Fresh Takes on Innovation

Time Magazine just came out with a list of the 50 best inventions of 2009.  We took a look and selected 5 of our favorites.

Those might not be the 5 best inventions on the list from a commerical or social value, but they’re the ones that got our vote.

	The Foldable Speaker We like this speaker because it’s perfect for travel.  It starts off as a cube, but all you have to do to fit it conveniently in your laptop bag is to unfold it into a slim piece of paper.  Plus, part of the profits from sales of this speaker go to charity!
	The Solar Shingle Solar power is great, but it’s not very practical for most people.  It costs a lot to install giant solar panels, which don’t have a nice appearance. The Solar Shingles takes the solar panel and turns it into small shingles that can be installed on the roof right next to the normal shingles.  To make them even better, the solar shingles will cost 10% to 15% less than normal solar panels and are easier to install.
	The YikeBike We love our Brompton fold-able bikes at BrainStore and this is a new twist on an old favorite.  Imagine: an electric folding bike that charges in a little over 20 minutes and can reach speeds of up to 20 km/h (12 mph).  Yup, we think that sounds great too.
	Vertical Farming Vertical farming makes it possible to get more out of smaller parcels of land – which could be a huge benefit as the population increases and people want more locally-grown food (especially in urban areas).  It’s also cool that the vertical farming uses far less water than conventional farming while still making sure that plants get all the nutrients and sun that they need.
	The Human-Powered Vending Machine This invention doesn’t change the world, but it makes us happy.  The concept is simple: to get something from the vending machine, potential customers will have to pedal a certain distance.  We like the image of people pedaling madly away to get their afternoon treat, but we also like how an old technology gets a different spin.

Take a look at Time’s list and let us know which ones you like best!

The current economic situation is probably bringing a completely new approach concerning innovation in the future. As a historian, you may postulate that systems normally innovate when facing crisis. Times, when a fast development into a certain direction is seen as the only possibility to survive, normally bring fast and ground-breaking ideas – which in fact are highly depending on luck and the right decision under pressure.

It is said that one should never change a working system. Using the very same working system for a longer time brings additional fear of failure and a conservative ethos. Closing eyes, ears and mind to anything new and risky may, speaking of the worst possible case, cause complete “idea-blindness”. Because a system never works ceteris paribus, a complete blockade of the system in a constantly changing environment is unavoidable – unless the change is not forced from in- or outside (looking at Europe: this mechanism, indeed, made the triumph of concepts like democracy and liberalism possible!).

Speaking of economics, the free market normally makes innovation happen. Enterprises survive by adapting fast to market situations, which makes them way more flexible. If the framework stays the same or develops in a predictable way, innovation may be looked at as a relatively slow but constant process.

The current unbillable situation of the world economy has to be looked at as a chance as well. An emphasis on new ways and possibilities in innovation will give companies and hopefully even nations the possibility to establish procedures, which allow fast reactions but also long-term innovations. In times of globally linked economies, innovation culture and capacity has to be looked at on a bigger scale – the output of companies and societies on global markets is not only defined by the production of goods and services, but also by the production of – yes – ideas.

December’s issue of the NY Times Magazine looks at the ideas that helped make 2007 what it was. The editors present 70 ideas “that are fresh enough for our particular cut of intellectual sushi”.

The list includes posthumous email, wireless energy, suing god, the braille tattoo and a lot of other ideas, either ingenious or strange, or both at the same time – some of them subversive or illegal.

There is also a nice cartoon illustrating the buzzword of 2007: alternative energy.

There are plenty of innovation timelines on the web. This new one from Wired is nice, because it let’s you vote on the innovations. Currently agriculture is leading the board ahead of the radio and the refrigerator.

Eight years ago, an elderly lady walked into our IdeaFactory with a serious order for us: She wanted to create and advent calendar for her dog and needed an idea how she could actually put it into action. I mean: How does the dog know which door to open? Anyway. Back then we thought it was just plain crazy, but of course we helped the nice lady and she implemented the first advent calendar for dogs.

Today, everything can be found for the canine friend or for kitty cat. Really, believe me, everything. The pet industry is one of the seriously growing industries everywhere.

You can get, for instance, dog costumes

Christmas stockings for dogs

Pet insurance

but also apparel, houses, carrying crates, accessories, communication gadgets, toys, and many other things. There are numerous sites dedicated to pets on the internet, where you can order everything right to your doorstep.

Whether you think this is completely ok because you love your own pet like your own child or whether you think this is seriously deranged does not matter that much, because it’s a fact: Pets are and will continue to be an important industry. At BrainStore we have learned not to laugh at a private clients “strange” request but to anticipate that more, much more of the same will come in the future.

Each year, the Swiss Idea and Innovation Association awards people or organisations with the “Idea Oscar”. Their outstanding achievement consists in the production of spectacular as well as sustainable ideas. Their innovation initiative will have made a difference and will have led to the creation of new jobs.

Did you know that shampoo was invented in 1759, a hundred years before the oil drill, and another hundred year before the laser? Take a look at Wikipedia’s Timeline of Invention, a collection of particularly important or significant inventions. Take notice, that the term “invention” is reduced to technology, ignoring cultural, social or scientific occurences. So you won’t find “pyschoanalysis”, “democracy”, “central perspective” or “binary numeral system” on that list.

When browsing through the items, I can’t help but reflect on the concept of invention. Like Bianca asked two days ago: What distinguishes invention from innovation? Not always easy to tell. Let me add another question: When should we rather talk about a discovery instead of an innovation? How about the “golden section”: Invention, innovation or discovery?

In the last years a lot of people have pointed out the difference between innovation and invention. They are of the opinion that “invention is turning money into ideas” and “innovation is turning ideas into money.” So basically, invention is coming up with new ideas and innovation is bringing a product to the market in a way that people appreciate.

Techdirts opinion is:

Innovation is a lot more important than invention. Successfully bringing a product to market is what makes the world a better place — because it satisfies needs in the market and expands the economy. There were music players before the iPod, but Apple innovated the iPod into more of a “must have” device. There were cars before Ford, but he innovated to make it affordable for the average person.

What’s your opinion?

The age of stern intellectual property rights and patent protection seems to be running out. Instead, we are witnessing research & development departments opening their books of data in order to co-create with customers, partners and even competitors. While some business leaders still try to guard their secrets, a paradigm shift has already taken place toward a ‘culture of sharing’, as labeled by Don Tapscott, head of Toronto based consultancy New Paradigm and author of the upcoming book “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything”.

More and more enterprises opt for more than controlled crowdsourcing. Modern business executives seek strength through mutual and highly transparent mass-collaboration. As Captain Kirk in Star Trek, they are often forced to lower thier shields so as to let in, explore and adapt alien cultures.

However, despite its growing acceptance there is still much uncertainty about a reasonable modus operandi for public participation in precious R&D projects: Which intellectual property should be made accessible to the public and which insights are better kept restricted? How to secure the continuous participation of third parties? and hence: If and how to compensate contribution?

Lots of questions to find answers to. Finding these answers is exactly what we do here at BrainStore. Any comments from the masses?

The Paleo-Future Blog found this engraving from the Library of Congress Archives (look here for High-Resolution Data). It’s an excellent brainstorming on flying machines from 1885.

Other findings you can explore on Paleo-Future include an article on the wireless telephone, dating from 1910 or some funny excerpts of the Closer-Than-We-Think! Comic Strips (1958-1963), depicting how the future was most certainly going to look like.