The Pace of Innovation

Innovation is thought of as that "ah-hah" moment that occurs from time-to-time and as a result, drives our world forward. In fact, innovation has been and continues to occur at a much more rapid pace than that. Think of the first arrowhead, the first fire, the first wheel, the first boat, the first plow, the first motor, the the first aircraft, and the first spaceship. The pace has continuously accelerated. Think of the first gesture, the first spoken word, the first written word, the first typed word, the first book, the first radio program, the first television program, and the first Internet program. The pace has continuously accelerated.

Innovation needs context; it needs scale. Who are the innovators of tomorrow? The following video has been making the rounds since 2006. What is interesting is the multiple versions that have been published and the changes that have been made in just the past two years. Here is the latest version of "Did You Know?" from November 2008. Enjoy.

Comments and questions are welcome.

The 13 Coolest Things Made from Recycled Bottles

This link came by Twitter user @Burnsie.SEO and in turn is posted on "thedailygreen" blog. Titled "The 13 Coolest Things Made from Recycled Bottles," the post covers everything from art to architecture. The video at the end of the post takes recycling into the realm of entertainment.

Let me know what you think.

ARTICLE: India will be big technology innovator in next decade

Found this on Jorge Barba's Twitter feed. In the article, Jason Pontin, the publisher of MIT's Technology Review is discussed in relation to India as a technology innovator. He projects that India will be an innovator in healthcare, education, biomaterials, and nanotechnology. The article has a number of links to supporting articles and sites.

You can find the original article here.

Your comments on this or any of the blog posts are welcome.

Innovation Trickles in a New Direction

Business Week online has an interesting article in subtle changes to innovation in large corporation. In an article published March 11, 2009, title, "Innovation Trickles in a New Direction," author Reena Jana describes how the path to innovative products has changed from being developed in advanced countries and being deployed in emerging countries. In a reversal of that trend, she uses products from GE, Phillips Electronics, Nokia, Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Nestle to show how large companies are now finding innovative products developed for third-world and developing countries that have a market in developed countries such as the US and the countries of the European Union. It demonstrates how innovation can occur anywhere and how innovative products developed for one market may find a larger market elsewhere.

The original article can be found at Business Week Online along with a video supporting the article.

Innovation in the work place

The Tech Manager's Blog has an interesting post entitled, "Innovation in the work place." The article describes the need for innovation, how innovation can be achieved cheaply, the use of innovation tools such as rapid prototyping, and how innovation deals with processes and services, and not just products.

The full article can be found at The Tech Manager's Blog.

Intuit Study: Small Businesses Will Innovate Today to Succeed Tomorrow

Business Wire has published an article describing findings from an Intuit study on innovation. The report, "Intuit Study: Small Businesses Will Innovate Today to Succeed Tomorrow," was written by Steve King and Carolyn Ockels at Emergent Research. The article describes six major innovation enablers. They are:

• Personal passion
• Customer connection
• Agility and adaptation
• Experimentation and improvisation
• Resource limitations
• Information sharing and collaboration.

The authors describe outcomes as either "market-sustaining," or "market changing."

Read the original article at Business Wire. Download the full report at the Intuit Future of Small Business Web.

Unleash Your Inner Genius

Paul Sloane describes, "10 Ways to Boost Your Personal Creativity," in his December 17, 2008 post. The Cliff Notes version:

1. Ask why, why?
2. Sleep on it.
3. Talk it over with someone who has nothing to do with the situation.
4. Ask how some celebrity would tackle the issue - what would Steve Jobs do?
5. Pick up any object at random and say to yourself, 'this item contains the key to solving the problem.'
6. Use smiles.
7. Imagine an ideal solution in a world where there are no constraints.
8. Open a dictionary and take any noun at random.
9. Ponder the issue and then go for a walk around an art gallery or museum.
10. Draw a picture of the situation showing the people and the issues in simple cartoon style.

See the full post at Associated Content.