There are different types of innovation. There are also different schools of innovation. Each one has it’s methodologies and philosophy.
The diagram above shows how Geoffrey Moore thinks about innovation. He not only acknowledges that there are different types of innovation but he also acknowledges that there are different purposes and contexts for their application.
Image Source:
Moore’s book Dealing with Darwin.
An interesting blog posting by a civil engineer dealing with the hurdles of developers and other stakeholders in an effort to move towards sustainable design. It’s written for the civil engineering audience but it is still an interesting and relevant posting. This may be a good example of sustainable design beyond products and into the larger scope of architecture. It may also be a good example of how business and sustainability issues can work hand in hand.
Here is a copy of the headings for each of his five points:
1. Get inspired and get involved
2. Realize that everyone is a salesperson and learn to sell your ideas
3. Focus on real value and real issues
4. Find ways to learn and leverage everything you can
5. Make a few simple changes in your site plan
Civil3D Rocks - Five Simple Things You Can Do To Make Sustainable Design a Reality in Your Lifetime
I have a couple of postings on this blog under the tag social innovation. I intended to use this term to promote humane societies. Humane in my case, a generally meaning health and successful development of all human life.
Unfortunately, this term today is also being used to represent other, less humane aspirations such as the furthering of agendas for selfish financial gains and power.
I think it’s important to remain critical and skeptical of causes and not to be misled by euphemistic labeling.
(Another example of the mis-use of a humane concept - the use of the concept of peace to sell war.)
Related Postings in This Blog
Beyond Maslow’s Pyramid of Individual Needs
Update:
Consider extending this concern to terms like social change, change etc. Ask, what do people really mean by by these terms.
I remember hearing someone at a bookstore. “I got an idea, let’s buy stock on companies then let’s blog about them and watch our portfolio grow.” Ok, I’m paraphrasing. But you get the idea.
Should bloggers be transparent? Should we ask them for full disclosure?
A Call for Bloggers for Full Disclosure
I challenge other bloggers to disclose their business deals that prompt them to write blog postings.
My full disclosure?
No to all of the above.
So, my question now is…where’s the love?…Start kicking down some bribes and goodies!!! (Joking).
Related
An anemic Wikipedia entry for “Full Disclosure (media)”…but hopefully it will fill out over time.
WordPress blog postings on “full disclosure”
Humbolt State University in California publishes a bi-annual journal on philosophy. Their January 2008, issue is focussed on the philosophy of disability.
This was a most unexpected find for me. I have been reading philosophy lately but I never expected it to lead me back to a topic I deal with everyday as an user experience professional.
I’m glad to find this. In an age focused on general innovation across disciplines and industries, philosophy should not be excluded from the discourse.
http://www.humboldt.edu/~essays/
Related in this blog:
First legally blind governor may be good news for accessibility.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment. The projects will be honored at the AIA 2008 National Convention and Design Exposition in Boston.
The goals and criteria for evaluation are presented for each project along with the philosophy behind the project.
The top ten projects are:
Link to Original Article:
American Institute of Architects: Top Ten Green Projects >>
Related Posting in this blog:
As individuals we find ourselves with the need to make choices that help improve and innovate our lives. Whether these choices are private, public or in between we make these choices every day of our lives.
We make these choices under the different roles we play in our lives. Today I am writing about the choices that we make under our role as consumers. As consumers one way we innovate our lives is through the choices we make when we buy a product or decide to pay for a service.
Unfortunately our ability to make some of these choices is being eradicated by corporations that have lost sight of the crucial role consumers play in the ecology of their existence.
These companies have taken steps to design products that alienate the consumer from their right to freedom of choice.
This type of anti-innovative behavior has been around for a while. What is different now is that one of these companies has recently been named as the most innovative company by a mass market business magazine.
How the Consumer is Loosing Their Right to Choose
One of the products by this ‘innovative’ company is a phone that has been locked to one particular phone company. As a result, the consumer ends up with the experience of being alienated from their right to choose which service provider they would like.
The value, and pleasant experience of being able to exercise your right to choose has been taken away from the consumer while the phone company enjoys the peace of mind of knowing that no matter how happy you are with their quality of service, it doesn’t matter - you are stuck - you no longer have the right to choose and like it or not you’re a customer for the life (of the phone).
As a result you may end up with a phone that has a fairly good user experience until you get to the phone service.
The phone represents a question to the consumer - “Is it OK for the corporation to alienate you from your freedom to choose vendors?” You answer the question by deciding to make a purchase or not.
Is it OK for you to loose your right to choose?
Whether you choose to support this type of corporate behavior is ultimately your choice. But as you make this choice, take a minute to understand what making this choice communicates and how this may set up a precedent for other products and services in our markets.
Updates:
A recent discount may make things easier for you to decide - (Hmmm…very convenient)
More about the actual discount - now that it has been formalized
A friend of mine pointed out an article in WIRED magazine. The content is related enough to deserve a link.
Annie Leonard, spent 10 years traveling the world tracking where stuff comes from and where it goes within the linear system of industry. She takes into considerations of societies, cultures, governments.
She uses flash animation to make her story clear. It’s worth watching.
The cycle of stuff explained through flash animations and voice over.
Closely Related Postings in This Blog:
The Psychology of Sustainable Things
William McDonough’s Cradle to Cradle Design Philosophy
Unscrew America (another interesting flash animation)
For those folks that are stuck without reliable transportation alternatives there are two big widgets that they could use:
Relevant:
http://www.gasbuddy.com/GB_StateList.aspx (Find best local gas prices)
http://widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/gas-alert-savings-tall
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/gasoline-price-widget
Yahoo! Gas Price Widget (update: this widget needs technical work - check on it later)
Flexcar (unfortunately only available in the “Blue States” for now : )
BusinessWeek and the business consulting firm BCG have published an updated version of their “most innovative companies” list.
One of my issues with these type of articles is the lack of framework.
When we define a company as more innovative than another it’s important to define what we are comparing. This would provide us the opportunity to evaluate for ourselves if the criteria being used for evaluating seems valid and valuable to us.
“Innovation” is a generic word defining a library of diverse processes and methodologies used to obtain value. Each one of those processes fits to a particular problem that needs to be solved.
The criteria for evaluating the success or failure of each one of these granular innovation efforts will depend mostly on the variables within their particular contexts.
Example: Generally Apple targets early adopters, Dell generally targets second, and third generation adopters. In other words, Dell’s product innovation needs are very different than Apple’s because their target markets have different demands. (context)
Comparing how “innovative” a company is without a framework is like comparing which would taste better in a meal, an apple or an orange? (without knowing what the meal is).
So, are the variables chosen for comparison in the article valuable to you?
Should the article authors be comparing different variables and using different criteria?
Should they be comparing competing product against product and competing service against service?
What type of innovation are they comparing? What is the criteria of value for each one of these? (how do you determine which one is successful and which one is not - within its context) ?
Does the value of innovation efforts need to be evaluated within its local and macro-ecology?
Relevant:
Wikipedia: Commensurability
Wikipedia: Innovation
Wikipedai: Conceptual Framework
Wikipedia: Evaluation Approaches (see P.R.)
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