4 ms·
This concept of Bootlegging[1], isn't "Google's" and dates back to the late 1960s. I always think of Post-it notes as the pre-digital poster child for this sort
by xbryanx 14y ago
This concept of Bootlegging[1], isn't "Google's" and dates back to the late 1960s. I always think of Post-it notes as the pre-digital poster child for this sort of internal, yet personal, innovation.
[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootlegging_(business) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootlegging_(business)
- tedmiston 14y agoBootlegging is an unnatural term, and has a historically negative connotation. The definition mentions secrecy and unauthorized projects, yet a few paragraphs later awkwardly adds a permitted form.
- pyrotechnick 14y agoYou seem to have confused a few monkeys tapping on keyboards "collaboratively" for some kind of trustworthy source of definition. Good thing Kenneth E. Knight introduced the notion bootlegging in 1967; well before the gnomes could ever get their filthy mitts near it. Try not to let a few control-freaks on Wikipedia desecrate your language more than it already has. You owe them nothing.
- tedmiston 14y agoThe official definition from Knight's seminal paper "A Descriptive Model of the Intra-Firm Innovation Process" [1]: "Bootlegging: In some instances the innovator may be able to implement a new idea by keeping the development under cover from the disapproving power in the organization until it is introduced. At that time it may be impossible for the organization to reverse itself." It's reasonable to consider the authority of a Wikipedia entry, but in this case I believe the maintainers simply modernized "under cover" and "disapproving power". 1: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/2351630 http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/2351630