talking innovation
ideas
What Are You Waiting For?
Jul 8th
There are no more excuses, if you ask me.
I remember the days when it took literally a full time systems administrator, engineering personnel, and hundreds or thousands to millions of dollars in order to build and deploy a static web site, let alone the incredibly complex applications that we are seeing today. I personally remember the days of buying hardware, finding a place for the actual servers to sit, T1 lines, locked cages, hosting services, the differences between shared and dedicated hosting etc etc etc.
It took forever, a specialized set of skills, and a ton of money in order to setup and run an internet business.
Not any more.
Today, almost anyone with a basic set of skills can fire up an internet application in no time. Leveraging cloud services for the hosting, which provide you with a complete, scalable infrastructure (Heroku, Engine Yard), application frameworks which allow you to rapidly build applications (Ruby on Rails), cloud based services which support those applications (ZenDesk, Get Satisfaction), and APIs which allow you to build applications on top of applications which already provide a lot of the base functionality that any application requires (such as user logins via Twitter or Facebook), it takes very little effort to light up an idea.
All of the above services are free, or have free packages and trials that you can offer. And if you light up your app and there is traction, they can all scale up.
So what are you waiting for? Now is the time to take that idea and turn it into reality and see if it flies. It has never been easier to build and launch products as it is today.
Living example: we lit up http://tweeb.us in less than 6 weeks.
What ideas do you have in your head right now that you can spin up?
Applied vs Theoretical Innovation
Jun 29th
Recently, I got to thinking that there are really are two kinds of innovation, and these two types of innovation were very apparent in the kind of programs I would run for companies. Borrowing a term from physics, I like to call these two types of innovation “theoretical” and “applied” just like theoretical and applied physics.
Theoretical innovation is something you simply just cannot do today. There are factors which keep you from actually implementing the envisioned product or service right now. These can be something as simple as the right kind of technology, say size of storage space or wireless bandwidth or as complex as the right geo-political infrastructures. A good example of this is streaming HD virtual reality to wireless phones. Sure, it can be done: but the network is simply not up to the task of allowing it to happen.
Tech factors, strangely enough, are not usually the ones holding back the innovation: it’s more likely the human factor, factions within companies taking credit or laying blame, cultural and political reasons etc. However, the biggest indicator of something being “theoretical innovation” in my view is ability to monetize. If there is no way to make any money off it, even if all barriers were lowered, then it remains in that realm since most no one, save some independently wealthy, or governments, will step up to take it on. It’s this type of innovation which is ideally suited to go into a patent application process.
Applied Innovation, on the other hand, is leading edge work that not only pushes the envelope, it also has a clear path to monetization. If you ask me, this is pretty easy to come up with: is it a product or service that I would use and pay for? Applied innovation takes what is out there today, and rebuilds or mashes it up to create something new, useful and valuable. Applied innovation is the kind of thing that can be taken from idea to launch in days or weeks with a few guys in a garage. And its applied innovation which is probably what most people think about, at least in the business world, as innovation.
Thats not to say that theoretical innovation doesn’t have its place, and many ideas began in the theoretical innovation space, but as these ideas have much longer paths, or in some cases no path to monetization at all, now may not be the best time to pursue theoretical innovation. In boom times, with the wind at our backs, of course, but today, in this climate, a focus on applied innovation is essential.
What it’s like to own an Apple product – The Oatmeal
Jun 24th
This is only too sad and true. These are just devices people. They are not “magical”, they are simply electronic tools to aid us. They are like prosthetics, true, but ones we could do without. If you ask me, its this single minded, put your reason on a shelf attitude which is killing us, in more ways than one.
The 4 Ps of Innovation – Scott Anthony – Harvard Business Review
Jun 10th
Innovators should also be able to quickly recite the 4 Ps that capture their idea's potential: population, penetration, price, and purchase frequency.
via The 4 Ps of Innovation – Scott Anthony – Harvard Business Review.
Android Phones Selling Faster Than They Can Be Built
Jun 10th
Seriously thinking about getting a HTC Incredible, and switching to Verizon when my contract is up later this year. What’s your take?
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Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha revealed to Reuters today that the company’s Android-powered mobile devices are selling faster than they can be manufactured. Verizon has had similar experiences with the Droid Incredible from HTC, an Android phone whose biggest problem has been that demand outstrips current supply.
iPhone 4 good. AT&T Bad.
Jun 10th
Well, the iPhone, in its fourth iteration, finally has everything every other “smartphone” has had since the genus was invented. Palm and Blackberry have had multitasking nearly forever. And this isn’t even true Android style multitasking. Plus a litany of other stuff it should have had from the beginning.
So this iteration of the iPhone is probably finally worth buying, for the skeptical non-fanboy crowd, like myself. Will I get one? Probably not, and not because the iPhone is not a pretty nice, fully featured piece of electronics. I won’t get one simply because AT&T sucks.
The phone can only be as good as the network it runs on…
tweebus
May 18th
tweebus. captures tweet streams, extracts links, photos and videos and makes it easy to track your favorite interests on twitter. check it out.
Apple Bans ‘Sexy Apps’
Feb 19th
Something I’ve said for a while: Steve Jobs is as much a tyrant as Barack Obama or George Bush. What he says goes: free speech suffers. And yes, sexy apps and porn ARE free speech, no matter how much you may not like them!
Control Things with Your Brain!
Feb 3rd
Who wouldn’t want this?
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Ever wish you could move objects using only your thoughts?
That vision is becoming closer to reality. Toronto-based Interaxon has created technology that lets users control a series of lights using only their minds.
via Want light? Just think about it | Beyond Binary – CNET News.
5 Ideas I Came Up With In The Shower
Jan 7th
A colleague of mine said the other day – not jokingly – that he comes up with 5 new ideas every day while in the shower – so i thought: I can do that: Here’s today 5 new ideas:
- Weight Loss Idea 1 – a scale which never shows an increase in weight. Normally, when you step on a scale, it will report your current weight. For those who are on a diet, seeing that weight go back up – even if its a normal fluxuation, will get very discouraged and possibly stop dieting. This scale checks your current weight against your last recorded weight and simply shows the lower figure.
- Weight Loss idea 2 – a scale like the above, but which reports a lower weight every week, whether you lose weight, gain weight, or stay the same. This scale will decrement your reported weight by .5 of a pound, or whatever you lost since last time. Again, showing progress keeps the dieter on track
- A Sugar Burger: take two things which taste great and put them together. Take a hamburger and coat with brown sugar, then pan fry in butter
- An unhealthy vegan burger – but one that tastes awesome. Why do all vegan things have to taste bad and/or be healthy for you. Why not a Vegan Sugar Burger!?
- A conditioner exuding hairbrush. Hair in a knot? Hard to style? This hairbrush has leave-in conditioner inside it, and can release it into your hair at the press of a button.
What do you think? Good ideas? 