Innovation Blog

Malcom Gladwell sure can tell a story, speed dating, the Areon chair, coke vs. Pepsi, every chapter an interesting look into how "thin slicing" can bring one to an instant decision that can trump expert, lengthy, rational analysis....

Fun and interesting read that touches on many aspects of innovation, design and decision making.

Highly recommended.

Mark

Well Moore's Law is having one. The widely misquoted Moore's Law is forty years old. It all started with an article in Electronics Magazine. In that article Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, observed that the number of transistors in a microchip was likely to double in a short period of time. Since, with then existing designs, the number of transistors was directly related to the processing power of the micro this was quickly interpreted as computing power. Gordon came back in 1975 and clarified the prediction saying that the number of transistors would double every 24 months. Despite numerous reports of its demise, the rate of growth of processor power continues today. There are good reasons to believe that Moore's original prediction of the number of transistors on a micro doubling will eventually slow down because of physical limitations. However, there are many alternate approaches to increasing processor power that in research labs which will likely take over where the current approaches leave off. So happy birthday to Moore's Law and thanks for the laptops, pdas, cell phones, calculators, etc.

Reverse engineering is the process of examining an existing product and developing a new product design that copies the first product. Reverse engineering has a bad reputation because of its use in the copying of brand name products. However reverse engineering does have its place in our innovation toolkit. There are any number of reasons why a company may need to reverse engineer its own legacy products. The folks at the University of Arizona have undertaken what must be the ultimate reverse engineering project. They are attempting to reverse engineer the lost art of producing "Ru-glazed Ceramics". Ru-glazing is a Chinese ceramics process which hasn't been used in over 900 years. To say we misplaced the recipe is an understatement. Now Professor Pamela Vandiver and the team at the University of Arizona are using the tools of modern science to attempt to duplicate this lost process. Best of luck to the team and try not to misplace that recipe card again.

For some people a mobile phone is just a way to communicate. If you visit Tokyo's Harajuku district you will come away with a distinctly different impression. You will find racks of phone covers that look more like tie racks than phone displays. You will see pens for writing on the housing of your phone. Then there is the service in Seoul that will shrink wrap you phone with a digital image of your choice. Maybe you prefer the phone painting service or the tables full of phone charms. Of course there is always the stickers for the phone and the radio control toy tank you can drive with your mobile phone. If all else fails how about the ad on the Japanese subway that suggest you "Find a husband on your mobile phone!". So how do you top that?

How about from your users. The Boston Globe has in interview with Eric Von Hippel, author of the new book "Democratizing Innovation". Eric is a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management. He recommends that manufactures should seek out lead users and use them to find new ideas and innovations. As one example he discusses how open source software projects draw on users for their inspiration. By the way, the book is available for free download. So, do you know who your lead users are? Better go out and find them before your competition does.

I could not pass this one by. "Researchers from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University have shown how an ingredient found in chocolate seems to exert its anti-cancer properties...". So it is true, chocolate can help prevent cancer. Ok kids, when your mother tells you to stop eating so much candy you have a good reason to take exception.

Did you ever wish that you could devote your life to defining the exact numerical value of pi? How about finding unicorns? Hereﾕs a great article about two mathematicians that found a unicorn with a supercomputer in their search for pi.

For most of the last century the US has been recognized as one of the leading economies in the world. There are lots of reasons you might give for this. An abundance of natural resources, an relatively open society made up of emigrants that bring many perspectives to problems and a thirst for knowledge are but a few you might name. Certainly many of these provide the foundation for innovation and the US has seen that in abundance. In todays world technology and technological capability are the foundations that a society needs to be competitive and to succeed...

First a sonic ice cream cooler was invented... now sound waves can be used to to cool a car's interior. The technology for using sound enable heat transfer to cool an enclosed space has already been developed, (Ben & Jerry's Cooler) but now research is being carried out to re-use automotive exhaust gas to produce acoustic waves which then in turn powers the car's air conditioning. The concept is based on basic physical principles involving refrigeration, but expanding those principles to sound pressure rather than state changes in matter. Really "cool" technology, don't you think?

In software engineering one of the cornerstone books is "Design Patterns" written by "the gang of four" (Gamma, Johnson, Helm and Vlissides). This book describes a series of high level structures or approaches that all well written software is based on. If you want to write good code you base your strategy on one of the approaches in this book. At the recent "Emerging Technology Conference" Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Publishing and sponsor of the conference present what he called "Design Patterns for Innovation". While some of this focuses on open source software and the internet there are concepts that can be applied to all innovation. So check out this summary of the presentation and the slides. By the way you can recognize the O'Reilly books because most of them have a picture of an animal on the cover. Here is the one that seems to be Tim's favorite.

