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Idea Inheritance, Originality, and Collective Innovation

In order to create new products, inventors search and combine previous ideas. Few studies have examined the characteristics of search that lead to new products; most have focused on patent citations, which are often retrospective and may not reflect the usefulness of inventions. Through the analysis of collaborations in an online virtual community, the impact of originality on popularity and practicality is tested. These tests in turn are based on a method for measuring the distance between 3D shapes. In sum, this paper presents a new method for gauging innovation, and suggests ways of further understanding the role technology plays in encouraging creativity. From an organization perspective, this work provides insights into the creative process, and in particular the open innovation process, in which thousands of individuals together evolve designs, without belonging to the same corporate structure, without claiming IP rights, without exchanging money.