Co-creating Innovative UGC Services with the Media Industry

In this paper, we identify challenges of involving different stakeholders in distributed co-creative open innovation processes and discuss how these challenges can be managed. In the Loco Media project, researchers, newspaper representatives and readers/users have co-created innovative user generated content (UGC) services. Using a Living Lab approach with the user in focus in a real life setting, we have experimented with a variety of ways of involving different stakeholders in nine experimental UGC projects. The study concludes that careful recruitment, face to face meetings as a compliment to online activities, heterogeneous participant groups, feedback and careful selection of a flexible online platform are important aspects for involving different stakeholders in co-creating innovative processes.