In writing my book, Outside Innovation: How Your Customers Will Co-Design Your Company's Future (HarperCollins Publishers, 2006), I studied more than 30 companies worldwide that harnessed customer-led innovation to become industry leaders. The one thing they had in common was a vibrant online customer community. Some of the communities, such as those hosted by Hallmark, Kraft, Staples, and Unilever, were closed—accessible by invitation only. Others, including those of Flickr, Lego, Mozilla, National Instruments, and YouTube, were open.

In either case, the communities encouraged customers to contribute their best ideas, suggestions, and even product designs. Customers who used the sites to compare notes and obtain support and acknowledgment from their peers expected top vendor executives to value their input.

Such input is valuable indeed. If you're in the apparel business, for example, recruit the snappiest dressers. If you're a news broadcaster, it pays to seek out newshounds.

In short, look for customers who care about the types of products and services your company provides, and they'll help your organization. Why? Your products affect their lives and businesses. What's more, customers are itching to help design better products and services that will help them—and thousands of others like them—get things done.

Enlightened CIOs are getting in front of this "engaged customer" parade to provide the leadership, tools, and resources that let their companies reap the rewards of customer-led innovation. In many of the organizations I studied, CIOs play a crucial role in integrating online-community platforms with their firms' customer self-service infrastructures.

Here are some cases in point:

British Broadcasting Corp. The once-staid BBC is now the highest-ranking news source for bloggers by being the first broadcaster to open up its application programming interfaces (APIs) to customers who want to experiment with new forms of news and entertainment delivery. These newshounds create customized traffic-monitoring services that advise commuters on bus and train schedules; they superimpose news on maps; they combine sports statistics into newfangled scoreboards. And they provide tools for other customers to select and receive highlights of their favorite programs at their convenience on the appliance of their choice—be it mobile phone, game console, iPod, PDA, or TV.

Customers contribute their own stories, video footage, and photos of fast-breaking and neighborhood news. They also present spotlights on topics of interest to them. The BBC's New Media technology team—headed by Matt Locke, who reports to the BBC's director general— provides open APIs and toolkits to let online customers combine the BBC's content feeds with other applications, such as Google Maps, Yahoo's Flickr, YouTube, and a variety of statistical and analytical apps.