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Case Study

Building LEGO mindstorms communities

By Johan Roos and David Oliver

7 pages

April 2000

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Reference: IMD-3-0865

This case describes some further efforts undertaken by LEGO MINDSTORMS to develop both virtual and physical communities that not only connected its buyers to LEGO, but also to each other. The case raises questions surrounding the possibility of raising money from such partnership-based communities. MINDSTORMS focused its community-building efforts on three interconnected areas: 1) web forums on its website: www.legomindstorms.com, which included over 1,000 regular contributors; 2) the FIRST-LEGO League Robotic competitions–developed in partnership with the FIRST organization–which involved teams of children using MINDSTORMS in developing robots to meet given challenges; and 3) the development of LEGO MINDSTORMS Centers where children could go to have a preliminary experience with MINDSTORMS.

Keywords

Community, Toy

Settings

World/global, Denmark
2000

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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