual.

For our research:
• neaker designers who submit ideas online have a “naïve hope” that they will get recognized for
S
their work and get hired by a company – Miguel

• embers need the community to get information about resources. “If you’re not part of a commu-
M
nity you don’t know...where to get parts” – Marilee

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Offer compensation to members for work used
A solution should recognize that compensation for ideas can be realized in terms beyond financial
reward. Other forms of compensation include the opportunity to network and build close bonds with
colleagues and friends, access to education and resources, and publicity. Receiving credit and recog-
nition for individual accomplishments is integral to the co-creation process.

For our research:
• I think they’d [tinkerers] all want to be famous, just like [creators of] paintings and works of art get
“
known.” –Marile

• It’s about being around your friends and family, working on it together. You can meet up together
“
and work on your car. Like ‘Ben just got new sonar heads for his car, let’s get a 12 pack of beer and
work on it.’” –Ben

Appeal to wider ecosystem
A solution should transcend the product or project and consider the over-arching value system and
ecosystem supporting a project area. A solution should acknowledge the various inspiration sources
of an idea, as many customizations are throw-backs and references to prior art. Additionally, a solution
should recognize that needs and preferences of customizers are dynamic and ever-changing for; what
is relevant today, may not be tomorrow.

For our research:
• It [my choices] represents a different time in my life now, I’m kind of moving on from it, like, I
“
want to get a Vespa. I was living in the suburbs. I was driving around a whole lot. There was a
different culture around it too, your car meat a lot more to you, cause that’s how you connected
to your friends. You really couldn’t get over to anyone’s house without a car. You couldn’t get to
school. Here I could take public transportation all over the place.” –Ben

• There are a lot of semantic clues, themes, metaphors and analogies you can take from other prod-
“
ucts and use in your professional life.”–Nikhil

• Customization is a lifestyle, not necessarily specific to a certain product.”–Miguel
“

• For example, a doorknob. I may be searching for a casing for my speedometer and
“
use that doorknob.” –Nikhil

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Have a way of showing membership add identity
Creators identify with subtle cues and latent messaging that says “I am a part of this group.”
Therefore, a solution should consider the social and cultural forces that culminate in in-the-know
language (lingo) or physical representations (ex. car customizers’ greasy fingers) that convey
group membership.

For our research:
• The great thing about customizing shoes is that the only limitations is the
“
person’s ability.” – Miguel

• [Customization] is done for a single user, completely against fundamentals of mass
“
production. It’s not about one product being created for all.” – Nikhil

Have transparent process
A solution should direct contributors through the process of sharing work, ranging from how to share,
with whom to share, to the result of sharing. Put simply, a solution should make contributors and
“borrowers” feel in control of and educated about the idea-sharing process.

For our research:
• Middle or end users / clients need information as to why customizing is important or how it can
“
help their business.” –Miguel

• “Established business models may be hard to break.” –Miguel

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Value the community and past
accomplishments

A solution should honor the spirit and essence of references and honor the authenticity of past ac-
complishments. A solution should align with brand and community values and attributes to create
products that harness and maintain a community’s sincere and deep-rooted interests.

For our research:
• Performance wise it was great. Aesthetically like the trying to make it look like the old mustang I
“
know some people like it. I didn’t like it”–Ben

• “The ideas of the enthusiast community are too fringe for the needs of the mass market.” –Marilee

• Companies scour forums and use online ideas, turn out a watered-down version of
“
the product.” –Miguel

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SOLUTION STRATEGIES

Solution Strategies

Increase process transparency
Teague must open up its own creative process to allow outsiders to contribute and understand the
methodology Teague uses. This necessary first step lays a foundation for credibility within the open
source community and begins to build channels to outside communities.

Community Presence

Rapid Feedback Tool

Expand Teague’s network of influence
Teague begins to open temporary forums for specific contribution from outside. Structured as short-
term projects, Teague offers education, access to resources, notoriety and prizes to the community in
exchange for work and ideas

Teague Academy Exptension

Design Competition

IdeaFest

Work with community heros
Because Teague has developed inroads into various communities, heros can be identified with and
their role can be used to develop products, and used to help identify intersections of communities
that indicate future trend direction

Co-Brand

Hero Subscription

Become a place where new ideas go
By opening a physical space, with tiered access to resources, Teague becomes the place where the
community can meet, develop and share ideas putting Teague always on the forefront

HackerHaus

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SOLUTION STRATEGIES


Community Web Presence: Beginning with Blog

What it is What it does
• Internal Teague Hero writes blog • Promotes Teague
• Self promotion outside of design community • uilds community around Teague Hero
B
and ideas
• ommunity “myspace-like” platform for
C
displaying personal work and networking • etwork with other bloggers and communities
N
• etworks people within community built
N
by Teague
• llows community to contribute and share
A
ideas with Teague

A blog site could happen immediately to attract interest from a community. An internal Hero at
Teague brings enthusiasm to community by reporting about events outside the design community.
This helps create a community around the opinions and experiences of the Hero. This builds a com-
munity of people who are interested in learning and people who contribute and add feedback to the
blog site. In order to gain attraction from blog readers, the Hero networks with other bloggers. Link-
ing this blog to other blog sites allows other bloggers to talk about Teague and also add links to the
Teague’s blog.

