Lego: How to Web 2.0 a consumer products company

Lego continues to impress: it's emerging as a surprising best-practice case study in how to extend Web 2.0 techniques to a traditional consumer products company. I write about Lego in the book, but today's news that they're going to open source the Mindstorm NXT software is both further evidence of the company's smart strategy and an opportunity to do a quick roundup of Lego's Long Tail virtues:

• There's the huge online-only inventory, ranging from individual pieces to $300 superkits.
• There's Lego Factory, which combines mass customization with peer production, as I wrote about here.
• There's the distributed innovation model that allowed passionate users to help design the new Mindstorm NXT robot construction kits. It was the subject of a Wired cover story in February.

O'Reilly reports that Lego has been selling 3,000 units a week in pre-orders in the US alone, making NXT a candidate for primetime mindshare in 2006. The kits ship on July 1.

Comments

[blooflame]

This made me wonder - and do you touch on this anywhere - are there any Web 2.0 gaming companies? I've always thought Nintendo should offer game-making software simple enough for kids to use, but capable enough to do decent games and/or media (machinima, maybe?) in conjunction with their own adapter that plays the games from a CompactFlash or USB flash drive... lots of people hack their own games now, but making a good tool for it for kids would drive sales up I think

[Mario]

This is really intrested, but there are others firm that use this co-creation? Thanks for the informations.

[Mario]

This is really intrested, but there are others firm that use this co-creation? Thanks for the informations.

[christmas presents]

Companies in Asia are looking at innovative business models with information technology at their core. According to IDC, a research company on information technology and the consumer market, almost one third of large companies will have some form of Web 2.0-enabled business initiative underway by the end of the year.