Over at BusinessWeek there’s a great pointer to a blog posting by John Hagel about innovation and surfing. It seems to me that this is one of the most well documented examples of crowdsourcing, and how lead users can develop new directions for a product. The posting does not stop there, and has lessons to be gleaned about forming user networks and tapping into users on the edges/fringes.

It’s quite a long read, and well worth more than a cursory glance. The one thing that grabbed me was this excerpt:

find ways to appropriate insights from adjacent disciplines and even more remote areas of activity

And now – off to the beach..