INNOBLOG

The Promise (and Perils) of Open Collaboration by Andrea Gabor | Strategy + Business

Article looks to the quality movement for clues as to how open innovation, particularly open collaboration, can find wider adoption and greater success.

Is This the Light Bulb of the Future? by Eric A. Taub | NYTimes.com's Gadgetwise Blog

Phillips is the first company to enter the U.S. Department of Energy's $10 million contest to create a viable LED-based alternative to a 60-watt light bulb. Article discusses how the DOE plans to use the contest to come up with a technology that will address the faults of the launch of CFL bulbs.

InnoCentive: A Market for Ideas | The Economist

Discusses the initial success of Innocentive's partnership with the charitable Rockefeller Foundation to use Innocentive's approach to help solve problems posted by non-profits working in poor countries.

Netflix Awards $1 Million Prize and Starts a New Contest by Steve Lohr | NYTimes.com's Bits Blog

Article details the collaborative nature of the Netflix contest whose goal was to identify technology to better predict movie matches among users: "The way teams came together, especially late in the contest, and the improved results that were achieved suggest that this kind of Internet-enabled approach, known as crowdsourcing, can be applied to complex scientific and business challenges."

Reversing Assumptions Can Often Lead to Innovation by David Mork | Examiner

While a bit simplistic, the article makes a great point that reversing assumptions about your business is often the best way to uncover possibilities for new growth. However, benefits are not just limited to reversals -- all questioning and examination of assumptions is likely to lead to new ideas.

Why Solving Other People's Problems Is Easy by Mark McGuinness | Lateral Action blog

Article discusses the phenomenon of psychological distance in solving problems: "even minimal cues of psychological distance can make us more creative." Researchers discovered that subjects found it easier to solve problems when they were told that the questions had been devised by an institute 2,000 miles away as opposed to 2 miles away."

Patent Auctions Offer Protections to Inventors by Steve Lohr | NYTimes.com

"A flurry of new companies and investment groups has sprung up to buy, sell, broker, license, and auction patents...The arrival of these new business-minded players, according to patent experts and economists, could lead to a robust marketplace for patents, where value is determined not so much by court judgments but by buyers and sellers, perhaps, someday, like eBay."

Amazon Is Selling Designs of Its Own by Geoffrey A. Fowler | WSJ.com

"For the first time ever, Amazon's second-quarter North American sales of 'general merchandise' -- which includes everything from patio furniture to TVs -- were larger than its sales of media, such as books, movies and videogames." The author attributes much of this growth to growth in Amazon's private-label business.

The Wall Street Journal 2009 Technology Innovation Awards | WSJ.com

Innosight's Scott Anthony served on the judging panel for this year's awards, which looked at business that were "truly groundbreaking and whether their application would be particularly useful in a time of economic hardship."

Will 'The Jay Leno Show' Reinvent Network TV? by Alan Sepinwall | NJ.com

Critic wonders whether new Jay Leno show is the first instance of a legacy network retooling to be as nimble as a cable network: "What if NBC's fall to rock bottom allowed management to see things more clearly than its more successful competitors? What if 'The Jay Leno Show' isn't a desperation move, but the wave of the future?"

The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine by Robert Capps | Wired

Wired explores Clayton Christensen's concept of "good enough": "Customers would sacrifice lots of quality for a cheap, convenient device."

What Will Be Disrupted Next? by Jeffrey Phillips | Innovate on Purpose blog

Good blog post and comments about how to scan the possibilities and see where disruption might happen next.

When Open Innovation Becomes A Gimmick: Lessons From Campbell Soup Company, by Stefan Lindegaard | Leadership+Innovation blog

Lindegaard identifies what appear to be problems with Campbell's new open innovation initiative, including a lack of focus.

Unraveling Complexity: The (Heretofore) Missing Link for Achieving Collaborative Innovation, by Chris Jones | Driving Innovation in a Digital World blog

Musings on the role of social media in collaboration for innovation: "I now believe that innovation in complex ecosystems will depend on an improved collaboration process – a new middle ground for problem solving – that balances large-scale central organizational approach with grass-roots contributions by individuals."

Social Technology Growth Marches on in 2009, by Josh Bernoff | Groundswell blog

Forrester's newest report on the adoption of social media finds that "in 2009, more than four out of five online Americans are active in either creating, participating in, or reading some form of social content at least once a month. " Interesting as a view of technology adoption and also for insight into the changing "jobs" of those embracing social media.

