Elizabeth Gerber (Northwestern University)

Crowds, Computers and Community: Improving Capacity to Innovate

Innovation is critical to our economic and social prosperity. Yet acquiring the required resources is especially difficult for novices, who lack access and skills. Crowdsourcing and online collaboration has the potential to change this. I present two projects. First, I present my latest research on crowdfunding and tools to support the exchange of resources from a distributed network of individuals online. Second, I present efforts to engage the online communities in ideation and decision-making. I discuss implications for the innovation process and social computing.

About the Speaker

As the Breed Junior Chair of Design at Northwestern University and Founder of Design for America, Dr. Liz Gerber studies and designs collective intelligence systems to support innovators. Currently, Liz is examining contemporary phenomena such as crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. She received her doctoral and master’s degrees in Management Science and Engineering and Product Design from Stanford. More details at www.lizgerber.com.