When I think of farming I think of green open fields with the sun shining down. Norman Rockwell in spades. So why are researchers at Purdue experimenting with farming in caves? It turns out there are lots of advantages to farming (or pharming in this case) in caves if you are growing your crops for a biotech company. I think these pharmers are going to have to come up with a new theme song though. I just do not think that "The pharmer in the cave" has the same ring as "The farmer in the dell".

Went to a great lecture the other night by arguably one of the world's top designers, Enzo Mari. What was really cool about the talk was basically everything, but mostly it's form. The content was great, (he was all over the place as far as topics), but the method he used to communicate was what left the biggest impression. He used....(suspend belief,insert drum roll here)......a blackboard and a piece of chalk!....afterward,...

Listen to your car. That is what George List would suggest. George is the director of Rennslaer Polytechnic Institute's Center for Infrastructure and Transportation Studies. George and the CITS is involved in the development of the Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) which part of a series of projects for creating a smart highway. There is currently a pilot program in progress being run by George's team at CITS. Participants in the pilot study are given a GPS unit and a handheld computer which communicate with a central server. By tracking the progress and location of each car in the study the central computer can develop a clear picture of traffic conditions and recommend actions to the drivers to avoid gridlock. Wouldn't it be nice. When can I get mine?

I saw/heard Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, The Polyphonic Spree and, most recently, The Pixies on Austin City Limits.

In case you're not familiar with the first televison program to win the National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence, here's how the show describes itself:

"Having showcased artists ranging from Willie Nelson to Sheryl Crow since its premiere in 1976, Austin City Limits champions performers who display exceptional musical and songwriting talents, rather than hemming itself in with music labels. The results are unpretentious and engaging performances by musicians who appreciate the intimate concert setting and straightforward style of production. Austin City Limits presents the best of America's music from country, blues and folk to rock 'n' roll, bluegrass and zydeco."

there was a guy an under water guy ...

g@rys

Ever since I first saw "Back to the Future II" I have wanted one of those "Hoover Boards". With Elwood "Woody" Norris' AirScooter it sounds like we might just get there. Well not quite the AirScooter still weights 300 pounds but it is progress. "Woody" was just selected to win the Lemelson-MIT Prize for his inventions including the HyperSonic Sound. The HyperSonic Sound has been called by MIT "the first big improvement in acoustics since the loudspeaker was invented 80 years ago". The technique allows you to focus sound waves and direct them at specific locations or individuals. So check it out and congratulations "Woody".

Processing is a programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and sound. It is used by students, artists, designers, architects, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is developed by artists and designers as an open-source alternative to commercial software tools in the same domain.

Here is a link to a timeline that Harpers Magazine created on global warming. As an urban dweller that sees how miles of concrete and flat black tar roofs can heat everything up like an oven, this timeline scares the you-know-what out of me. My parents and many others of their generation still deny that global warming exists. Perhaps it is easy for many non-urban dwellers to deny that global warming affects the world, what do you think?

His father made his mark as one of the most corrupt and brutal mayors in Chicago history. Mayor Richard Daley is making his mark too but in a more positive manner. Mayor Daley has an initiative in Chicago to "regreen" the city. He is ripping up concrete, requiring all new roofs to be silvered, planting prairie grasses on roofs, planting trees, and encouraging business to be LEED certified. He has recently declared that any new public buildings in Chicago will be LEED certified. Here you can read an article about Chicago's green roofs in the National Geographic.

Everyone knows that computers have a lot to do with numbers. Some of you may remember a few years ago when there was a minor flaw found in the math processor in an early series of Pentium processes that prompted a recall. What you may not know is the importance of random numbers in computers. The are a number of ways that these random numbers are used. First of course there is the shuffle function in iTunes so that you get that nice variety of music to listen to. Another important use is in encription. All encription approaches use random numbers as part of the way they hide that important information from prying eyes. This applies to that spreadsheet you have locked, that encrypted email you just sent and your credit card you used on a web site to buy that new DVD. But wait, where do random numbers come from. Do we just order them online from the random number store? Well no, your computer generates them on the fly. ...and they aren't actually random...

Well maybe not easy and maybe not 3 but Luis A. Nunes Amaral and Brian Uzzi from Northwestern University do have some suggestions for how to do it. In a paper they jointly published today they share the results of a study of the make up of a range of high performing teams. These teams range from Broadway plays to academic research teams. What they found is that the teams with the best results were a careful balance of diversity and cohesion. If balance right this combination can give you strong teamwork combined with a broad range of perspectives that allow creative teams to excel. Luis and Brian are part of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) which specializes in studying the interactions that take place in complex systems.

The key to Innovation is,...... really bad management.

Throw away all the books and the processes (written by authors who have
never, ever, created anything new themselves),
and cultivate a wildman, design first, innovate or
die model of management.

I believe this came from Paul Saffo, the Institue of the Future.

Something to think about. Great soundbite.

m