Modularizing for a community: enabling new product development and innovation supported by collective intelligence

Can a web-based community of peers autonomously engage in architectural innovation, develop a tangible product and manage the subsequent diffusion process? After discussing briefly the relevant background we present a theoretical framework exploiting the idea of product modularization as a knowledge management tool enabling community collaboration. The theoretical framework core is composed by a community meta-model and by a product meta-model, described using a semi-formal modelling language (UML); a few mechanisms enabling community collective innovation are also exposed as part of the framework. We also apply the theoretical framework, and in particular the product metamodel, to the real case of a high-performance human powered watercraft. Finally, we present a new possible development of the research suggested by early empirical evidence form the users.