Happiness: A Buyer's Guide, by Drake Bennett | The Boston Globe

New research into behavioral economics has proved that money doesn't buy happiness. However, the same research has shown that some things we spend money on -- such as providing great experiences like restaurant meals and vacations -- provide more happiness than spending money on material possessions. So should companies be innovating more around providing experiences for customers as opposed to goods?

Tips on Innovation & Entrepreneurship From Jeff Bezos by Om Malik | GigaOm blog

Comments from on innovation an entrepreurship from Amazon's founder during a recent interview, such as "The trick to being an entrepreneur is to know when to be stubborn and when to be flexible: Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible about tactics."

Innovation Perspectives for August, by multiple authors | Blogging Innovation

Roundup of blog posts by six authors answering the question, "please describe the importance of innovation strategy to the success of an organization's innovation efforts."

The 21 Heroes of Data Visualization by Maria Popova | BusinessWeek

Slide show of interesting and inspiring visualizations of data sets by top designers illustrates the value of pattern-seeking.

The New, Faster Face of Innovation by By Erik Brynjolfsson and Michael Schrage | MIT Sloan Management Review via Wall Street Journal

Article on the ramifications of technology that makes innovation initiatives both speedier and cheaper to produce. Will this result in more disruptive innovation or will companies still be tempted to speed up incremental innovations?

The Disruption of Scientific Publishing, by Bruce Sterling | Wired's Beyond The Beyond blog

Description of a new "flourishing ecosystem of startups that are experimenting with new ways of communicating research, some radically different to conventional journals" and the "gradual rise of science blogs as a serious medium for research."

The New Media Crisis of 1949, by Terry Teachout | WSJ.com

A look back at 1949, at the start of the television era, in which TV disrupted other forms of media and entertainment. Author notes that CBS and NBC, which had been big radio players, also came out on top in TV by the 1950s: "The old media of today have a similar chance to prosper tomorrow if they can survive the heavy financial losses that they're incurring while they develop workable new-media business models."

Start-Ups Are Poised For Latest Space Race, by Andy Pasztor | WSJ.com

With its budget eroding and virtually certain not to keep pace with stated space exploration goals, NASA is increasingly turning to outsource portions of its programs that have never before been outsourced. Smaller firms and "scrappy entrepreneurs" are expected to win contracts.

How to Build a Culture of Innovation, by Jessie Scanlon | BusinessWeek

Description of the top-down innovation culture at Tata, including the Tata Group Innovation Forum (TGIF), a 12-member panel of senior Tata Group executives and some CEOs of the independently run companies.

Hey, AP: Here Are 7 Money Making Ideas for You, by Erik Sherman | BNET Technology Blog

Is the Associated Press doomed in an Internet age? Some have suggested this, and their increasingly protectionist stance seems to indicate they think so too. Business blogger Erik Sherman disagrees, offering seven ways AP can make money on the Internet.

Stressed Brains Rely on Habit, by Jeff Akst | The Scientist

"Rats that had been stressed repeatedly and unpredictably for three weeks were more likely than unstressed animals to continue performing habitual behaviors, even when it no longer made sense to do so." These findings have implications for innovation, since innovation requires an ability to break free of pre-existing patterns.

Too Much Networking? by Alan Boyle | Cosmic Log Blog on msnbc.com

"An overabundance of connections over which information can travel too cheaply can reduce diversity, foster groupthink, and keep radical ideas from taking hold" says the journal Science, citing that as a reason why most open-source software shows only incremental improvements from version to version. The article stops short of blaming the Internet and social networking for groupthink, probably because the Internet also fosters the kinds of weak ties that lead to breakthrough thinking.

Vendor Sparks Art Concepts by Sarah Junek | The Southlake Journal

A hand-restored cigarette machine rescued from the scrap metal pile after legislation banished them in 1997 now vends cigarette-pack-size art in a Keller, Texas, art gallery for an accessible price of $5.

Tide Turns 'Basic' for P&G in Slump, By Ellen Byron - WSJ.com

Interesting story of how P&G learned to "love the low end" not by introducing a new low-end brand but by the riskier bet of introducing a low-end version of a premium brand.

A123Systems Awarded $249m Federal Grant, by Sean Sposito - The Boston Globe

Federal stimulus money finds its way to a Boston-area electric battery company, but the batteries will be made in Michigan. Story notes that another Boston start-up, Boston Power, which had planned to manufacture batteries in Massachusetts, got none of the stimulus money.