An essential part of building this community is the enthusiastic Hero. This person must be actively
engaged in the community and respond to community members. If community members ask to see
more of product X, the Hero must respond to the demand in a timely manner and engage in dialogue
with members.

As the blog gains popularity, a community slowly forms around the Teague Hero. Participants may
write feedback and start sharing their own opinions. The website evolves into a social networking
platform where the community may start their own blogs, share their own projects or share or report
about events, products and services they have seen.

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SOLUTION STRATEGIES


Rapid Feedback Tool
• nternal design tool (widget or internal process
I • Gets instant feedback from community
to gather feedback) for Teague to get feedback
• Allows designers to ideate quickly
from community members
• Co-create with community
• ses social networking tools like Facebook,
U
twitter or teague created platform to • Aggregates content from community
get feedback

Social networking tools allows Teague to leverage the community during the design process. This is a
Teague driven process which helps designers to get instant feedback and rapidly iterate based on the
community input. This tool could be useful at every stage of the design process. Whether it is a deci-
sion to make or not make a certain product, or if a product should be silver or black. These decisions
could rapidly be decided by the community.

This tool would require a change in the Teague designer culture. Being open to criticism by the
community, selectively acting on certain suggestions and disregard others and changing the design
process to incorporate this tool are things to consider. This tool can have as great of an influence on
designers as designers and community members allow. Both deisgn and community members could
choose to the level of engagement and dialogue they would like to contribute.

Teague ultimately drives the design process and decides which feedback is relevant for their product
and what design and research questions they would like to get feedback for from the community.
This tool may also require a change in confidentiality from the client. How much information can
Teague disclose to the community?

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SOLUTION STRATEGIES

Expanding Teague’s Network of Influence

Teague Academy Extension

• Workshop space • dea generation and testing for
I
Teague’s clients
• Staff / teachers
• Projects from clients • Offers training and resources for hobbyists

• Access to special tools and software • Community building

• Brand building

Hack-To-
School!

Expanding on the already-established Teague Academy brand, Teague would work with both
students and older hobbyists / tinkerers to teach them design and prototyping skills. The students
would get training through working on real world problems and projects sponsored by Teague
clients. This would help build both Teague’s brand and their client’s brand among the Open Source
community. They would also get fresh ideas and concepts from the class.

An example of this comes from our research where Nike sponsored a sneaker painting class.
They paid for the supplies and other fees, while in return they were able to promote the upcoming
release of a shoe for Latino Heritage Month.

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SOLUTION STRATEGIES


Open Source Design Competition

• Website for digital competition • Brand building
• Judging by the community • Community building
• Prizes / incentives for contestants • dea generation and testing for Teague’s
I
clients
• Client projects

Round #

1
2
3
4
1st

Winner!

The Open Source Design competition would be similar to other design competitions in that it
would be open to designers (students and professionals) but also computer and hardware hackers
and tinkerers. The topics of the competition would be based on actual Teague client projects.

What makes this competition different is that it would have multiple rounds. At the end of each
round, each contestant or team would submit their design (physical, digital files, or both) for
review. At these points, they must work in an open source environment, allowing other people to
use their designs and work. In turn, they would have access to other contestants’ works to use at
their disposal. They would also be able to switch projects and work on other teams or projects.

After 3 to 4 rounds, a winning design would be chosen. However, the winning contestant or team
would be judged not only by their final design, but a combination of design skills, contribution to
other projects, and openness of process. This would encourage an open source environment of
knowledge sharing.

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SOLUTION STRATEGIES


IdeaFest

• space to host event • rovides a social environment for designers
p
and tinkerers to interact
• taff to organize logistics
s
• ponsors contests and events where
s
• co-sponsors
people can show off their skills and work
• marketing to communities and organizations
• makes Teague a destination
• event themes
• prizes, cocktails, music...

Events are central to all communities and community ecosystems. They provide challenges for
members to work towards, venues to show work that’s been done and a forum to draw in new
members. IdeaFest positions Teague at the center of community events. Teague would host events,
inviting specific communities and/or those engaged in the Teague online community. IdeaFest will
have tinker-tables where people can experiment with new technology and ideas, quickfire challenges
along the lines of cut-copy where people pit their rapid prototyping skills against each other in a live
forum, and showcases where individuals and groups (co-sponsors) can display what they’ve been
working on.

IdeaFest benefits Teague by engaging designers with with people outside the design community
to get a fresh perspective and feedback on specific concepts placed in the tinker tent or quickfire
challenge. Up front costs to set up and publicize the event can be offset by charging to attend, enter
the quickfire challenge, or co-sponsor showcase space. Non-monetary compensation comes in the
form of ideas, publicity which puts Teague in the center of buzz around new ideas, direct feedback on
current prototypes and the ability to identify and build relationships with community heroes.

