One of the upsides of open innovation is the chance to swap ideas with people and come up with something smarter than we could in isolation. Today, it’s just as important to be in touch, collaborating and listening, as it is to be originating great new thought. We think it’s a good trend.

Bright minds worth following

Chris Brogan

President of New Marketing Labs, Co-founder of PodCamp

In the social media arena, there aren't many people who can credibly call themselves "veterans" but Chris is one. The guy started blogging in 1998, before blogging had a name. He advises businesses, organizations, and individuals on how to use social media and social networks. He also spurs new thought in this area through PodCamp.

Chris's Blog

Chris on Twitter

Paul Graham

Founder yCombinator

Paul is a programmer, essayist and venture capitalist. He founded yCombinator to provide unconventional seed funding to founding teams of start ups. He write insightful, thought-provoking essays that are all must reads, some of them, like his essay How not to Die should be read frequently!

Paul's Articles

Jeff Howe

Contributing editor at Wired Magazine

Jeff coined the phrase crowdsourcing in a June 2006 Wired magazine article and went on to write what we see as a modern bible on open innovation: Crowdsourcing. Follow how he sees the power of the crowd is driving the future of business.

Jeff’s blog

Thomas Malone

Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence

In his research and writing, Thomas has predicted many of the major developments in electronic business over the last decade including "outsourcing" of non-core functions in a firm. We’re addicted to his foresight on Collective Intelligence and try our best to visit him live once in a while.

Thomas's Articles

Clay Shirky

Writer, Consultant

Clay Shirky’s career started off in the arts world, as a theatre director. Since then, he’s fallen in love with the internet, been a partner at an investment firm, taught at NYU, published a book and continues to consult.

Clay's Blog

Clay on Twitter

Don Tapscott

Business executive, bestselling author, consultant and speaker

Don Tapscott is an internationally renowned authority on business and the impact of information technology. In his 2007 book, Wikinomics he began pursuing how mass collaboration is changing business models and the future of innovation. BTW, Wikinomics is an international bestseller, and has been translated into 19 languages.

Don's Blog

Don on Twitter

Who’s your pick? Tell us what you think.

Blogs We Drink From

• Chris Brogan speaks all over about communities and social media
• Chris Pirillo every other geek reads it, so you should probably read it too
• Jeff Howe he coined the term crowdsourcing, you kind of have to read what he says
• Louis Gray Silicon Valley Blog for early adopters, technology geeks, RSS addicts and Mac freaks
• Tim O'Reilly smart, thoughtful and puts together amazing conferences
• Social Media Club a great aggregation of information
• Michael Sikorsky Our founder's blog - he's a posting minimalist, but follow him on twitter, where he posts links to great articles worth reading
• Stowe Boyd we salute his obsession with social tools, and their impact on business, media, and society
• Clay Shirky – A consistently good writer. You’ll lead better and feel smarter at cocktail parties if you read this
• Jake McKee a customer experience strategy guy with worthy insight on web community and product development
• Mathew Ingram He’s well-spoken, Canadian, and smart

View our team’s whole blogger groupie list on our blog. Who do you follow? Send us your pick.

Books We're Reading

• Birth of the Chaordic Age – Dee W. Hock [Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2000] He founded Visa. That’s serious bank collaboration
• Crowdsourcing – Jeff Howe [New York: RandomHouse, 2008] The man coined the term crowdsourcing, then wrote a definitive book on the matter
• Here Comes Everybody – Clay Shirky [New York: Penguin, 2008] The tagline for the book is The Power of Organizing without Organizations – very in synch with our chaos+order=optimal production beliefs
• The Future of Work – Thomas Malone [Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004] An exploration of why and how individuals contribute as a crowd that can help us all as managers and entrepreneurs
• The Game Changer: How You Can Drive Profit Growth with Innovation – A. G. Lafley and Ram Charan [New York: Crown Business, 2008] Why reaching outside the models of a traditional corporation or hierarchy will ultimately pay off – this book or Here Comes Everybody is a must!
• The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets & Freedom – Yochai Benkler [New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006] Benkler illuminates how crowd participation is emerging as a new mode of production. He walks the talk - you can download and edit the book on the book’s wiki
• The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations – James Surowiecki [New York: Doubleday, 2004] One of the earliest books on crowdsourcing with several good examples of crowd mining for collective intelligence
• Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything – Don Tapscott [Tantor Media, Inc., 2007] Beyond thoughtful observations on trends, Tapscott provides evidence and examples of how crowdsourcing will be an ultimate boon to brusiness

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