Jams as emerging practice of innovation communities: the case of the global service jam 2011

Jams, initially coined in the domain of Jazz music, are nowadays applied by various institutions as practice of innovation communities. Jams help to gather and strengthen the community and allow for seamless knowledge transfer to develop innovative concepts. Yet, the body of academic literature on jams is rudimentarily established and lacks a comprehensive understanding for this specific innovation practice. To close this gap, we investigate the Global Service Jam 2011 (GSJ11) as an emerging practice of innovation communities, which ran 48 hours from 11 to 13 March. Within this short time frame 1263 voluntary jammers, globally dispersed in 59 locations, created 203 innovative service concepts. This paper investigates and reports on an ongoing in-depth case study of the GSJ11: first, by presenting background information on jams, especially from the more well-known area as corporate practice, second, by depicting the special set-up of the GSJ11, and third, by discussion the uniqueness of this jam event, its results as well as prospects for subsequent analysis.