On cooperative writing, crowdsourcing and event processing

Earlier this week another Amazon shipment has arrived, now I need a month vacation to read all of that, and also thinking about where to put additional book closet or two, since may house is looking like a book warehouse, with piles of books everywhere.  One of the books that I have started reading is the book whose cover you see above, written by Lisa Lutz (one of my recent favorite writer) and David Hayward, and the cooperation is that Lisa is writing the odd chapters and David is writing the even chapters.  Since it is a kind of crime book, the plot  is developing according to two different mind, the book also includes the exchange of messages that the authors send to one another.   Events have been a long time part of cooperative work.  In computerized cooperative systems, events is means of communication, as well as a means to get to cooperative decisions (such as: cooperative transaction commitments protocols). Nowadays, cooperative systems are not just among computerized systems, but among people.   One of the consequences of  the Web 2.0  is the crowdsourcing.  Currently event processing is not mentioned as a key technology in crowdsourcing.  However, I can see the connection - first in the dissemination:  bringing the information to those who can do the next step.  Also, since different parts of the task are done by different people,  there is a need to see a combination of activities and notify about consequences.  As an example:  a vehicle design is done by different people, some design the mechanic components, and some the electronic components.  Change in one of them that impacts the other can be done using analysis of the various design events.    More on this topic - later

On outside-in vs. inside-out innovation

Today I participated in presenting to some young people from the Israeli Defense Forces, that are going around in research institutes in academia and industry to understand what is innovation, and what is research.   Recently, there has been an article in one of the Israeli newspapers that talked about inside-out vs.outside-in innovation, or where are great ideas coming from?    Many companies are trying to do outside-in innovation, doing market surveys to identify gaps and requirements in order to determine what next to do;  this article claimed that some of the bigger innovations (e.g. Facebook, iPhone and more) are inside-out, somebody comes with great idea out of the blue,  and it is sometimes being used for purposed that the inventor did not imagine.   The outside-in is used to refine, and shape the next generations.   I believe that this observation is true,  one cannot obtain great ideas from customers' requirements, as they typically don't think that they need it until it is there.