WisconsInnovation

Today in class, we engaged in a collaborating exercise by co-creating a story about our class. The inspiration for this was Penguin Publishing's A Million Penguins initiative (in Spring 2007). Here is what each section produced. What do you think?

Marketing 440 is an undergraduate marketing class taught at the Wisconsin School of Business. This class consists of lots of interesting case studies about new product development and is taught by Aric. He likes to enhance our learning by blasting music before class using Wisconsin favorites such as Teach Me How to Bucky. Aric is also a closet Packer fan. Today we are discussing collaboration, and it is difficult for me to understand because we keep talking about aliens. What the hell is that about? Now Aric is claiming to be an expert on Extra-Terrestrial life, which he is!! What's next? Is he an alien? Is that how he is such an expert? His hair is definitely out of this world... I don't believe anyone would question the expertise of a man wearing a flannel. One time, I was walking to class, and to my surprise, Aric was on crutches claiming he "hurt" his knee playing basketball...but we all know that he hurt it climbing out of his spaceship. He keeps saying that he goes to these conventions to lecture but how do we know that he is not flying off to his homeland to deliver the news to his alien comrades that he has successfully convinced his human students to believe that he too was a human just like them. Stupid University of Wisconsin students... Now that he has accomplished this step, he must next get the students to love the Packers. Now back to the beginning. One day, the unassuming Aric was ghost-riding his whip to class when, all of a sudden, he realized he doesn't know what ghost-riding is.

Marketing 440, aka Venture Creation, is an undergraduate marketing class taught at the Wisconsin School of Business. MKT 440 uses real world examples and does not depend on text books. We watch videos of bisson, Aerosmith, and UFO conspiracies. YouTube has been a stand-in "text-book" for the class. These videos have shown us that Aerosmith and Run DMC were leading the way which "tinkering," one of the many co-creation techniques we've been learning about. Other than watching videos we also do some exercises in class, which enables everyone to get involved while creating user innovation. These exercises might not seem like homework, but somehow they also tie into what we are learning. So far, we have contributed to MyStarbucksIdea.com, submitted photos to Jones Soda, and made our own Lego designs. One other requirement of the class is to analyze and write about one of four case studies presented in class. Case studies focus on companies including InnoCentive, Threadless, Local Motors and Linix, all of which rely heavily upon user innovation in their business models. Along with exercises and cases studies, we will also have the opportunity to interact with new innovative ideas and companies in a group project. As a class we will create something new using a MakerBot, a 3D printer. Right now we are watching a video of Yochai Benkler! His beard is out of control! This guy has one of the most boring voices ever. He sounds almost like the guy from eye drops commercial--Ben Stein. We should teach him how to Bucky.