TED curator Chris Anderson, in his article Film School (Wired Magazine, January 2011), has something new to say about "Crowd Accelerated Innovation." And I quote:
A crowd is simply a community, any group of people with a shared interest. … The community needs to contain at least a few people capable of innovation. But not everyone in the community need be, There are plenty of other necessary roles:
- The trend spotter, who finds a promising innovation early.
- The evangelist, who passionately makes the case for idea X or person Y.
- The superspreader, who broadcasts innovations to a larger group.
- The skeptic, who keeps the conversation honest.
- General participants, who show up, comment honestly, and learn.
Different people may occupy these various roles at different times, including that of innovator. Innovation is a response to a particular set of challenges or inspirations. Every mind is unique. Presented with the right fine-tuned pattern of incoming stimulation, I suspect, most people have a shot at coming up with something wonderfully new and fresh. But even if not, they can still play any of the other key roles.
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