For community members, the IdeaFest is a place to exhibit work, learn from others and establish
themselves within the community.

Spring 2009

25

SOLUTION STRATEGIES


Hero Subscription

What it is: What it does:
* Online site * rovides forum for industry leaders and com-
P
munity members to showcase work
* Community forum
* Offers insight into tinkering process
* Online video subscription service
* Facilitates learning and information sharing
* Data tracking system
• racks subscriptions demands to determine
T
market trends and user behavior

area of community overlap

sneaker community Hero who has
garnered attention of
various communities

chair design community comic book community

As tinkering and customizing become more pervasive, the ways in which people explore their own
ideas and execute on them grow more varied. Contributing in large part to the creative process is the
interest to draw inspiration from multiple sources and domains. In other words, car tinkers are not
merely looking to other car designers for inspiration, but rather referring to other fields like furniture
and accessories design for fresh design perspectives.

The Hero Subscription has two main functions: (1) to provide a forum where hero tinkerers can
share their ideas and processes with the public and (2) to draw connections between seemingly
disparate project areas to determine how to source fresh ideas. Teague’s role is to support and man-
age online space where the public can come to preview/ subscribe to videos of heroes at work. Over
time, Teague would be able analyze subscription behavior to discern emerging trends and inconspicu-
ous links connecting areas of interest. Teague could then draw from these data points to devise a
research and design plan for future projects.

Spring 2009

26

SOLUTION STRATEGIES


Hero Co-branding

What it is: What it does:
* Brand development business model • acilitates short-term projects between
F
company and community hero
* Short-term partnerships
• uilds brand recognition
B
* Event-based collaborations
• dentifies community heroes for business
I
venture and product development
• Leverage seasonal and project-based events

The short-term nature of seasonal events, such as holidays and annual observances, offers unique
opportunities for collaborative as it provides clear time constraints and boundaries for projects. Un-
like freelance work where the project area may have existed before the freelancer arrives and will
continue to exist after the freelancer leaves, event-based collaborations are designed to allow col-
laborators to be a part of the entire life-cylce of a project. Hero Co-branding projects are short-term
engagements between Teague and community heroes where heroes benefit from the resources and
reputation of the Teague company and Teague benefits from the credibility and talent of the hero.
More specifically, Hero Co-branding is about leveraging the brand of Teague with the brand of the
hero via short-term, highly publicized, event-based collaborations.

With the advent of Hero Subscriptions and IdeaFest, Teague can follow closely as community
heroes emerge and capture the attention and loyalty of tinkerers and community customizers, Teague
will be well positioned to partner with rising heroes and subsequently achieve access into communi-
ties that may have remained untapped or remote.

An example of a Hero Co-branding project:

Teague facilitates a short-term partnership between client, Hewlett Packard and graffiti artist, Mr.
Spray, to create limited edition laptop skins. Leading up the launch/ during launch of new product, Mr.
Spray exhibits his artistry via an HP-sponsored public event where a handful of limited edition laptops
are designed on the spot and pre-sold.

Spring 2009

27

SOLUTION STRATEGIES

Become a place where new ideas go

Teague Hacker Haus

• Workshop space • Offers workspace for members
• Access to special tools and software • rovides an open forum between Teague
P
and tinkerers and hackers
• Publicity materials
• dea generation and testing for Teague’s
I
• Prototypes for tinkering
clients
• Teague touch-point
• rovides a physical space for members to
P
gather and socialize

Hacker Haus is a physical place for tinkerers and Open Source hackers to hone their craft. The
Hacker Haus would have a membership structure that would allow new people to drop in and learn
new skills while providing more experienced member access to tools and resources that they do
not have. Members could work on their own projects while Teague would have floor projects spon-
sored by their clients that members could also work on. This would allow testing of new concepts
and ideas from unconventional sources while getting real-time feedback.

Also, the Hacker Haus would be a physical gethering space that allows members to socialize. This
would help establish Teague as not only a member of the Open Source community, but a leader in
bringing Open Source ideas and thinking into new projects and business solutions.

Spring 2009

28

ROADMAP

Roadmap

How Teague Can Plan and Manage this Co-Creation Strategy

Hacker Haus
Range of Probable
Futures

Hero Subscription

Design Com-
petition
IdeaFest
Known Set of
Possible Futures
Co-brand Big Payoff

Teague Academy
Rapid Feed- Extension
back Tool

Medium Payoff
Clear Future
Community
Web Presence
Small Payoff

Near Term Mid Term Long Term
3 Months 3 Months - 1 Year 1 Year+

• log / Web
B • Hero Subscription • Hacker Haus
Presence
• o-brand with
C • eague Academy
T
• apid Prototype
R Heroes Extension
Tool
• pen Source Design
O
Competition

• IdeaFest

Spring 2009

29

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