Open Innovation Using Blog

This article discusses the potential of involving users in service innovation through social software in the form of a blog. After a theoretical discussion of user involvement, and in particular about the pros and cons of user involvement using social software, the article reports from a field experiment at a university library. In the experiment a blog was established in an attempt to collect innovation ideas from the library users. The experiment documents, that a blog may provide for very different types of input resulting in insight into user’s perception of the library services, critics, wishes, concrete ideas etc. Additionally the experiment sheds light on the challenges using a blog to involve users in service innovation.