Co-creation, communities and researching the benefits

EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands – I stopped by the Beta Labs blog this morning, and it was great to see the team actively supporting and encouraging its community to engage in a new cross-industry study about co-creation. The research is being performed at the Eindhoven University of Technology and a Dutch research institute, and is being led by a lady called Kim op den Kamp. She’ll be interviewing active participants on the Beta Labs site (so if you’re one head over), asking interesting simple questions such as “what are the benefits of participating?”. I’m intrigued to find out what findings the study uncovers. Doubly so because with Beta Labs users engaging in the study (already a bunch have come forward to help), it’s clear that the investigation into co-creation is helping to be fuelled by what I believe to be one of the most engaged and progressive online environments currently active in co-creation.

Not so long ago I caught up with Tommi Vilkamo to chat about Beta Labs and the future of this collaborative online R&D space, and this new study punctuates Beta Labs’ continued commitment to the cause, and further makes it clear that understanding co-creation – how to best extract the benefits for the end user and the company – is as crucial as engaging in the process itself.