Community-Based Innovation among Elite Orienteers

Abstract

We have studied a form of community innovation within the sport of orienteering, which in the Nordic countries consist of a closely knit group with a strong sense of community. This study shows how the processes for developing new technologies are driven by a strong sense of idealism, with little or no commercial motivation. Thus, this represents a kind of community development and sharing with a number of unique characteristics. While the community is central to participants' endeavours of developing their systems, the participants are not representative of the typical member. On the contrary, they are examples of a minority that put in significant efforts of contributing to the larger group. What we argue is unique about the case we have presented is that the technology development starts out from a few number of highly motivated individuals that through limited collaboration with others builds technologies that get extensive proliferation and use within the community.