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Due to the current, global challenges such as resource depletion and economic crisis, and international societal mega-trends such as multi-internationalisation, we are in transition from conventional methods of production to relatively novel methods that strives to be competitive, satisfy customer needs and have a lower environmental impact. Product-Service System (PSS) method is deemed to be a solid alternative towards this vision. To do that, we are in need of novel approaches to re-envision the current system. Therefore, Innovation methods are the backbone of PSS. Since PSS highly emphasizes the customers' needs and co-creation with them, user-innovation methods are required in order to boost PSS Innovation. Among user-innovation methods, Crowdsourcing seems to be valid option which would enable us to attract a large, undefined network of people to the innovation process. In this research, a success model for crowdsourcing practice is proposed and validated by literature and expert interviews. As a follow-up, based on the success model, a strategic guideline for innovation using open modes of collaboration is proposed. Moreover, we discuss the implication of PSS and sustainability and how these concepts can be empowered by crowdsourcing.

The aim of this thesis is to study some of the challenges that the Kurdish language and its standardization face, and offer a bottom-up solution through the “collective intelligence” and “good faith collaboration” of Wikipedia. Therefore, the fragmentation in the Kurdish language—caused by both external factors and those that are inherent to the language itself— is discussed and analyzed. Furthermore, this thesis describes some of the efforts that have been made to unify the Kurdish language, its dialects and its different writing systems. Even though these issues exist both in the physical world as well as online, they are rendered more conspicuous on the Internet. As a result, the problems in Kurdish cross-dialect communication are more pronounced. In spite of that, web 2.0 and its favored platforms for online collaboration provide ample opportunity for the general user of the language to participate in solving such linguistic problems. An overview of Wikipedia, as the world’s most successful platform for online collaboration, is presented along with some of its rules and policies. Additionally, an account of the current Kurdish Wikipedia in three dialects of Kurdish: Kurmanji, Sorani and Zazaki is provided. The situation and shortcomings of Kurdish versions of Wikipedia are examined through two case studies based on two Wikipedia articles in Kurdish and their English and Persian counterparts. Moreover, I argue that a robust Kurdish Wikipedia can be a viable solution for standardizing the language, encouraging orthographic consistency, and unifying Kurdish writing systems and knowledge/information dissemination in Kurdish. / +46762801113