While most user innovation is concentrated in use and configuration of existing products and technologies, and is a normal part of long term innovation, new technologies that are easier for end-users to change and innovate with, and new channels of communication are making it much easier for user innovation to occur and have an impact. Recent research has focused on Web-based forums that facilitate user (or customer) innovation - referred to as virtual customer environment, these forums help companies partner with their customers in various phases of product development as well as in other value creation activities. For example, Threadless, a T-shirt manufacturing company, relies on the contribution of online community members in the design process. The community includes a group of volunteer designers who submit designs and vote on the designs of others. In addition to free exposure, designers are provided monetary incentives including a $2,500 base award as well as a percentage of T-shirt sales. These incentives allow Threadless to encourage continual user contribution. See also Creativity techniques Crowdsourcing Domestication theory Ideas bank List of emerging technologies Open-design movement Participatory design Professional amateurs Prosumer Science and technology studies Toolkits for User Innovation Footnotes Sources Bilgram, V.; Brem, A.; Voigt, K.-I.: User-Centric Innovations in New Product Development; Systematic Identification of Lead User Harnessing Interactive and Collaborative Online-Tools, in: International Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 12 (2008), No. 3, pp. 419–458. Braun, Viktor R.G. (2007): Barriers to user-innovation & the paradigm of licensing to innovate, Doctoral dissertation: Hamburg University of Technology External links New York Times on User Innovation (2007) New York Times on User Innovation (2005) Eric Von Hippel's books on user innovation, available under the creative commons license. Innovation Culture VisionX The Contribution Revolution wiki collects information about user contribution systems in the business world. It is based on the Harvard Business Review article of the same name by Scott Cook Innovation User interfaces Science and technology studies