Culture at Netflix | SlideShare.net

Lengthy slide deck released by Netflix offers insights into its recruiting and talent management, optimized for innovation. Example: "We're like a pro sports team, not a family. Coach's job at every level of Netflix is to hire, develop, and cut smartly, so we have stars in every position."

Le Whif: Inhaled Chocolate

Inhaled chocolate -- a new product meant to offer benefits of chocolate without the calories. Illustrates the principal of "de-featuring"!

The Pushbutton Web: Realtime Becomes Real, by Anil Dash | Dashes.com

A look at a set of enabling technologies that the author believes will lead to the next big "upgrade" for the web, "where any site or application can deliver realtime messages to a web-scale audience, using free and open technologies at low cost and without relying on any single company like Twitter or Facebook."

Mindless Collectives Better at Rational Decision-Making Than Brainy Individuals, by Charles Q. Choi | Scientific American

"New experiments show how ant colonies don't fall prey to irrational choices as humans sometimes do" - results could be illuminating for understanding how human "wisdom of crowds" can work.

Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing Examples | OpenInnovators.net

List and links to many services, software, platforms, and providers for open innovation and crowdsourcing, as well as some of the companies that are using these.

Unboxed - Crowdsourcing Works, When It's Focused, by Steve Lohr | NYTimes.com

"A look at recent cases and new research suggests that open-innovation models succeed only when carefully designed for a particular task and when the incentives are tailored to attract the most effective collaborators."

Why Fly Pet Airways? | petairways.com

New airline just for pets. Will be interesting to watch, as its success will depend on whether there's really a sizable group of people who have the unfulfilled job of high-quality, safe pet transportation.

Why Music Moves Us, by Karen Schrock | Scientific American

Great article about the neurological and emotional affects of music, such as: "Recent data show, for example, that music reliably conveys certain sentiments: what we feel when we hear a piece of music is remarkably similar to what everybody else in the room is experiencing."

Innovation in a Recession | BusinessWeek

Good package of stories on innovating in the recession includes a slide show on "Ten Ways to Survive and Thrive" by Scott Anthony.

Today's Disruptions are Tomorrow's Incrementals, by Jeffrey Phillips | Innovate on Purpose blog

"If you want to launch disruptive innovations, learn to do it quickly, outside the normal development life cycle, or make sure the ideas are exceptionally disruptive, since the time lag from concept to product or service may be long enough that others address the opportunity before you do."

"The Plural of 'Anecdote' is not 'Data' " by Suw Charman-Anderson | Strange Attractor blog, Corante.com

Illustration of the dangers of data extrapolation for innovators (and everyone else, to). Twitter and online advertising are "pointless" to teens, says a 15-year-old intern for Morgan Stanley. Says Anderson, "the important thing about businesses like Morgan Stanley, and the journalists who write about them, is that they are supposed to be able to tell the difference between data and generalisations."

"Thinking about 'Design Thinking' " by Fred Collopy | Manage by Designing blog, Fast Company

Collopy feels that "design thinking is an unfortunate term for describing what designers have to offer to other disciplines, which seems the most common reason for using the term." Instead, he would propose "to invite lawyers, doctors, politicians and business people to design rather than to engage in design thinking...the product of the former is more likely to be perceived as — and to be — an actual design, rather than a plan, a report, an idea, or some other conceptual or intellectual byproduct."

"Incandescent Bulbs Return to the Cutting Edge" by Leora Broydo Vestel | NYTimes.com

Epitaphs were written for incandescent bulbs after Congress passed the 2007 bill mandating tough efficiency standards favoring CFL bulbs. Yet as often happens, the new constraint has switched on innovation in incandescent bulbs: "“There’s a massive misperception that incandescents are going away quickly,” said Chris Calwell, a researcher with Ecos Consulting who studies the bulb market. 'There have been more incandescent innovations in the last three years than in the last two decades."

"The Extraordinaries: Will Microvolunteering Work?" by Linton Weeks | NPR.org

Describes the new trend of "microvolunteerism." If you have a small chunk of time available, you can volunteer for a small task that can be done via smart phone, such as adding identifying tags to photos and videos for a museum. "Says Jacob Colker, 26, co-founder of the San Francisco-based Extraordinaries. 'We hope people might look differently at that ride on the bus and not just play video games.' "