Innovation mining. Supporting web mining in early innovation phases

Fraunhofer IAO conducted a study among 1,000 German innovation professionals regarding their webbased information acquisition needs. The study showed the need for search tools and methods optimised for the target group of innovation professionals. In this paper we deduce accordant concepts from the study's results. We suggest an "Innovation Mining Process" as a structured approach to web-based information acquisition for early innovation phases. Our software prototype - the Innovation Mining Cockpit (IMC) - picks up essential concepts of this process and implements them as an easy-to-use web portal. The IMC is intended as a central point of contact for innovation-related search activities.