Crowdsourcing" is currently one of the most discussed key words among IS and innovation researchers. The major question for both research and business is how to find and lever the enormous potential of the "collective brain" to broaden the scope of "open R&D". Thus, Communities for Innovations seem to be a promising way for integrating customers into innovation processes. But what are necessary and suitable functionalities and tools concerning a virtual Community for Innovation? Based on the principles of theory driven design, in this article we identify creativity supporting functionalities and tools that can be systematically selected and implemented for a virtual Community for Innovations in the field of Software development. Being deduced from theory on creativity support tools, these components foster the successful collaborative creation of ideas, thus leading to promising innovations.     «

Crowdsourcing" is currently one of the most discussed key words among IS and innovation researchers. The major question for both research and business is how to find and lever the enormous potential of the "collective brain" to broaden the scope of "open R&D;". Thus, Communities for Innovations seem to be a promising way for integrating customers into innovation processes. But what are necessary and suitable functionalities and tools concerning a virtual Community for Innovation? Based on the prin...     »